Committed

Market dynamics will override politics and the job producing and economic stimulus effects of the gas industry will prevail in the years ahead regardless of the outcome of this fall’s presidential elections, according to panelists at the LDC Gas Forum’s mid-continent meeting in Chicago Monday.

Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission LLC’s (KMIGT) proposal to sell a 432-mile segment of its Pony Express natural gas pipeline to an affiliate (Kinder Morgan Pony Express Pipeline LLC) for the purpose of converting it to transport crude oil from the Bakken and Denver-Julesburg/Niobrara shales has received a mixed reaction at FERC.

Enbridge Inc. has committed up to $600 million to expand Enbridge Gas Distribution’s (EGD) system in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) during 2014 and 2015, pending approval of the Ontario Energy Board. “Over the last 20 years, Enbridge Gas Distribution has almost doubled its total number of customers across Ontario from 1.1 million in 1992 to 2 million in 2012,” said President Guy Jarvis. “We’re well positioned to benefit from continued strong population growth in the GTA…” The proposed project would consist of two segments of pipeline and related facilities to upgrade the distribution system that delivers gas to Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham.

Private equity power broker Riverstone Holdings LLC announced Monday that it has made an investment in Three Rivers Operating Co. LLC, which in turn has signed an agreement to buy several assets in the Permian Basin of West Texas from Meritage Energy Company LLC.

Meritage Midstream Services LLC and private equity power broker Riverstone Holdings LLC on Wednesday said they were teaming up once again, with Riverstone providing $500 million to pursue new natural gas liquids (NGL) midstream opportunities in some of North America’s emerging resource plays.

Highly committed from the top down to using more natural gas in its extensive national fleet truck rental business, Ryder Systems Inc. said it will continue through July 27 a three-day free “ride-and-drive” rental of natural gas vehicles (NGV) in the Sacramento area in Northern California.

Florida-based Waste Pro USA has committed to a $100 million program to develop a network of compressed natural gas (CNG) refuse hauling trucks and the fueling stations to support them. It is working to transform a portion of its fleet from diesel to CNG. As part of that longer term effort, the recycling and disposal company said Clean Energy Fuels Corp. would build and operate a CNG fueling station at Waste Pro’s headquarters in Fort Pierce, FL, to support the company’s growing fleet. Permits have been obtained, and the facility is scheduled to be in operation by 3Q2012. About 150 heavy-duty CNG-fueled waste collection and recycling trucks are to be deployed to serve residential and commercial customers. Waste Pro operates in 70 locations in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Standing in the middle of North Dakota’s booming oil/gas production fields, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday rolled out new federal government efforts to streamline onshore leasing and drilling processes on federal lands. Salazar made the announcement after two days of touring the Bakken Shale area, a major economic driver in what is now the nation’s third largest oil producing state.

Although the announcement does not mean the company is committed to its plans for a “world-scale” facility just yet, it ends months of speculation about where Shell would locate the facility and the competition among the three states in the running (see Shale Daily, Dec. 5, 2011; Sept. 7, 2011; June 7, 2011).