Contracts

Dealing with an Eagle Ford gas flow that has turned out to be much more liquids-rich than expected, Regency Energy Partners LP announced Monday that it will expand its Edwards Lime gathering joint venture in the South Texas shale play to increase the system’s capacity by 90 MMcf/d to 160 MMcf/d, and provide for additional crude transportation and stabilization capacity of 17,000 b/d.

The clock is ticking for the United States to begin exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) before competitors corner the growing global market, according to Donald Raikes, vice president of Dominion Transmission Inc., one of the companies seeking permission to export shale gas.

Shippers have stepped up for long-term contracts for capacity on the proposed Texas Express Pipeline (TEP) and the natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline project will move forward, a trio of project sponsors said Tuesday.

FERC Friday issued a favorable environmental assessment to Millennium Pipeline Co. LLC for a natural gas compressor station project in Minisink, NY, to boost firm deliveries of Marcellus Shale gas to its interconnection with Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC at Ramapo, NY, to approximately 675,000 Dth/d to serve the Northeast and New England markets.

TransCanada Corp. on Monday notified the U.S. State Department that it intends to file in the “near future” a Presidential Permit application for a cross-border permit for part of the original $7 billion, 1,700-mile Keystone XL oil pipeline project running from the U.S.-Canada border in Montana to Steele City, Nebraska. The Calgary-based pipeline company said it eventually would file a supplement to the new application with an alternative route in Nebraska.

Range Resources Corp.’s natural gas net output in the third quarter reached 537.2 MMcf/d, which was 7% more than in the year-ago period, the Fort Worth, TX-based independent said Tuesday.

El Paso Corp.’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. (TGP) has struck two long-term contracts for service on its MPP project, which is intended to improve takeaway capacity from the Marcellus Shale through expansion of TGP’s 300 Line in Pennsylvania.

Encana Corp. has close to 11.7 million net acres from which to pick and choose for development in North America’s onshore, but the Horn River Basin in British Columbia (BC) is drawing special attention, in part because of the promise it holds for natural gas demand in the oilsands, as well as promising liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, company officials said Tuesday.

The need for higher standards in emerging shale plays could push some companies out of the business, a Talisman Energy Inc. executive told a Philadelphia audience Thursday.