Assuming

Assuming the can handle any antitrust issues that might come up, Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) and El Paso Corp. are heading toward a deal that would create a midstream and pipeline behemoth with thousands of miles of pipelines touching supply basins all over North America.

Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. has offered to buy shale patch pioneer Petrohawk Energy Corp. for $12.1 billion in a deal that would more than double unit BHP Billiton Petroleum’s resource base and grow proved reserves by about 30%, it said. Petrohawk shares took flight on the news as investors also delivered uplift to a flock of the company’s peers.

Even assuming “robust” economy-related demand for natural gas in 2011, it still looks ugly for prices through the coming year, Raymond James & Associates said Monday.

Assuming the Pacific Northwest soon will have added natural gas pipeline capacity into Oregon’s Willamette Valley and elsewhere, the power sector’s growing use of renewables, particularly wind, in the region promises to revise the roles played by gas pipelines and storage, Northwest Natural Gas Co. CEO Gregg Kantor said last Wednesday during a second quarter earnings conference call.

Assuming the Pacific Northwest soon will have added natural gas pipeline capacity into Oregon’s Willamette Valley and elsewhere, the power sector’s growing use of renewables, particularly wind, in the region promises to revise the roles played by gas pipelines and storage, Northwest Natural Gas Co. CEO Gregg Kantor said Wednesday during a second quarter earnings conference call.

Assuming environmental clearances and local land-use permits are obtained this summer, California’s latest natural gas storage project, slated for an industrial area in the southeast corner of Sacramento, can be developed in six to nine months and be operating as a 7.5 Bcf capacity facility by the summer of 2010, the head of the privately funded project told NGI Friday.

Assuming environmental clearances and local land-use permits are obtained this summer, California’s latest natural gas storage project, slated for an industrial area in the southeast corner of Sacramento, can be developed in six to nine months and be operating as a 7.5 Bcf capacity facility by the summer of 2010, the head of the privately funded project told NGI Friday.

Assuming FERC approval comes in the next few days, the much-anticipated Millennium Pipeline will go into service on Dec. 22, a Millennium Pipeline Co. LLC spokesman said Wednesday.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is close to approaching a milestone of 600,000 boe/d net production worldwide, and assuming no significant weather-related challenges, 3Q2008 oil and natural gas output should be “above the midpoint” of its guidance of 51-54 million boe, said CEO Jim Hackett.