Expansions

While acknowledging that rail shipments are a vital part of the burgeoning Bakken Shale play, North Dakota energy officials on Monday refused to speculate on the eventual impact of the oil rail car derailment and fire in Quebec, Canada, on their state’s soaring production (see Shale Daily, July 16).

Utility developers working on combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) projects in the Marcellus and Utica shales are looking for a “power price appreciation” that will come from the excess natural gas, according analysts with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Inc. (TPH).

Newfield Exploration Co. is “right where we want to be toward execution of our 2013-2015 plan,” CEO Lee Boothby said Wednesday during an earnings conference call in which management talked of a “surge” in Eagle Ford Shale production and the rising prominence of the Cana-Woodford Shale in the company’s liquids-focused portfolio.

Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corp. said it will proceed with a C$1 billion expansion of its natural gas liquids (NGL) infrastructure, with at least some of the development intended to build upon its acquisition of Provident Energy Ltd., which was completed last year.

With energy demand high and producers climbing over each other in the Marcellus Shale region, the Northeast remains “ripe with bottlenecks,” and it’s likely to get more congested before natural gas infrastructure is completed, Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said Wednesday.

Shale natural gas produced in the Northeast will supply more than 80% of the physical gas going to New York City by 2025, according to ICF International.

The well-worn paths for global natural gas, traditionally traced along the trade flows of liquefied natural gas (LNG) expansions, have been rerouted as unconventional gas — and especially shale — has washed out old bridges, according to the International Gas Union (IGU) and IHS Inc.

The well-worn paths for global natural gas, traditionally traced along the trade flows of liquefied natural gas (LNG) expansions, have been rerouted as unconventional gas — and especially shale — has washed out old bridges to the past, according to a report by the International Gas Union (IGU) and IHS Inc.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP is building out its services for Appalachian rich-gas producers with the $512 million acquisition of Pennsylvania-based Keystone Midstream Services LLC.