Application

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Friday approved for public comment proposed interpretive guidance regarding the cross-border application of the swaps provisions of portions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) and the Commission’s regulations.

Atlas Pipeline Mid-Continent WestTex LLC and Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc. have filed a joint application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval by Oct. 1 to build a natural gas pipeline from a proposed Permian Basin cryogenic gas processing plant that is due to go into service in early 2013. The proposed 10.2-mile pipeline in Midland, TX, would transport 150 MMcf/d of pipeline-quality gas to interconnections with Northern Natural Gas and two intrastate pipelines owned by Atmos Energy Corp. and Enterprise Products Partners LP. The so-called Driver Plant is being built in two phases (see NGI, Nov. 21, 2011). The first phase would have the capacity to handle 100 MMcf/d and is expected to begin service in 1Q2013; the second phase would add 100 MMcf/d with a target date of 1Q2014. Completion of both phases would increase capacity at the WestTex facility from 255 MMcf/d to 455 MMcf/d at an estimated cost of about $200 million.

Atlas Pipeline Mid-Continent WestTex LLC and Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc. have filed a joint application to build a pipeline to transport natural gas from a proposed Permian Basin cryogenic gas processing plant that is due to go into service early next year.

Ohio’s laws addressing old leases and conservation issues could pose some unique challenges to proponents of energy development in the state’s portions of the Marcellus and Utica shales, two attorneys with the law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP said during a presentation Wednesday.

FERC is expected to take up the construction application for the Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC project at its open meeting Thursday. The facility already has export authorization from the Department of Energy and customers lined up for most of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity.

FERC is expected to take up the construction application for the Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC project at its open meeting Thursday. The facility already has export authorization from the Department of Energy (DOE) and customers lined up for most of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity.

Wyoming’s Office of State Lands and Investments garnered $11.6 million for first-year rental and application fees on state trust land parcels offered at a quarterly oil/natural gas lease sale last Wednesday in Cheyenne. The state lands office sold all 199 parcels it offered covering approximately 83,609 acres of state trust lands. Bids ranged from $1 to $5,500/acre, the state unit said. Revenue generated from the state trust lands oil/gas lease auction is distributed to public education, the University of Wyoming and the Veteran’s Home of Wyoming. The “real revenue” from the auction comes later when there is production from the leases, according to Ryan Lance, director of the lands/investment office. The office will hold its next oil/gas lease auction Aug. 8.

Backers of the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along the south-central coast of Oregon have filed an application with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) seeking approval to export LNG to nonfree-trade nations. Backers want to develop a combination import-export facility at Coos Bay, along with a natural gas-fired baseload and peaking generation plant. Jordan Cove already has conditional approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for an LNG import terminal and connecting 230-mile transmission pipeline. It now has on file with FERC a proposal to build liquefaction export facilities alongside the regasification import facilities. Jordan Cove is backed by a group headed by Fort Chicago Energy Partners (see Daily GPI, March 21).

El Paso Natural Gas Co. has filed an application at FERC to build border-crossing facilities at the international boundary between the United States and Mexico to supply natural gas to the expanding power generation market in northern Mexico.