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A new company has leased about 1,500 acres in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia and hopes to find investors to raise $2 billion to develop an ethane cracker and other downstream facilities.

Spectra Energy Corp. said it plans to spend about $1.3 billion on capital expenditures (capex) in 2012 and hopes to continue growing the value of its stock, according to the company’s financial plan for the upcoming year approved by its board of directors on Wednesday.

Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) last week took several steps to expand its North American oil and natural gas operations with the biggest an agreement to buy BP plc’s Canadian natural gas liquids (NGL) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business.

The large manufacturing sector is expressing strong opposition to a proposal released earlier this month in the U.S. Senate (S 1863) to expand tax credits for natural gas transportation infrastructure and vehicles (see NGI, Nov. 21). At the same time, industrial users struck back against potential widespread U.S. exports of gas.

FERC Thursday issued a certificate to Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) to expand its mainline system in southwestern Pennsylvania to transport Marcellus Shale gas to markets in the Northeast.

A progressive political advocacy group said the government of British Columbia (BC) should cap annual natural gas production and end subsidies to the industry over fears that it is expanding too rapidly at the expense of air, water and power resources.

Linn Energy LLC has agreed to acquire Midcontinent oil and gas properties primarily in the Granite Wash of Texas and Oklahoma from Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) for $600 million.

As development in the liquids-rich Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas continues to expand, the task force formed earlier this year to address residents’ and industry’s concerns Wednesday issued recommendations related to truck traffic and pipeline development.

Seeking to expand the potential international market for its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Lusby, MD, Dominion Cove Point LNG Inc. (DCP) last week filed an application with the Department of Energy (DOE) for a permit to send LNG to any country with which the United States does not prohibit trade.