Calgary

Calgary’s Gibson Energy Inc. is beefing up its U.S. onshore services with a US$445 million agreement to buy privately held Omni Energy Services Corp., based in Louisiana.

Calgary-based Keyera Corp. is planning a $210 million enhancement project to recover ethane and other natural gas liquids from the raw gas stream at the Rimbey gas plant in the Hoadley region of central Alberta. The project would include installing a 400 MMcf/d turbo expander unit and constructing a 34 kilometer, six-inch diameter ethane pipeline to connect to the Alberta Ethane Gathering System. The enhancements would allow Keyera to recover more than 90% of the ethane at the plant. Upon completion of the project, Keyera expects to extract up to 20,000 b/d of ethane through the turbo expander unit, which would be sold to a large consumer in Alberta under a long term sales agreement. The company has also secured a long-term, fee-for-service processing agreement and is in discussions with other producers interested in contracting processing capacity at the plant. Subject to regulatory approvals, construction of the expansion is anticipated to begin in 4Q2012, with start-up expected in late 2014.

Moving natural gas from Western Canada and the Bakken Shale through new and existing pipelines will keep Calgary-based Alliance Pipeline LP as busy as it has ever been in its 12-year history. FERC last Thursday approved the pipeline’s proposal to build a lateral out of the Bakken Shale to Alliance’s mainline, allowing producers to meet the growing gas demand in Chicago.

Moving natural gas from western Canada and the Bakken Shale through new and existing pipelines will keep Calgary, Alberta-based Alliance Pipeline LP as busy as it has ever been in its 12-year history. And it will kick into high gear this fall, as FERC Thursday approved the pipeline’s proposal to build a lateral out of the Bakken shale formation in eastern Montana and western North Dakota to Alliance’s mainline, allowing producers to meet the growing gas demand in Chicago.

Calgary-based Encana Corp. and Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. are stirring up interest in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, where they are working separately with area drillers to explore in the Mancos Shale.

Calgary natural gas producer Bonavista Energy Corp. on Wednesday plans to expand its Western Canadian operations after announcing a deal that would double its land position in the Deep Basin and increase estimated output by 10% through a C$155 million agreement with an undisclosed company.

Sugar Land, TX-based Santrol, a Fairmount Minerals company, now has five Eagle Ford Shale rail terminals to handle proppant used for hydraulic fracturing in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas. By expanding to five Eagle Ford terminals, Santrol can ship more than one million tons of proppant per year throughout the formation, the company said. The terminals are supplying Santrol’s northern white frack sand and resin-coated proppants. “We have more terminals with more available rail car capacity than any other frack sand supplier in the region,” said Tom Bonno, Santrol terminal field service manager. The five terminals are located in: Alice, where there are two, Gardendale, Gonzales and San Antonio. All of the terminals operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

To build its “shale-related businesses,” Houston-based oilfield services operator FMC Technologies Inc., better known for its subsea business, is acquiring Calgary’s Pure Energy Services Ltd. for US$285 million.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. has shut in an average 20 MMcf/d so far this year and now has 40 MMcf/d shuttered because of low natural gas prices, the Calgary producer said Thursday.