Growing

Continued drilling efficiency improvements are driving record production growth in the Williston Basin’s Bakken Shale and helping to push down costs, according to top Oasis Petroleum executive.

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has called on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine the impact of growing shale oil and gas development on the nation’s rail and pipeline infrastructure.

Sunoco Logistics Partners’ Sunoco Pipeline is holding a binding open season for its Granite Wash Extension pipeline to provide crude oil takeaway capacity for growing production from the Granite Wash Shale in the northeastern Texas Panhandle and portions of western Oklahoma. The pipeline would originate in Wheeler County, TX, and terminate in Ringgold, TX, where it would interconnect with an existing Sunoco Logistics pipeline with the ability to provide transportation to Corsicana, TX. From Corsicana, access to multiple Sunoco Logistics and third-party pipelines would provide producers the ability to reach various markets and refineries on the Gulf Coast and in the Midcontinent. The partnership would lay 200 miles of new pipeline and construct pump stations, tankage and truck unloading facilities. The Granite Wash Extension is anticipated to have an initial capacity of 70,000 b/d to Ringgold and is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Growing natural gas production in the Permian Basin has prompted Atlas Pipeline Partners LP to announce plans for a new 200 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant, which will be anchored by production from Pioneer Natural Resources Inc.

With logistics for moving hydraulic fracturing (fracking) equipment snarled by mostly foul weather through May, North Dakota is facing a growing backlog of unfracked wells, according to Lynn Helms, the state’s director of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has told key state legislators that no additional requirements are needed to protect the air quality from horizontal oil and gas drilling.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has begun operating its 850,000 net acre leasehold in the Mississippian Lime jointly with China’s Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration Corp. after the duo completed a $1 billion-plus joint venture (JV) agreement.

Under pressure from San Bruno city officials asking for a state probe of its actions and growing internal tensions, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Wednesday reshuffled two key legal positions in the three consolidated penalty cases against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) for the 2010 natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion in San Bruno.

The Sand Hills and Southern Hills natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelines have entered service, according to DCP Midstream, Phillips 66 and Spectra Energy Corp., which each own a one-third interest in the pipelines. The 720-mile Sand Hills is transporting NGL from the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale. The 800-mile Southern Hills is transporting NGL from production in the Midcontinent. “DCP Midstream will have an integrated NGL pipeline system, consisting of Sand Hills and Southern Hills as well as our interests in the Front Range and Texas Express pipelines, that connect our gathering and processing systems located in most of the major liquids-rich and oil-driven shale plays to growing Gulf Coast markets,” said DCP Midstream CEO Wouter van Kempen.