Basins

The expanded use of horizontal drilling and the advent of hydraulic fracturing helped Pennsylvania more than quadruple its natural gas production between 2009 and 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Perth, Western Australia-based Golden State Resources has received further verification it could be holding a significant shale gas play in the Golden Eagle field in Grand County in southeast Utah. The economics look good, according to a recent petroleum engineering consultant’s study.

With natural gas prices at 10-year lows thanks to an extremely mild winter and robust production from U.S. shale gas basins, natural gas price bulls have been cooling their heels for months, not days. However, as producers lay down gas rigs or redirect them to more liquids-rich plays, analysts are eager to pinpoint a date on the calendar when the cuts to drilling will translate into a tighter supply/demand balance, thus giving prices a floor and the ability to rebound.

Signs in the natural gas patch that drilling will be slowed or halted in some basins, and reports of decreased pipeline volumes flowing east are being watched out West, but California energy officials for are not concerned about shortages and price spikes on the horizon. Analysts at the California Energy Commission (CEC) said they are not ready to alter any of their forecasts for 2012.

Two anchor shippers have signed binding agreements for capacity on Texas Eastern Transmission LP’s (Tetco) TEAM 2014 expansion project to carry gas from Appalachia’s shale plays to the Northeast, Midwest and southern United States, the Spectra Energy Corp. pipeline said.

Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KMI) acquisition of El Paso Corp. is taking place in a world of growing gas supply from nonhistoric basins, which is driving the need for new and different infrastructure: gas and liquids pipelines, processing, fractionation, etc. It’s too soon to say how a combined KMI-El Paso will play the infrastructure game, but consolidation among others shouldn’t be a surprise, energy analysts told NGI.

Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KMI) acquisition of El Paso Corp. is taking place in a world of growing gas supply from non-historic basins, which is driving the need for new and different infrastructure: gas and liquids pipelines, processing, fractionation, etc. It’s too soon to say how a combined KMI-El Paso will play the infrastructure game, but consolidation among others shouldn’t be a surprise, energy analysts told NGI.

Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KMI) acquisition of El Paso Corp. is taking place in a world of growing gas supply from non-historic basins, which is driving the need for new and different infrastructure: gas and liquids pipelines, processing, fractionation, etc. It’s too soon to say how a combined KMI-El Paso will play the infrastructure game, but consolidation among others shouldn’t be a surprise, energy analysts told NGI.

GE Energy Financial Services has taken a stake in Summit Midstream Partners LLC, a developer of midstream energy infrastructure in unconventional North American basins. Financial details were not disclosed. GE Energy Financial Services’ current midstream equity and debt portfolio totals $2.4 billion. It has invested in a midstream master limited partnership, gas storage assets, a liquefied natural gas regasification terminal and 40,000 miles of gas pipelines. Summit Midstream’s assets include gathering, compression and dehydration facilities in the core of the Barnett Shale. It recently acquired South Piceance Basin assets in the Rockies from an Encana Corp. subsidiary (see Daily GPI, Oct. 12).