Infrastructure

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved petitions of Peoples Natural Gas Co. and Peoples TWP to implement long-term infrastructure improvement plans (LTIIP) in addition to a distribution system improvement charge. Peoples is to replace an average of 47 miles of pipeline per year during the five-year period of the LTIIP. Peoples plans to spend between $55 million and $71 million per year on pipeline, meter and service replacement over the five-year period. Peoples TWP is to replace an average of 28 miles of pipeline per year during the five-year period. Peoples TWP anticipates spending a minimum of $9.1 million per year over the five-year plan.

A panel of marketing representatives for several industrial giants was convened in mid-May by the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority (WIA) to look at how quick-start natural gas-fired generation can mitigate the increased variability on the electric grid due to increased wind and solar-based power supplies.

Cardinal Midstream II LLC has secured a $200 million equity commitment from EnCap Flatrock Midstream to support midstream infrastructure development in conventional and unconventional resource plays, particularly in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Cardinal is focused on natural gas and crude oil gathering, compression and centralized production facilities, condensate stabilization, vapor recovery, and natural gas treating and processing. With the new commitment, Cardinal is led by CEO Doug Dormer and President Marc Lyons. Mark Ward has joined the company as COO. Ward has more than 30 years of engineering, operations and project management experience in the upstream and midstream.

With acquisitions and infrastructure agreements in hand, Waltham, MA-based Global Partners LP, a publicly traded master limited partnership, is establishing a “virtual pipeline” for shipping North Dakota Bakken and Canadian crude oil to refineries on both the U.S. West and East Coasts.

Building midstream infrastructure in the Marcellus Shale to keep up with growing natural gas volumes was a challenge in the first quarter, MarkWest Energy Partners LP CEO Frank Semple said last week.

Building midstream infrastructure in the Marcellus Shale to keep up with growing natural gas volumes was a challenge in the first quarter, MarkWest Energy Partners LP CEO Frank Semple said Thursday.

The Crestwood and Inergy companies are merging to create a $7 billion midstream business that will have infrastructure and established business relationships at both ends of the midstream value chain, company executives said Monday.

Enterprise Products Partners LP plans to “significantly” expand its crude oil storage and distribution infrastructure serving the southeast Texas refinery market, the partnership said Thursday. The move is in response to the displacement of imported waterborne crude by domestic supply from unconventional basins.

Pro and con on the proposed northern segment of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) rachetted up their campaigns this week in anticipation of a U.S. State Department hearing on the project Thursday in Grand Island, NE.