Cash markets on average eased a penny Wednesday as Midcontinent traders noted storage buying and gas volumes were being used for electric power generation. Northeast markets were weak, but Southern California points worked higher. At the close of futures trading May was unchanged at $1.951 and June had inched lower six-tenths of one cent to $2.042. May crude oil had fallen $1.53 to $102.67/bbl.
Buying
Articles from Buying
Penn Virginia Pays $1B for Chief’s Marcellus Gathering Unit
Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP (PVR) is buying Chief Gathering LLC for $1 billion. Chief Gathering serves northeastern Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale producers and is a sister company to producer Chief Oil & Gas LLC.
Goldman Sachs Sees $2.10 Through 2-3Q, Higher in 2013
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said Wednesday they expect natural gas prices will remain low this summer, but recommended buying longer-dated natural gas futures on the presumption that slower production, a declining rig count and a return to normal winter weather would boost prices in 2013.
Construction Worker Pleads Guilty to Damaging Chief’s Marcellus Pipeline
A man who worked briefly for a company that built a natural gas pipeline in Lycoming County, PA, for Chief Oil and Gas LLC has pleaded guilty to damaging the pipeline after the construction company fired him, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Penn Virginia Buying Chief’s Marcellus Gathering Unit for $1B
Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP (PVR) is buying Chief Gathering LLC for $1 billion. Chief Gathering serves northeastern Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale producers and is a sister company to producer Chief Oil & Gas LLC.
Industry Brief
South Korea’s Korean National Oil Corp. (KNOC) said it has joined the consortium buying El Paso Corp.’s exploration and production (E&P) business. Apollo Global Management, Riverstone Holdings and Access Industries in February agreed to pay El Paso $7.15 billion to buy the E&P unit to facilitate the company’s takeover by Kinder Morgan Inc. (see Daily GPI, Feb. 27). KNOC and a unit of Samsung Group in late 2011 bought Barnett Shale-focused Parallel Petroleum from Apollo in a transaction worth an estimated $800 million (see Daily GPI, Dec. 1, 2011).
New Oilfield Services Company Rolling Out LNG Trucks
A newly formed Texas company is buying liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled trucks and deploying them in the state’s oil and gas patch under the banner Green Energy Oilfield Services.
PetroChina Takes Stake in Shell’s Groundbirch Gas Prospect
PetroChina Co. is buying a 20% stake in one of Royal Dutch Shell plc’s unconventional natural gas prospects in northeastern British Columbia, known as Groundbirch, officials confirmed Thursday. The deal is estimated to be worth at least US$1 billion.
LA Plant to Produce ‘Green Gasoline’ From Trees and Natgas
Sundrop Fuels Inc., a gasification-based biofuels company backed by Chesapeake Energy Corp., announced that it is buying about 1,200 acres of land in Louisiana to build its first production facility. The inaugural plant, using sustainable forest waste combined with hydrogen from natural gas, will produce up to 50 million gallons a year of what the company claims would be the world’s first “ready-to-use, renewable green gasoline.”
Industry Briefs
US Infrastructure Holdings LLC (USI) is buying the Wildcat Sabine Gathering System in the Bossier-Haynesville Shale. The newly constructed 28-mile pipeline runs along the Texas-Louisiana border in the northwest corner of Sabine Parish, LA, and gathers and transports gas for producers including Eagle Oil & Gas Co., which has dedicated acreage from its North Toledo Bend Project. The system has takeaway capacity of 200 MMcf/d and includes treating and compression facilities. USI said it will begin construction of a 20-mile extension at the southern end of the Wildcat system to provide producers with direct access to markets served by Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP and Tennessee Gas Pipeline. The expansion will bring Wildcat’s takeaway capacity to 400 MMcf/d and is expected to be complete by mid-2012.