Flow

Southwestern Energy Co., which has proved time and again that making money is possible in some of the onshore natural gas plays, on Monday cut a bargain deal that will nearly double its gassy acreage position in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania.

The Barnett Shale’s natural gas production potential is “slowly declining;” however, total resource recovery from the granddaddy of shale plays is expected to be three times what has been produced to date, according to research conducted by the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) at The University of Texas at Austin and funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Newfield Exploration Co. is considering the sale of its international assets, which consist of offshore oil and natural gas developments in Malaysia and China, the company said.

Range Resources Corp. will fund its $1.3 billion 2013 capital expenditures (capex) budget from operating cash flow, available liquidity under its bank credit facility and proceeds from asset sales, including a planned sale of Permian Basin properties in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas, the Fort Worth, TX-based company said last week.

Range Resources Corp. will fund its $1.3 billion 2013 capital expenditures (capex) budget from operating cash flow, available liquidity under its bank credit facility and proceeds from asset sales, including the planned sale of some Permian Basin properties in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas, the Fort Worth, TX-based company said Wednesday.

Gulfport Energy Corp. has spud some of the largest producing wells in the Utica Shale to date, and the play continues to be the Oklahoma City-based operator’s “primary focus area,” according to CEO James Palm.

MarkWest Energy Partners is getting ready for “explosive growth” in the Northeast “in 2013 and beyond,” CEO Frank Semple said Thursday. Next year, natural gas liquids (NGL) processing in the Marcellus and Utica shales combined should increase to 4.8 Bcf/d from 2.7 Bcf/d to serve producer customers.

New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) Thursday began shutting off gas flow to a part of its system that served customers on the barriers islands that were ravaged by Hurricane Sandy on Monday.

Spectra Energy Corp. is taking a one-third interest in the Sand Hills and Southern Hills pipelines, both of which are under construction by DCP Midstream LLC, a joint venture of Spectra and Phillips 66. The deal is expected to close by the end of November when Spectra, Phillips 66 and DCP Midstream each would own one-third of the pipelines and equally fund their completion. The aggregate investment by Spectra is expected to be $700-800 million. Sand Hills, which would take natural gas liquids from the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale to Gulf Coast markets, would have an initial capacity of 200,000 b/d and be expandable to 350,000 b/d. The first phase recently came online and connection to Mont Belvieu, TX, is expected by year-end (see Shale Daily, Oct. 29). The timing of Sand Hills’ second phase, the Permian portion of the pipeline, has advanced and is due to be in service in 2Q2013. Southern Hills would provide 150,000 b/d, expandable to 175,000 b/d, of capacity from the Midcontinent to Mont Belvieu and has a targeted in-service date of mid-2013.