Discussions

Crestwood Midstream Partners LP on Tuesday said it is building its foothold in the Marcellus Shale after wresting control of a natural gas partnership created last year.

As part of a continuing effort to stretch Bakken and western Canadian oil supplies into new markets, Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. on Thursday outlined a $6.2 billion, four-year effort to expand several of its pipelines to access light oil markets in the eastern United States and Canada.

The Pennsylvania State Senate unanimously passed a bill last Monday absolving mine operators and landowners from liability for any injury or damage caused by the use of acid mine drainage (AMD) in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations.

Shying away from any political observations on what a presidential change in Washington, DC, might bring, speakers in keynote addresses and panel discussions focused on financial and environmental regulations, shale developments and future pricing as the key drivers in the natural gas industry at the LDC Gas Forum Midcontinent meeting in Chicago, held Sept. 10-12.

Chimera Energy Corp. officials traveled to Mexico City Monday to continue their discussions with Pemex on the use of the U.S. company’s new nonhydraulic extraction system that aims to replace hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Williams Partners LP said shipper interest supports a portion of Transcontinental Gas Pipeline’s (Transco) Atlantic Access project: expansion of the Leidy Line in northern Pennsylvania by up to 800,000 Dth/d by late 2015. However, the remainder of the previously announced Atlantic Access project will have to wait.

Following “extensive discussions” with two of its largest shareholders, Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Monday announced that four existing independent directors would resign from the board. The company also has put up for sale 337,481 net acres in its prized Utica/Point Pleasant Shale, which would give it less than one million acres in the play.

NiSource Midstream Services (NMS) is in “advanced discussions with a producer counterparty” about a potential joint venture (JV) to focus on gathering, processing and transporting in eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale, NiSource Inc. officials said Tuesday.

Williams Partners LP has modified the open season for Atlantic Access, a proposed expansion of its Transco interstate pipeline, as a result of discussions with potential shippers (see Shale Daily, Feb. 7). Transco is increasing the total firm transportation capacity, offering additional firm transportation paths and revising the proposed in-service date to December 2015. The revised open season runs through July 13. Atlantic Access would connect gas supplies originating in western West Virginia and Pennsylvania to markets in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Gulf Coast regions. Transco is now proposing a total of six firm transportation paths under the project. Two of the three original paths have been fully subscribed. For customer inquiries, contact Gary Duvall at (713) 215-2589.