Crews

Some of the pieces, albeit uneven, were being put back in place Tuesday by natural gas and oil operators that have felt the sting of the torrential rains and flash flooding that has claimed lives and property throughout the Front Range of Colorado.

Xcel Energy on Sunday reported new heavy rain storms in already flooded areas in Colorado, further hampering efforts to assess the condition of natural gas pipelines and equipment. On Sunday, the combination utility said there were approximately 4,070 customers without gas service, up from the 2,500 total last Friday (see related item).

Master integrated planning in the shale natural gas and liquids markets reduces working capital and makes the end-to-end process more consistent and predictable, according to an analysis by PwC.

Over New Year’s Eve U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) crews contended with an Arctic storm while assisting Royal Dutch Shell plc’s grounded drillship The Kulluk on the southeast shoreline of Sitkalidak Island, AK. Shell emphasized that the grounding is a maritime accident and not related to drilling, and that there was no risk of an oil spill.

Hurricane Sandy appears to have posed a minimal disruption to oil and gas companies operating in the Marcellus Shale.

Russia’s OAO Rosneft will put its boots and drilling crews on the ground in the United States and Canada through several partnership agreements completed with ExxonMobil Corp. on Monday.

Emergency crews from three northeastern Pennsylvania counties responded Thursday afternoon to an apparent flash fire at the Lathrop compressor station in Springville Township. The 12,000-square-foot facility, operated by Williams Partners LP, houses seven compressors.

Rockies Express (REX) said an outage of one unit at Bertrand Compressor Station experienced Thursday kept it unavailable Friday although repair crews worked on resolving the issue. However, at the current level of scheduled quantities (both Intraday 1 and Timely) through Segment 250, scheduling reductions were not necessary Friday, REX said, but if nominations increase for future cycles, a force majeure may be required.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. voluntarily suspended all completion operations in Pennsylvania last Thursday as response crews worked to contain a Chesapeake well blowout in the Marcellus Shale.