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Industry Brief

Colorado Interstate Gas Pipeline(CIG) is back in full operations after being forced to shut down operations on a portion of its 4,300-mile pipeline system in the Rockies, aKinder Morgan Inc.(KMI) spokesperson said Tuesday. Inspection and recovery have been completed on two buried laterals that were exposed by the historic flooding and runoff in areas north and west of Denver. A force majeure had been declared and the pipeline taken out of service in mid-September (seeDaily GPI,Sept. 17). CIG is a unit ofEl Paso Pipeline, a subsidiary of KMI. The laterals were taken out of service as a precaution until they could be inspected, recovered and brought back online. CIG Lines 59A and 252A had been taken out of service; 59A delivers to theYoung Gas Storage Co., and 252A transports gas to the Tritown delivery point. CIG includes 4.5 Bcf capacity pipelines linked to gas production areas in the Rockies and the Anadarko Basin. It links directly to customers in Colorado and Wyoming and indirectly to other areas. CIG also owns interests in five storage facilities with 35 Bcf of working capacity in Colorado and Kansas.

October 3, 2013

Colorado Finds Three More Post-Flood Oil Spills

Colorado officials on Tuesday reported three new flood-related oil spills since an assessment the day before (seeDaily GPI,Sept. 24), bringing to 11 the number of what are designated as “notable releases” by the Colorado Oil/Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC).

September 26, 2013

Diverse Shale Gas Roundtable Issues Recommendations

The Shale Gas Roundtable (SGR) — a 26-member group that includes elected officials and representatives from the oil and gas industry, academia, environmentalists and philanthropic organizations — has issued a list of recommendations to advance shale gas development in Pennsylvania.

August 19, 2013

Environmentalists Sue BLM Over Oil Shale Move

A coalition of seven conservation groups has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) allocation of more than 800,000 acres of federal lands in three western states to potential oil shale and tar sands development.

August 1, 2013

Transco Northeast Expansion Flows on First Loop

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) was to start up service over the weekend on the first pipeline loop of its major Northeast Supply Link expansion, one of the key links in sending new gas out of the Marcellus Shale.

July 15, 2013
Appalachian Production Crying Out for Interstate Connections

Appalachian Production Crying Out for Interstate Connections

Production in the Marcellus Shale over the past few years “has been nothing short of epic,” and it is straining infrastructure to the point that the Appalachian region is in need of larger interstate connections, said Genscape Inc. senior natural gas analyst Andy Krebs.

July 10, 2013

Maryland Floats Draft Fracking Rules

Maryland’s Department of Environment (MDE) and Department of Natural Resources have released a draft report describing best practices for drilling and production that should be required if horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells is permitted in the state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale, which is confined to its two westernmost counties.

June 28, 2013

Industry Brief

University of Adelaide researchers in Australia are developing a new type of laser system that will monitor methane levels across large areas in order to monitor emissions of the greenhouse gas. The system has the potential to detect methane leaks from long-distance underground gas pipelines and gas fields, including coal seam gas extraction operations, and to measure methane emissions from animal production, the university said. “We hope to accurately measure methane concentrations up to a distance of 5 kilometers,” said project leader David Ottaway, senior lecturer in the university’s School of Chemistry and Physics. “This will give us an ability to map methane over an area as large as 25 square kilometers in a very short time. At the moment current technology only allows detection at a single point source as it blows past the detector.”

June 28, 2013

Natural Resource Partners Enters Bakken with Abraxas Deal

Natural Resource Partners LP (NRP) is buying nonoperated working interests in Bakken/Three Forks producing oil and gas properties from Abraxas Petroleum Corp. for $35.3 million in cash, marking its entry into the Bakken Shale.

June 18, 2013
EIA Again Pushes Natural Gas Price Forecast Higher

EIA Again Pushes Natural Gas Price Forecast Higher

Consumption of natural gas in both the United States and Mexico is on the rise, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which once again revised its natural gas price forecasts upward for the rest of 2013 and 2014.

June 13, 2013