Bringing

While there are competing proposals to break through the bottlenecks to bringing rich gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the Bakken formation to market, the Alliance Pipeline and Aux Sable NGL systems think they have the inside track. In the meantime, a substantial amount of NGL movement continues through rail and trucking.

High winds kept crews for a unit of Chesapeake Energy Corp. from bringing under control a runaway natural gas well that has been spewing gas and drilling mud since Tuesday near the town of Douglas, WY, in part of the Niobrara Shale formation in Converse County.

The Houston-based arm of energy giant BP plc Tuesday said it was leasing thousands of acres in a yet-to-be explored area of northeastern Ohio’s Utica/Point Pleasant Shale formation near the Pennsylvania border for future natural gas and oil production.

Added gas processing capacity bringing the state’s total to 1 Bcf/d is expected to cut volumes being flared significantly. Currently 34% of North Dakota’s average daily gas production is being flared, but that is slated to change a lot over the course of 2012, according to Industrial Commission spokesperson Alison Ritter.

Higher-than-expected condensate and natural gas liquids (NGL) volumes from 11 Stone Energy Corp. wells in Wetzel County, WV, will require additional equipment on pipeline facilities, according to the Lafayette, LA, company.

Despite a return of spring-like weather bringing cool to mild temperatures to the South, wintry conditions occasionally abetted by snowfalls proved sufficient to rally a majority of points Tuesday, although flat performances were common and most of the gains were in single digits.

British Columbia will eclipse Alberta as Canada’s top gas producing province by tapping prolific shale deposits, the National Energy Board said.

Australian oil and gas developer Linc Energy is a new player in Wyoming’s humming oil and gas patch, bringing a focus on underground “cooking” of coal seams to create synthetic gas (syngas) and natural gas liquids.

While it kicks off a long-term partnership with Chesapeake Energy Corp. on a drilling program in the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio, EV Energy Partners LP (EVEP) is preparing its own exploration campaign in the region.