Bulk

Newfield Exploration Co. is budgeting $1.6 billion for its oil and natural gas projects this year, with the bulk of the budget to be directed at its growing Midcontinent development activities. The Houston-based independent also is forecasting double-digit organic production growth.

Questar Corp.’s exploration and production (E&P) subsidiary is buying two natural gas development properties in Northwest Louisiana for $655 million to bulk up the company’s Midcontinent business.

The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) agency overseeing pipeline safety allowed the bulk of the western portion of the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), known as REX-West, to go into operation last month despite certain concerns related to welds on the system, according to documents filed at FERC.

The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) agency overseeing pipeline safety allowed the bulk of the western portion of the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), known as REX-West, to go into operation earlier this month despite certain concerns related to welds on the system, according to documents filed at FERC.

CNX Gas Corp. plans to use the bulk of its 2008 capital budget to target natural gas deposits in the Marcellus, Huron, Chattanooga and New Albany shales, as well as the Trenton Black River this year. In the Marcellus Shale, CNX has a leasehold that includes about 161,000 acres. In Kentucky and Virginia’s Huron Shale CNX holds another 193,000 acre-leasehold. Tennessee’s Chattanooga Shale holdings number about 132,000 acres, and in the New Albany Shale play, which extends into Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, CNX has about 300,000 acres. The Pittsburgh-based company said that overall, exploration spending will jump 35% to $470 million from $348.6 million in 2007. Of the total, $377 million directed toward drilling, midstream and land operations in the company’s Virginia and Pennsylvania coalbed methane (CBM) development projects. Besides its gas shale plays, CNX also will be developing its holdings in the Trenton Black River, which is “thought to underlie nearly all of the Appalachian shales,” the company said. In that leasehold, “CNX Gas believes it has 486,000 acres with Trenton Black River potential.”

Independent producer CNX Gas Corp. said it plans to use the bulk of its 2008 capital budget to target natural gas deposits in the Marcellus, Huron, Chattanooga and New Albany shales, as well as the Trenton Black River this year.

FERC Wednesday gave Equitrans LP the green light to sell the bulk of its 87-mile Three Rivers Pipeline in western Pennsylvania to its distribution company affiliate, Equitable Gas Co., for an estimated $1.09 million.

Equitrans LP has asked FERC for the green light to sell the bulk of its 87-mile Three Rivers Pipeline in Pennsylvania to its distribution company affiliate, Equitable Gas Co.

FERC last Thursday gave Southern Natural Gas, a pipeline subsidiary of El Paso Corp., the green light to begin service on the bulk of its Cypress Pipeline project, which provides a direct corridor for deliveries of natural gas from the Elba Island liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Georgia to the northern Florida market.