Converted

Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP are partnering on a pipeline project to carry mixed (y-grade) natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Marcellus and Utica shales to the U.S. Gulf Coast as well as the petrochemical market in the Northeast.

Over the next three years capital expenditures (capex) in the Eagle Ford Shale could top the projected spending for the Kashagan project in Kazakhstan, now the world’s most expensive standalone energy project, according to an analysis by Wood Mackenzie.

Houston-based land driller Sidewinder Drilling Inc. management on Monday said it now holds about 92% of the outstanding shares of Union Drilling Inc., which allows the unconventional oilfield service operators to move forward with their merger, first announced in September.

A report by a veteran Canadian engineering firm in support of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal on the British Columbia coast has come up with some astronomical early estimates of shale gas resources in just five of the 50 identified shale basins in Canada.

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.

Total combined natural gas purchase and sales volumes reached 124,752 TBtu in 2011, a 2.5% increase compared with 121,682 TBtu in 2010, according to an analysis by Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) of 2011 Form 552 filings with FERC.

Former Petrohawk Energy Corp. CEO Floyd C. Wilson, who recently created Halcon Resources LLC, is working with a group of investors to buy Tulsa-based Ram Energy Resources Inc., a small-cap explorer that operates primarily in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Air Liquide Industrial US LP plans to build an air separation unit in northwestern North Dakota to supply nitrogen to industrial customers, specifically those involved in growing Bakken Shale operations. The unit is expected to be operational by the end of 2012. The French company supplies gases that include nitrogen and carbon dioxide to North American producers to support drilling operations and increase resource recovery. “We are positioning ourselves to better serve existing customers and to capture new business opportunities in North Dakota, especially in the Bakken oil reserves,” said Air Liquide’s Mark Lostak, president of the company’s U.S. arm. “The potential throughout this region is significant, and we are prepared to meet the growing demand for nitrogen to develop these important domestic energy resources.”

AT&T recently asked a unit of Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to convert 463 Ford vans to run on compressed natural gas (CNG). The converted fleet vehicles are to be delivered in the second quarter.