Joint

NiSource Inc. has clinched two joint ventures (JV) in the Utica Shale with Hilcorp Energy Co. to construct midstream facilities and to develop a “significant acreage block” in the Utica/Point Pleasant formation in northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Swift Energy Co. has entered into a long-term agreement for natural gas gathering and processing services in the Eagle Ford Shale with Eagle Ford Gathering LLC, a 50-50 joint venture of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and Copano Energy LLC.

National Fuel Gas Midstream Corp. (NFG Midstream), a unit of National Fuel Gas Co., said its Trout Run Gathering System in Lycoming County, PA, was recently placed in service and is delivering gas to an interconnect with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC (Transco). Initial production is from four recently completed wells operated by Seneca Resources Corp., a subsidiary of National Fuel.

Atlas Pipeline Mid-Continent WestTex LLC and Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc. have filed a joint application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval by Oct. 1 to build a natural gas pipeline from a proposed Permian Basin cryogenic gas processing plant that is due to go into service in early 2013. The proposed 10.2-mile pipeline in Midland, TX, would transport 150 MMcf/d of pipeline-quality gas to interconnections with Northern Natural Gas and two intrastate pipelines owned by Atmos Energy Corp. and Enterprise Products Partners LP. The so-called Driver Plant is being built in two phases (see NGI, Nov. 21, 2011). The first phase would have the capacity to handle 100 MMcf/d and is expected to begin service in 1Q2013; the second phase would add 100 MMcf/d with a target date of 1Q2014. Completion of both phases would increase capacity at the WestTex facility from 255 MMcf/d to 455 MMcf/d at an estimated cost of about $200 million.

MarkWest Utica EMG LLC, a partnership between Appalachian midstream provider MarkWest Energy Partners LP and private equity fund The Energy and Minerals Group (EMG), has secured agreements to process and transport Gulfport Energy Corp.’s growing natural gas volumes from three eastern Ohio counties between now and 2014. The partners also are expanding one Utica Shale midstream facility and building a new plant to ensure producers have enough fractionation services available.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) data and analysis did not support the conclusion linking water contamination in Pavillion, WY, to chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, according to a new analysis released Wednesday.

Making a case for a proposed $6 billion joint venture liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at the company’s under-used Cameron LNG site in Louisiana, Sempra Energy senior executives said there are limits to the global LNG market and Sempra’s proposed project, now fully subscribed, will be competitive.

To give Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) complete control of a joint venture (JV) in which merger partner El Paso Corp. now owns one-half, its partnership on Wednesday agreed to buy a 50% interest in the Altamont gathering and processing system in Utah’s Uinta Basin, as well as the Camino Real Gathering System in the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas.

Atlas Resource Partners LP (ARP) has entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with subsidiaries of Canada’s Equal Energy Ltd. in the core area of the Mississippian Lime, a formation in Oklahoma and Kansas rich in oil and natural gas liquids (NGL).