Increasing

Noble Energy Inc. hit record quarterly sales volumes of 427,000 boe/d in the second quarter, but it also reported a net loss of $315 million (minus 73 cents/share) after low commodity prices and higher operating expenses weighed on the bottom line.

The prospects for the onshore oil and natural gas pipelines construction business have been stung by the decline in commodity prices, but most of the project delays announced to date are almost exclusively in North America, according to Douglas-Westwood (DW).

In an attempt to make the process smoother for oil and gas companies applying for unitization in the emerging Utica Shale, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has unveiled a series of new application requirements.

Connecting the wells only addresses part of the problem with flaring of natural gas in North Dakota’s Bakken and Three Forks formations; it’s no help if there’s a lack of takeaway and processing capacity.

FERC on Friday issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) of Tallgrass Interstate Gas Transmission’s proposal to convert the Pony Express Pipeline to meet the increasing demand for crude oil transportation service out of the Bakken formation.

With natural gas prices increasing, a joint venture (JV) in the Marcellus Shale has announced plans to build a dry gas pipeline across two neighboring counties in north-central West Virginia.

Plains All American Pipeline LP is constructing a 95-mile extension of its Oklahoma crude oil pipeline to service increasing production from the Granite Wash, Hogshooter and Cleveland Sands producing areas in western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. The new Western Oklahoma pipeline will provide up to 75,000 b/d of takeaway capacity from Reydon, OK, in Roger Mills County to PAA’s Orion station in Major County, OK. At the Orion station, crude oil will flow on PAA’s existing pipeline system to the PAA terminal in Cushing, OK. The new Western Oklahoma pipeline is supported by long-term producer commitments and is expected to be in service by the end of the first quarter of 2014, the company said.

As a natural gas-only utility in a relatively slow-growth area, NW Natural sees some growth opportunities in the shift to more gas-fired electric generation and in the increasing interest in compressed natural gas (CNG) for transportation.

Driven by steadily increasing midstream business, Atlas Pipeline Partners LLP’s (APL) natural gas volumes from onshore U.S. plays jumped by double digits in the first three months of this year from a year ago to average 1.03 Bcf/d, the operator said last week.