Interest

Denver-based MarkWest Energy Partners LP has sold its 50% interest in Starfish Pipeline Co. LLC to Enbridge Offshore (Gas Transmission) LLC, an Enbridge Inc. company, effective Dec. 31, 2009, the company said Monday.

Natural gas prices are not going to return to the $8-12 range anytime soon, but there will still be a lot of interest in the fuel, according to Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who spoke Thursday at NRG Energy Inc.’s financial analysts conference in Houston.

Gastar Exploration Ltd. has sold its majority interest in the Hilltop Resort Gathering System to US Infrastructure LP (USI). The Hilltop Resort Gathering System is composed of 20 miles of gas pipeline extending through Robertson and Leon Counties, TX, with a gathering capacity of 120 MMcf/d. The system is connected to 24 Gastar-operated wells, which produce from the middle and lower Bossier and Knowles formations in East Texas. Gastar received approximately $21.7 million, net of costs and expenses associated with the transaction. “The sale of our stake in the Hilltop system provides an attractive return on our investment and additional liquidity to pursue our drilling plans in East Texas and the Marcellus Shale while maintaining a very low level of leverage,” said Gastar CEO J. Russell Porter. USI partnered with Metalmark Capital to finance the transaction.

An affiliate of Hess LNG recently acquired BP’s 100% ownership interest in Crown Landing LLC, which was developing the Crown Landing LNG terminal on the Delaware River in Gloucester County, NJ. Hess LNG sees the site as a strategic location for an LNG facility, which could be completed about seven years from now, the company said last week.

An affiliate of Hess LNG late last week acquired BP’s 100% ownership interest in Crown Landing LLC, which was developing the Crown Landing LNG terminal on the Delaware River in Gloucester County, NJ. Hess LNG sees the site as a strategic location for an LNG facility, which could be completed about seven years from now, the company said Tuesday.

A subsidiary of Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) will pay $220 million for Vulcan Capital’s 50% interest in PAA Natural Gas Storage, the companies said. The purchase price includes $90 million cash, 1.9 million PAA common units valued at $90 million and deferred contingent cash consideration up to $40 million. The transaction is expected to close Thursday. The transaction will give PAA 100% of the natural gas storage business and related operating entities, which will be accounted for on a consolidated basis. At closing PAA will repay the joint venture’s outstanding project finance debt using joint venture cash and borrowings under its revolving credit facility. As of June 30 the joint venture had approximately $450 million of debt and approximately $52 million of cash. PAA management intends to recommend to its board of directors an increase in the partnership’s quarterly distribution level to 92 cents/unit effective with the November distribution.

Private equity fund Tiberius Capital LLC has launched a tender offer to acquire a controlling interest in Petrosearch Energy Corp. to prevent Double Eagle Petroleum Co. from purchasing the company.

Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. has completed a $60 million agreement to acquire a 90% working interest in 40,300 undeveloped acres in Cottonwood Gulch in western Colorado’s Piceance Basin. The leasehold is part of the former Naval Oil Shale Reserve No. 1. The acquired properties are adjacent to the prolific Rulison and Parachute gas fields. Based on regional data and analysis, Barrett expects the acquisition to add more than 2 Tcfe to its probable and possible resources. Barrett currently produces 100 MMcfe/d net from the Gibson Gulch field, which is in the Piceance Basin.

With a potential equity and energy interest in both, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) views major interstate natural gas pipeline and electric transmission projects in the Pacific Northwest as treading water, awaiting other key market and regulatory developments, according to PG&E Corp. CEO Peter Darbee, speaking on a conference call with financial analysts last Wednesday. For now, the projects are in what Darbee called the San Francisco-based combination utility’s “far-end guidance period” (2012-13).