Houston

A fleet of oil-retrieving skimmers and other vessels, as well as close to 400 people, were working Monday in parts of the Houston Ship Channel to contain up to 400 bbl (168,000 gallons) of heavy oil that spilled following a collision Saturday between an oil barge and cargo ship. The ship channel, one of the world's busiest waterways to move petrochemicals, could be closed partially to import and export traffic for a week or more.

FERC on Thursday approved border-crossing facilities that are part of a plan by Energy Transfer Partners LP unit Houston Pipe Line Co. LP to ship gas between Texas and Mexico.

Magellan Midstream Partners LPhas acquired a crude oil pipeline in the Houston area, historically known as the West Columbia line, fromShell Pipeline Co. LP. The 16-inch diameter pipeline, which originates at Genoa Junction is about 15 miles long, terminating at Magellan’s terminal in east Houston. Magellan said the pipeline would provide an additional route for crude oil, particularly from the Eagle Ford Shale, to reach its Houston terminal for storage or subsequent delivery into Shell’s reversed Houma, LA-to-Houston (Ho-Ho) system (seeShale Daily,April 15). The pipeline has a capacity of 150,000 b/d and is bi-directional. Magellan’s Houston area distribution system has connections at Genoa and Speed Junctions and the company’s Galena Park and East Houston terminals.

Thanks to the Marcellus Shale, Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. recently completed the best quarter in its history on an operational and financial basis, said CEO Dan Dinges. The company is adding a sixth rig in the play as it anticipates multiple infrastructure projects will come online in the months ahead, increasing the ability to get its gas to markets.

Thanks to the Marcellus Shale, Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. recently completed the best quarter in its history on an operational and financial basis. The company is adding a sixth rig in the play as it anticipates multiple infrastructure projects to come online in the months ahead, increasing the ability to get its gas to markets.

Houston-based Memorial Production Partners LP (MEMP) has agreed to acquire oil and gas properties in the Permian Basin, East Texas and the Rockies from its sponsor, Memorial Resource Development LLC, and affiliates of Natural Gas Partners for $606 million. The deal is MEMP’s largest acquisition to date and gets the partnership’s foot in the door in the Permian and Rockies.

Houston-based ZaZa Energy LLC has struck a deal to sell about 10,300 acres in Fayette, Gonzalez and Lavaca counties in Texas for about $28.8 million to a unit of Sanchez Energy after a deal fell through with another buyer that was unable to fund and close a transaction, parent ZaZa Energy Corp. said. ZaZa calls the acreage its Moulton properties. In March, ZaZa announced two pending Moulton sales: one for $43.3 million for 10,000 acres and another for the remainder of its Moulton properties for $9.2 million (see Shale Daily, March 26). “Given the current landscape, we believe that transacting at this metric was the best and most prudent action for the company at this time,” ZaZa CEO Todd Brooks said of the latest deal. “We remain focused on monetizing select Eagle Ford assets in order to improve our balance sheet, and we are currently pursuing other joint ventures in the area. In the Eaglebine, our joint venture is progressing as planned, and we anticipate timely drilling of the first three wells as part of the agreement [see Shale Daily, April 8].” ZaZa has received a down payment of $1.4 million for the Moulton properties; closing of the sale is expected by July 31.

A deal was finalized Friday in a Houston federal court to reduce the prison sentence of former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling by almost a decade to 14 years, making him eligible for release from a Denver federal prison in 2017. The Department of Justice in May had reached an agreement with Skilling, 59, under which Skilling waived his right to any further appeals and allowed more than $40 million of his forfeited assets to be distributed to victims of Enron’s collapse in 2001 (see Daily GPI, May 9). Skilling was convicted in 2006 on 19 criminal counts and sentenced to 24 years and four months (see Daily GPI, May 26, 2006). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans twice said the sentence had been miscalculated (see Daily GPI, April 8, 2011).

A deal has been finalized in a Houston federal court to reduce the prison sentence of former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling by almost a decade to 14 years, making him eligible for release from a Denver federal prison in 2017. The Department of Justice in May had reached an agreement with Skilling, 59, under which he waived his right to any further appeals and allowed more than $40 million of his forfeited assets to be distributed to victims of Enron’s collapse in 2001 (see NGI, May 13). Skilling was convicted in 2006 on 19 criminal counts and sentenced to 24 years and four months (see NGI, May 29, 2006). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans twice said the sentence had been miscalculated (see NGI, April 11, 2011).