Chain

Concluding that the current natural gas supply chain is “near the breaking point” despite abundant resources in the United States, the House task force on natural gas in a report Tuesday placed much of the blame for restricted supplies on the federal government for its conflicting policies that encourage gas consumption yet deny producers access to gas-rich federal lands.

Midcoast Energy Resources marked another in a chain of recentgrowth spurts with a definitive agreement to buy the Anadarkopipeline system from El Paso Field Services. Under the agreement,Midcoast will acquire the Anadarko system in Beckham and RogerMills counties, OK, and Hemphill, Roberts and Wheeler counties, TX.The system is made up of more than 696 miles of primarily 16-inchand 20-inch pipeline with an average throughput of 151 MMcf/day anda total capacity of 345 MMcf/day. The system gathers gas from about250 wells and includes a 40 MMcf/day gas processing facility, 11compressor stations with a total of more than 14,000 hp andinterconnections with eight major interstate and intrastatepipeline systems.