Businesses

Williams Partners LP has agreed to acquire the Laser Northeast Gathering System and other midstream businesses from Delphi Midstream Partners LLC for about $750 million. Laser is composed of 33 miles of 16-inch diameter gas pipeline and associated gathering facilities in Susquehanna County, PA, as well as 10 miles of gathering pipeline in southern New York. The acquisition is supported by existing long-term gathering agreements that provide acreage dedications and volume commitments. As production in the Marcellus Shale increases, the Laser system is expected to reach a capacity of 1.3 Bcf/d, said Williams Partners, which plans to fund the purchase with $300 million in cash and 7.5 million common units. The deal, which the partnership said it earlier was pursuing (see Shale Daily, Dec. 5), is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

A frequent customer of Enterprise Products Partners LP in several shale play infrastructure projects, Chesapeake Energy Corp. has stepped up to be the anchor shipper on the partnership’s proposed pipeline to carry ethane from the Marcellus and Utica shales to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Less than three months ago, Norse Energy Corp. ASA was the first company in line seeking permission to drill unconventional gas wells in New York’s portion of the Marcellus and Utica shales.

AmeriGas Partners LP on Monday agreed to pay $2.9 billion for the propane businesses of Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP).

Friday marks a new day for Marathon Oil Corp. as an independent upstream company after completing the spinoff Thursday of its downstream businesses.

Continued growth in the U.S. and Canadian onshore unconventional businesses will help to offset disappointing performances in 2Q2011 from the pressure pumping, U.S. offshore and international units, Nabors Industries Ltd. CEO Gene Isenberg said Monday.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Monday signed an executive order requiring the state to undertake a study of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, with recommendations on a possible state-level severance tax and a report on potential impacts of drilling on groundwater among the items due over the next three years.

To respond to the “significant growth” of its Midcontinent natural gas midstream processing businesses, which are operating “at or near” 100% of capacity, Atlas Pipeline Partners LP (APL) late Thursday increased its capital budget to expand its Western Oklahoma and West Texas systems.

When a holding company has regulated and non regulated businesses, its opportunities are more diverse; so are its challenges. On the regulated side, Integrys Energy Group CEO Charlie Schrock is fighting rising costs in an era of slow customer growth. However, the nation’s shale gas abundance is convincing customers — both regulated and non — to rely more heavily on gas.