Gulf

Gulf Oil Limited Partnership, which distributes motor fuels to stations across the country, is moving forward with plans to construct a liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility in northeast Pennsylvania, where Marcellus Shale dry gas production continues to rise, according to FERC filings.

Southern Company, the nation’s fourth-largest electric utility, is urging FERC to reject a proposed merger between Gulf South Storage Pipeline Co. LP and Petal Gas Storage LLC, arguing that such a merger would be detrimental to its more than 4.4 million retail customers.

The lack of technically skilled workers able to operate and maintain U.S. petrochemical projects in the queue along the Gulf Coast may pose a big constraint as construction begins over the next year, the CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPChem) said.

Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) analysts on Wednesday joined the chorus of voices predicting natural gas storage levels to crater by the end of March, with their model pointing toward a winter exit at 1.1 Tcf. Average prices this year, they said, should average $4.50/Mcf.

With a record 10 drilling rigs now working the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM), BP plc is taking aim at increasing output by one-half over the next two years, to 300,000 boe/d from the current 200,000 boe/d, CEO Bob Dudley said Tuesday.

The confluence of events that wracked Midwest and Northeast propane markets during January really could not have been foreseen, and while the energy industry is doing what it can to fix the situation, it faces limitations, Enterprise Products Partners LP COO Jim Teague said Thursday during an earnings conference call.

Legal issues continue to dog BP plc, but the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) deepwater remains the biggest go-to spot for the oil major following one of its most successful exploration years in nearly a decade.

FERC on Thursday agreed with protesting shippers and soundly rejected a proposal by Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP to abandon nearly 2,000 miles, or about 25%, of its 7,241-mile system, selling pipeline segments and auxiliary facilities in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to affiliated non-jurisdictional intrastates.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (CPChem) has received the go-ahead from its board of directors to proceed with its US Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project, which was announced in 2011.