Effective

Citing mild weather and limited operational flexibility, Tennessee said a systemwide Imbalance Warning will become effective Saturday. All delivery point operators will be required to keep actual daily takes out of the system equal to or greater than scheduled quantities regardless of their cumulative imbalance position. All receipt point operators must keep actual daily receipts into the system equal to or less than scheduled quantities regardless of their cumulative imbalance position.

The Appalachian region of southeastern Ohio provides supply chain companies with cost-effective and easy access to all of the states involved in the Marcellus and Utica shales, “while maximizing return on investment now and over the life of the shale gas reserves,” according to a white paper by the Ohio Business Development Coalition (OBDC). The state “is the ideal location” for Tier I and II suppliers to the shale gas industry, “offering a central location, logistics infrastructures, a skilled workforce and a favorable state tax structure,” according to the OBDC. Among the tax benefits touted by OBDC: Ohio does not tax products and services sold to customers outside the state.

The federal government isn’t planning a “full court press” on the natural gas industry, but it will if best management practices and state regulations aren’t effective, a former U.S. senator told an audience in Pittsburgh Tuesday.

Noble Energy Inc. and CONSOL Energy Inc. have clinched their joint venture agreement to develop a swath of Marcellus Shale properties in southwest Pennsylvania and northwest West Virginia, the companies said Monday.

W&T Offshore Inc. has closed its $36.7 million acquisition of Shell Offshore Inc.’s 64.3% interest in the Fairway Field and the associated Yellowhammer gas processing plant in Alabama with an effective date of Sept. 1, 2010. Current production net to W&T in the Fairway Field is about 19.5 MMcf/d of natural gas and 1,200 b/d of natural gas liquids; W&T has estimated proved reserves of 39.4 Bcf and 2.5 million bbl, or 54.5 Bcfe. The transaction completes a deal for Gulf of Mexico deepwater producing fields announced last year (see Daily GPI, Nov. 8, 2010).

Due to forecasted high demand in its Northeast market area, effective Thursday Maritimes & Northeast U.S. (M&N) will require all delivery point operators to keep actual daily takes out of the system less than or equal to scheduled quantities regardless of their cumulative imbalance position. Similarly, all receipt point operators must keep actual daily receipts into the system greater than or equal to scheduled quantities regardless of their cumulative imbalance position, M&N said.

Mountainview Energy Ltd. announced Wednesday that its founder, Joseph Montalban, has resigned from the company’s board of directors effective May 19. Montalban began his career in the oil and gas industry in the early 1950s, first as a roughneck in Alberta and then as a vice president for Flank Oil. He discovered oil in the Bakken Shale after drilling the Bugby #1 well in Glacier County, MT for Flank in 1957. He formed Montalban Drilling in the late 1950s and two public companies in the early 1970s, which would become MSR Exploration Ltd. in 1983. He also founded Gyspy Highview Gathering System Inc. In 2001 Montalban and his son, Patrick, formed Mountainview, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange. Mountainview, based in Cut Bank, MT, is focused on exploration, production and development of the Bakken and Three Forks shales in the Williston Basin and the south Alberta Bakken shale play.

Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. has agreed to acquire from an undisclosed private seller Bakken/Three Forks leasehold and producing properties in the Williston Basin for about $85.5 million, the company said Monday.

Due to a gas quality problem, NGPL said the Superior Inter Wheeler receipt point in Wheeler County, TX, will be unavailable effective Thursday until further notice.