Chemical

Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and EQT Corp. marketing unit EQT Energy LLC have stepped up to be anchor shippers on Texas Eastern Transmission LP’s Texas Eastern Appalachia to Market (TEAM) 2014 expansion, Spectra Energy Corp.’s Texas Eastern said Thursday. The project is intended to deliver more Appalachian shale gas to markets in the Northeast, Midwest and southern United States.

ExxonMobil Corp., the largest natural gas producer in North America, is well aware of the economics in drilling U.S. and Canadian dry natural gas wells today. But it has no plans now to shut in any gas wells, the investor relations chief said last week.

As the California legislature returned from its month-long recess Monday, the backers of a bill (AB 591) to mandate chemical disclosures on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluid held a press conference at the state Capitol in Sacramento, releasing the signatures of “roughly 50,000” voters supporting the measure.

A bill aimed at chemical disclosure in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) passed its first hurdle Tuesday in the California Senate, passing out of the Natural Resources and Water Committee with opposing industry groups and lawmakers all indicating that a compromise that should facilitate the measure’s continuing legislative journey is close at hand (see Shale Daily, June 14). AB 591 next goes to the Senate Environmental Quality (EQ) Committee.

DCP Midstream LLC and Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) have made preliminary agreements for Oxy’s Occidental Chemical Corp. to provide right-of-way for DCP Midstream’s Sandhills Pipeline LLC and for DCP Midstream to provide a supply option for a proposed Oxy natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionator in Ingleside, TX. The agreement will provide Sandhills with about 14 miles of right-of-way and access to the Mont Belvieu, TX, fractionation complex. DCP Midstream is in the process of securing the remaining right-of-way and environmental permits for the pipeline. The 70-mile system will transport Y-grade NGLs from gas plants in the Permian Basin and South Texas to the various fractionator facilities along the Gulf Coast, along with the Mont Belvieu NGL hub (see Daily GPI, June 10).

ExxonMobil Corp.’s profits in the first three months of 2011 eclipsed its peers on higher natural gas production and solid chemical returns, harkening back to the industry’s boom days before the late 2008 global economic collapse. Chevron Corp., BP plc, ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell plc were among several big producers also reporting profitable results.

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official told a Senate panel earlier this week that the agency is committed to cooperating with states to oversee the practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Several state senators introduced legislation last week designed to help spur investment in the natural gas industry.

Cheap ethane provided by liquids-rich natural gas production in the United States has prompted Dow Chemical Co. to boost its ethane cracking capabilities on the Gulf Coast over the next two-three years. The company’s cracking capacity will grow by 20-30% during the period, Dow said Thursday.