Building

A trio of recently completed Oneok Partners LP projects will enhance North Dakota’s processing of natural gas and help reduce flaring in the state, according to Gov. Jack Dalrymple.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP has signed a long-term contract to support the expansion of its Sweeny Lateral pipeline, which it is building from the Kinder Morgan Crude Condensate pipeline to Phillip 66’s Sweeny Refinery in Brazoria County, TX. The expansion will increase the capacity on the 27-mile, 12-inch diameter lateral from an initial 30,000 b/d to 100,000 b/d. Kinder Morgan will add new pumps and an additional 120,000 bbl storage tank at its Wharton Pump Station in Wharton County, TX, and increase the truck offload capabilities at its DeWitt Station in DeWitt, County, TX. “We are pleased to provide Phillips 66 with a flexible option to move more crude and condensate out of the Eagle Ford Shale to their refinery in Sweeny,” said KMP Products Pipelines President Ron McClain. Kinder Morgan’s crude/condensate pipeline, which went into service last June, transports crude/condensate from the Eagle Ford to the Houston Ship Channel.

While Mexico’s gas-rich San Juan Basin turned up another declining year of natural gas production in 2012, state officials and some exploration and production (E&P) companies are maintaining interest in the state’s overall oil, liquids and gas businesses.

A joint venture (JV) of Battelle and Winner Global LLC expects to begin building its first unit in April to respond to a potential water shortage facing oil and natural gas companies that are engaged in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activities in the Utica and Marcellus shales in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Apache Corp. is taking no prisoners in the Permian Basin nor in the Midcontinent after building output from the combined regions by almost 24% in 2012 from 2011. The Permian and Central operations in 4Q2012 by themselves represented 25% of Apache’s total global production at 197,000 boe/d.

Apache Corp. is taking no prisoners in the Permian Basin nor in the Midcontinent after building output from the combined regions by almost 24% in 2012 from 2011. By themselves, the two regions represented 25% of total global production at 197,000 boe/d.

By building positions in the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin, Comstock Resources Inc. has been Texas two-stepping away from nearly all dry gas production to oil, but the dance hasn’t always been graceful, as fourth quarter results show.

Spectra Energy has been busy building out infrastructure in the Northeast, where capacity is needed to get Marcellus and Utica gas to market. However, the Southeast and Gulf Coast regions are ripe for billions of dollars of investment as well, said Spectra’s Bill Yardley, president of the U.S. transmission and storage business.

A recently combined and publicly held exploration and development company, Salt Lake City-based Richfield Oil and Gas Co., announced a purchase in the Graham Reservoir oilfield in Uinta County, WY. Richfield bought a shut-in well in the Wasatch National Forest (Well #16-15) from Frontier Energy for $610,000, including 640 acres of mineral leases. The company said the purchase gives it 100% working interest in a mineral lease in the Graham Reservoir, located approximately 120 miles northeast of Salt Lake City in southeastern Wyoming. The well has been shut in since 2003 and was completed in the Dakota Formation at 15,600 feet. Flow testing and production operations will get underway later in the first quarter. For Richfield, which is the product of the merger of Hewitt Petroleum Inc. and Freedom Oil & Gas Inc. in 2011, the acquisition is part of the process of “methodically building our reserve and production base” through graded acquisitions,” said CEO Douglas Hewitt.