General

Enterprise Products Partners LP has sold out capacity at its planned 1.65 billion pounds/year propane dehydrogenation (PDH), which is scheduled to begin operation during the third quarter of 2015. In anticipation of a continuing decrease in supplies of propylene, Enterprise is in talks with additional customers that could lead to the development of additional PDH capacity, the company said. Last June Enterprise said it would build a PDH facility on the Texas Gulf Coast that would consume up to 35,000 b/d of propane to produce 1.65 billion pounds/year (750,000 metric tons per year or 25,000 b/d) of polymer-grade propylene (PGP) (see Shale Daily, June 22, 2012). The facility is to be integrated with the partnership’s existing propylene fractionation facilities, which have capacity of 5.3 billion pounds/year. The PDH facility will also be integrated with Enterprise’s PGP storage facilities, 102-mile distribution pipeline system and export terminal. “This [PDH capacity] demand is being driven by the combination of a 38% decrease in propylene supplies since 2006 due to additional ethane consumption by U.S. petrochemical companies and the growing supplies of domestic propane from the U.S. shale plays,” said Jim Teague, COO of Enterprise’s general partner.

After hitting a low point five years ago, associated gas is projected to grow to more than 12 Bcf/d, or about 15% of the North American natural gas supplies in 2020, according to a report released Tuesday by Canadian-based Ziff Energy.

Republican leaders in the Ohio General Assembly indicated that they will give some consideration to Gov. John Kasich’s proposal to impose new severance taxes on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and natural gas liquids (NGL) in 2013, after declining to do so in 2012.

Four days after Gulfport Energy Corp. said it would buy 30,000 net acres in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio, the company announced Thursday that the agreement has been amended to include an additional 7,000 net acres for $70 million.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and several state attorneys general Monday signed a letter asking President Obama to pull the final rule on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public and Indian lands at the federal level.

A coalition of seven states, led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, last week threatened to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to address methane emissions from oil and gas operations in violation of the Clean Air Act.

A coalition of seven states, led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Tuesday told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) it will sue the agency for failing to address methane emissions from oil and gas operations in violation of the Clean Air Act.

Idaho regulators last Friday asked for stakeholder and general public comments on a long-term planning document by Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities that forecasts 20 years of low gas prices and demand by its retail residential and business natural gas customers in the northern panhandle of the state.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law, has a medical “gag rule” that violates a doctor’s constitutional rights to communicate with his patients.