Allocated

MarkWest Utica EMG LLC said Tuesday it has an agreement in principle with Gulfport Energy Corp. and some undisclosed producers to develop extensive midstream infrastructure in the liquids-rich portion of eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale.

Antero Resources has acquired from CONSOL Energy a 7% overriding royalty interest in approximately 115,647 net acres in the Marcellus Shale in southwestern Pennsylvania and north central West Virginia for $193 million, the companies said Monday. The deal closed Sept. 21 with an effective date of July 1, 2011.

Pipeline shippers Tuesday expressed support for FERC’s proposal to bar multiple affiliates from bidding in an open season for capacity allocated on a pro rata basis — unless an affiliate has an “independent business reason” for submitting a bid. Interstate pipelines took no position on the issue, but stressed that they shouldn’t bear any of the responsibility for whether or not a bidder complies with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) final rule.

California regulators last Thursday allocated funding of more than $17 million to the state’s four major investor-owned utilities to be used for marketing energy efficiency to low-income customers through the individual utilities and through a statewide integrated program involving marketing, education and outreach programs.

The money to be allocated by Congress to build U.S. power transmission facilities is just a drop in the bucket of what will be needed to improve reliability of the grid and deliver renewable power to population centers from remote locations, FERC Acting Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said last Thursday.

Natural gas-focused Questar Corp.’s quarterly earnings were up 42% on stronger production results and higher realized prices for gas, oil and natural gas liquids (NGL), as well as increased gas gathering and processing volumes and margins. However, the company warned that the recent decline in gas prices will impact 2006 earnings.

In a surprising move, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last Tuesday reversed an arbitrator’s decision denying claims by six California cities that they were unfairly charged for generation dispatched in early 2000 to replace service from reliability must-run (RMR) units that were unavailable at the time.

Transwestern allocated its San Juan Lateral capacity for Tuesday’s Cycle 3 nominations from 800,000 MMBtu/d to about 600,000 MMBtu/d. Bloomfield Station’s Unit #4 and the Gallup Electric Compressor Station were not available for Tuesday’s gas day, the pipeline said. Teams are evaluating and working on the stations’ problems. Transwestern expected to schedule 800,000 MMBtu/d for Wednesday. The Blanco-Thoreau segment of the lateral was scheduled to remain limited to 800,000 MMBtu/d through April 14 before returning to full 860,000 MMBtu/d capacity on April 15 (see Daily GPI, March 28).

Transwestern said Wednesday it was experiencing problems with the control valve and meter at the TransColorado interconnect on Transwestern’s San Juan Lateral. Transwestern allocated the point for Wednesday’s Intraday Cycles 1-3 and said shippers should monitor its Internet site for updates.