Encana

Encana Corp. was given the green light on Friday to start up the long-awaited Deep Panuke natural gas project offshore Nova Scotia.

Goodrich Petroleum Corp. is buying a 66.7% working interest in producing assets and about 277,000 gross acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) for $26.7 million as it continues to build scale in the play and improve its drilling performance.

GE Energy Financial Services has taken a stake in Summit Midstream Partners LLC, a developer of midstream energy infrastructure in unconventional North American basins. Financial details were not disclosed. GE Energy Financial Services’ current midstream equity and debt portfolio totals $2.4 billion. It has invested in a midstream master limited partnership, gas storage assets, a liquefied natural gas regasification terminal and 40,000 miles of gas pipelines. Summit Midstream’s assets include gathering, compression and dehydration facilities in the core of the Barnett Shale. It recently acquired South Piceance Basin assets in the Rockies from an Encana Corp. subsidiary (see Daily GPI, Oct. 12).

Despite a lack of evidence showing that there is a correlation between hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and increased seismic activity, British Columbia (BC) provincial authorities want to study the issue, focusing on BC’s Horn River Basin shale play.

A voluntary first-in-the-nation effort to start a baseline groundwater quality sampling program before and after drilling was announced Tuesday as a joint effort among oil/gas producers, Gov. John Hickenlooper and the state Department of Natural Resources at an annual energy conference in Denver hosted by the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA).

The technical portion of a feasibility study of a gas-to-liquids (GTL) project in Western Canada, which is under consideration by Talisman Energy Inc. and Sasol Ltd., is expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of this year, according to the Foster Wheeler AG subsidiary that will perform the study.

Southwestern Energy Co. will devote $1.9 billion to its capital investment program in 2011, down 10% compared with $2.1 billion in 2010, with most of it continuing to be spent on operations in the Fayetteville Shale where the Houston-based producer expects to see a significant increase in production.

South Korean producer STX Energy Co. has paid Encana Corp. C$152 million (US$144 million) to acquire the Maxhamish natural gas field in northwestern Canada. Estimated reserves in the Canadian gas field are about 120 Bcf. Current output from the field is 20.5 MMcf/d. STX said it plans to raise output to around 27 MMcf/d in the near term. Annual sales are expected to be C$40 million for at least 30 years, the producer said. South Korea imports nearly all of its energy, and STX said it plans to look for more investments overseas in the near term.

Source: Quarterly financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or if necessary, statements signed by company officials and provided to NGI.