Ethane

Bayer AG continues to discuss the lease or sale of acreage it owns in West Virginia for potential locations for ethane crackers, but at least one company has dropped out of those talks. “An affiliate of ours had been looking at a project in that area for an ethylene facility, but they are no longer doing that,” a spokesman for Houston-based PetroLogistics told NGI’s Shale Daily. In December, Bayer said a trio of sites it owns in industrial parks in New Martinsville, Institute and South Charleston, WV, totaling about 1,480 acres were available and would be ideal locations for thermal crackers (see Shale Daily, Dec. 23, 2010). Bayer wouldn’t discuss “speculation or market rumors” about possible deals, but has been in “serious discussions with several interested companies” that are looking at the West Virginia properties, Bayer spokesman Bryan Iams told NGI’s Shale Daily.

Production of national gas liquids (NGL) set an all-time record last year, exceeding 2 million b/d, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday. Ethane and propane production account for most of the increase in NGLs: 40% and 30%, respectively, of the volume of NGLs extracted in natural gas plants each year, according to the EIA. Other NGLs include normal butane, a petrochemical feedstock and refining blend stock for gasoline; and iso-butane, a refining feedstock and a component of gasoline octane blends.

Production of national gas liquids (NGL) set an all-time record last year, exceeding 2 million b/d, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday.

El Paso Corp. may make a decision “in the next few weeks” about whether to bring aboard a partner to help develop its holdings in the Eagle Ford Shale, CEO Doug Foshee said Monday.

A proposal of Trunkline Gas to sell one third of its mainlinegas system – about 720 miles – to an affiliate for transportationof ethane and other hydrocarbons came under heavy attack at FERCfrom the pipeline’s shippers this week.