Equity

Cardinal Midstream II LLC has secured a $200 million equity commitment from EnCap Flatrock Midstream to support midstream infrastructure development in conventional and unconventional resource plays, particularly in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Cardinal is focused on natural gas and crude oil gathering, compression and centralized production facilities, condensate stabilization, vapor recovery, and natural gas treating and processing. With the new commitment, Cardinal is led by CEO Doug Dormer and President Marc Lyons. Mark Ward has joined the company as COO. Ward has more than 30 years of engineering, operations and project management experience in the upstream and midstream.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. will sell its 40 MW natural gas-fired “CT II” generation unit at its mostly coal-fired Gillette Energy Complex in Wyoming to the City of Gillette for $22 million.

The return on equity (ROE) for North American natural gas-weighted producers declined year/year in 2012, according to an analysis by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), news that’s been borne out in exploration and production (E&P) earnings results.

The return on equity (ROE) for North American natural gas-weighted producers declined year/year in 2012, according to an analysis by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), news that’s been borne out in exploration and production (E&P) earnings results.

Gulfport Energy Corp. expects to increase the number operated horizontal rig count in the Utica Shale to seven from the current four by the end of June, and it has budgeted $494-504 million to drill 55-60 gross (49-54 net) wells in the play this year, company officials said Wednesday.

Slowing economic growth in China pushed nearly all equity markets south last week, with energy caught in a sell-off of “everything commodity-related,” but a flat natural gas rig count, combined with an eroding storage overhang, provide opportunities for U.S. gas prices and related operators to trade higher this year, said BMO Capital Markets Dan McSpirit and Phillip Jungwirth.

U.S. Capital Advisors LLC (USCA) has made a $24.1 million preferred equity investment in newly formed Badger Midstream Energy LP. The investment from USCA clients combined with a “significant” investment from the company’s general partner and an additional outside investor allowed Badger Midstream to complete its acquisition of Midstream Energy Services LLC (MES), a private midstream company based in Tulsa, OK. MES and the contribution by High Point Energy LLC of 100% of Dry Trails Midstream Energy LLC will now form the base set of assets under Badger, the company said. “Our primary goal now is to increase the utilization, optimization, and performance of these combined assets, ” said Badger Midstream CEO Alex Bucher.

Rangeland Energy is buying land near Loving, NM, where it plans to develop a large terminal facility to handle crude oil, frack sand, pipe and other products; plans for a crude oil pipeline to the terminal also are in the works, the company said Monday.

CenterPoint Energy Inc., OGE Energy Corp. and ArcLight Capital Partners are forming a new midstream master limited partnership (MLP) that will start off with 8,400 miles of interstate and 2,300 miles of intrastate pipelines in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, plus some other assets.