Joint

A landowners group in central New York that supports natural gas development has established a legal fund to fight local bans and moratoriums on hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Caterpillar Inc. (Cat) and natural gas compressor manufacturing firm Ariel Corp. have formed a 50-50 joint venture (JV) to provide well service pressure pumping products to the oil and gas industry, the companies said Wednesday.

Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) is buying three crude oil rail terminals in the Eagle Ford, Bakken and Niobrara producing regions, as well as various contractual arrangements, from U.S. Development Group (USD) for $500 million.

TransCanada Corp. agreed to pay BP plc C$210 million to buy out the producer’s interest in the Crossfield Gas Storage facility near Edson, AB, as well as its stakes in an affiliated marketing joint venture (JV) between the two operators.

A coalition of New York landowners that supports natural gas development has endorsed a slate of candidates — all of them Republicans — for election to state office.

Spectra Energy Corp. is taking a one-third interest in the Sand Hills and Southern Hills pipelines, both of which are under construction by DCP Midstream LLC, a joint venture of Spectra and Phillips 66. The deal is expected to close by the end of November when Spectra, Phillips 66 and DCP Midstream each would own one-third of the pipelines and equally fund their completion. The aggregate investment by Spectra is expected to be $700-800 million. Sand Hills, which would take natural gas liquids from the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale to Gulf Coast markets, would have an initial capacity of 200,000 b/d and be expandable to 350,000 b/d. The first phase recently came online and connection to Mont Belvieu, TX, is expected by year-end (see Shale Daily, Oct. 29). The timing of Sand Hills’ second phase, the Permian portion of the pipeline, has advanced and is due to be in service in 2Q2013. Southern Hills would provide 150,000 b/d, expandable to 175,000 b/d, of capacity from the Midcontinent to Mont Belvieu and has a targeted in-service date of mid-2013.

Penn Virginia Corp. has acquired about 4,100 net Eagle Ford Shale acres in Gonzales and Lavaca counties, TX, for about $10 million. Under existing joint venture agreements, other nonoperated working interest owners are expected to acquire 17% of the net acreage in Gonzales County and 46% of the net acreage in Lavaca County, increasing Penn Virginia’s Eagle Ford acreage position by about 3,000 net acres to a total of 30,000 net acres (40,100 gross). The acquired 3,200 net acres of leasehold in Gonzales County is adjacent to Penn Virginia’s development area and is estimated to contain 20 horizontal well locations, excluding any down-spaced drilling opportunities. The acquired 895 net acres of leasehold in Lavaca County is complementary to existing leasehold in nine units, with an estimated addition of 10 horizontal well locations, the company said.

Caliber Midstream Partners LP, a joint venture (JV) formed by Triangle Petroleum Corp. and First Reserve Corp.’s Energy Infrastructure Fund (FREIF), will focus on midstream and infrastructure opportunities in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana, Triangle said Monday.

Amy Myers Jaffe is joining the University of California, Davis, in October as executive director of energy and sustainability in a joint appointment to the Graduate School of Management and Institute of Transportation Studies. Jaffe has spent the past 16 years at Houston’s Rice University, where she served as director of the Energy Forum at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Kenneth Medlock, deputy director of the forum, was named the new director. Jaffe said she was drawn by the California university’s “focus on sustainability and the interdisciplinary research and relationships between transportation and energy, and by the opportunity to work near California’s state capital, which is an international pioneer on environmental and public policy issues.”