Connection

Copano Energy LLC and Magellan Midstream Partners LP have formed of a joint venture (JV) to deliver Eagle Ford Shale condensate to Corpus Christi, TX. The JV’s project will make use of new and existing pipeline infrastructure.

A Houston-based oilfield services company Tuesday pleaded guilty to a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) in connection with the hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of a natural gas well in Oklahoma, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Kevin Cassidy, former CEO of Valhalla, NY-based brokerage firm Optionable Inc., has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a 2003-2007 commodities trading scandal at Bank of Montreal (BMO). Cassidy was among the Optionable and BMO employees who were charged by federal and state authorities in 2008 for deceiving and defrauding the bank about the true value of its natural gas options book (see NGI, Nov. 24, 2008). A multi-count indictment charged Cassidy with criminal counts of wire fraud, making false statements to a bank, making false and misleading statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission and securities fraud. Under terms of the plea agreement, Cassidy would serve 30-37 months in prison. Cassidy also agreed to forfeit illegally obtained profit from the deal and could be fined. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 15 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) on Thursday denied two requests to reconsider its decision to grant public utility status to a Marcellus Shale gathering project currently under construction.

NOVA returned its imbalance tolerance range to the normal -4/+4 after having tightened it to -2/+4 Wednesday.

In an update on its 500 Line force majeure declared last week in connection with Atchafalaya River flooding, Tennessee said it had determined that the pipe section between Main Line Valves (MLV) 516 and 518 did not need to be isolated along with the segment between MLVs 518 and 521 after all. Thus three meters that it had subsequently added to an original list of five slated for shut-in were allowed to keep flowing. Tennessee also said it had returned to service Monday the 800 Line after completing an outage from MLV 827-1 to MLV 830-1 that had required suspension of physical flow at two meters; however, Station 834 will remain offline through Wednesday for various repairs and maintenance.

A seemingly on- and off-again project to build a new interstate pipeline connection for the Portland, OR, metropolitan area is currently very much on and eyeing market and regulatory milestones in the first half of this year, according to senior executives at NW Natural.

As state regulators continue to study a possible connection between drilling waste disposal wells in Arkansas’s Fayetteville Shale and a flurry of minor earthquakes in the area, the tremors continue unabated, including a 4.7-magnitude earthquake Sunday night and at least 19 measurable earthquakes on Monday.

A seemingly on- and off-again project to build a new interstate pipeline connection for the Portland, OR, metropolitan area is currently very much on and eyeing market and regulatory milestones in the first half of this year, according to senior executives at NW Natural.