Holding

Williams Partners LP is holding a binding open season through April 25 for capacity on an expansion of its interstate Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) to provide incremental firm transportation to markets in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina by 2015.

Perth, Western Australia-based Golden State Resources has received further verification it could be holding a significant shale gas play in the Golden Eagle field in Grand County in southeast Utah. The economics look good, according to a recent petroleum engineering consultant’s study.

Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. has agreed with a subsidiary of Carmeuse Holding S.A. (Luxembourg) to acquire its U.S. industrial sands business, Carmeuse Industrial Sands (CIS), for $297 million, giving it a large supply of sand for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activities.

Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. has agreed with a subsidiary of Carmeuse Holding S.A. (Luxembourg) to acquire its U.S. industrial sands business, Carmeuse Industrial Sands (CIS), for $297 million, giving it a large supply of sand for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activities.

A Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP (BPP) subsidiary has paid approximately $285 million to Boardwalk Pipelines Holding Corp. (BPHC) for the remaining 80% equity interest in Boardwalk HP Storage Co., the Houston-based partnership said Monday.

Futures and the cash market parted ways Wednesday with the cash market holding on to gains of a few cents at most points and the futures stumbling to a double-digit loss as traders attempt to factor in what looks like another surplus-building inventory report Thursday and a revised weather outlook. At the close March had fallen 10.7 cents to $2.425 and April retreated 8.4 cents to $2.616. March crude oil added $1.06 to $101.80/bbl.

Mild winter temperatures, which have played a part in holding down natural gas prices, dominated much of the country last month, making it the fourth-warmest January on record for the contiguous United States, according to AccuWeather.com.

Mild winter temperatures, which have played a part in holding down natural gas prices, dominated much of the country last month, making it the fourth-warmest January on record for the contiguous United States, according to AccuWeather.com.

Williams Partners LP is holding an open season through April 2 for the remaining capacity on its 260-mile Atlantic Access Project, a pipeline that would carry more than 1 Bcf/d of Appalachian gas supply to eastern markets along the Atlantic Seaboard by late 2014. The partnership already has a binding precedent agreement from a shipper for half of the project’s anticipated initial capacity of 1.8 million Dth/d. The pipeline would connect Marcellus and Utica shale supply in western West Virginia and Pennsylvania to markets via Williams’ existing Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco). The project would enable Transco to move natural gas through about 350 miles of new pipe from receipt points in Marshall County, WV and Butler County, PA to connect to Transco’s Station 195 in York County, PA (see NGI, Jan. 2). Interconnections are planned with several processing plants and other pipelines along the route, including Columbia Gas Transmission, Dominion Transmission, EQT and National Fuel, as well as Williams Midstream’s proposed Confluence pipeline. For information contact Gary Duvall at (713) 215-2589.