Appalachian

Appalachian midstream provider MarkWest Energy Partners LP and private equity fund The Energy and Minerals Group (EMG) have completed an amendment to give EMG a larger stake in their joint venture (JV) in the Utica Shale.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. and privately held Eclipse Resources I LP have struck a joint operating agreement covering a leasehold owned by both companies in the Marcellus and Utica shales in Monroe County, OH.

A subsidiary of EmKey Energy LLC has acquired the rights to a 75-mile right-of-way (ROW) through three counties in New York’s Southern Tier, in the heart of the state’s portions of the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp.’s production in the Appalachian Basin remains “substantially curtailed” nearly three months after an unusually severe thunderstorm knocked out electricity service to much of the region, the Houston-based independent said Wednesday.

Penn Virginia Corp. (PVA) on Tuesday agreed to sell “substantially all” of its gassy Appalachian Basin portfolio, except the Marcellus Shale assets, to help fund development in the oily Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.

After hundreds of years of being the dominant source for electrical power generation, separate reports by the commodity analysts and the media say the coal industry faces an uncertain future as natural gas prices remain low and utilities build new power plants fueled by natural gas.

MarkWest Utica EMG LLC, a partnership between Appalachian midstream provider MarkWest Energy Partners LP and private equity fund The Energy and Minerals Group (EMG), has secured agreements to process and transport Gulfport Energy Corp.’s growing natural gas volumes from three eastern Ohio counties between now and 2014. The partners also are expanding one Utica Shale midstream facility and building a new plant to ensure producers have enough fractionation services available.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP is building out its services for Appalachian rich-gas producers with the $512 million acquisition of Pennsylvania-based Keystone Midstream Services LLC.

As Royal Dutch Shell plc gets closer to announcing a “world class” ethane cracker for the Appalachian Basin, the leading processor of ethane in the region is standing behind its three projects for Marcellus and Utica shales.