Lake

Westlake Chemical Corp.’s previously announced expansion of the Petro 2 ethylene unit at its complex in Lake Charles, LA, has begun. This expansion will be completed in conjunction with a planned maintenance turnaround and will increase ethane-based ethylene capacity by 230-240 million pounds annually in support of the company’s ethylene integration strategy. The unit is expected to be down approximately 60 days for the work to be completed.

A group of landowners in three Arkansas counties are asking a federal court to allow a class action lawsuit against three oil and natural gas companies, claiming they are illegally operating six wastewater injection wells in the Fayetteville Shale.

Celanese Corp. plans to construct a methanol production facility at its Clear Lake, TX, acetyl complex to take advantage of abundant natural gas supplies in the region, the company said. “The positive developments in the U.S. energy complex and the current and emerging natural gas surplus make it advantageous for us to produce our own methanol requirements for U.S. acetyl production,” said CEO Mark Rohr. “Utilizing existing Celanese infrastructure helps reduce capital requirements while capturing advantages of state-of-the-art technologies.” Following necessary approvals, Celanese intends to construct a 1.3 million metric ton per year facility with anticipated start-up after July 1, 2015. A significant portion of the methanol produced would be used to support the company’s current operations, Celanese said, adding that it expects to partner with one or more others interested in the remaining methanol.

Salt Lake City-based Questar Corp. has launched a business unit to take advantage of potential growth in the natural gas transportation fueling business, especially trucking fleets, senior executives said Wednesday during a 1Q2012 earnings conference call.

Sasol Ltd. is considering building an ethane cracker and derivatives complex near its existing Lake Charles Chemical Complex in Westlake, LA. If built, it could be one of the largest ethane crackers in the country, with production of up to 1.4 million tons per year.

ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. was the big spender in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) quarterly oil and gas lease sale in Salt Lake City Tuesday, bidding $38.8 million for four parcels covering 3,982 acres in the Uinta Basin in Carbon County, UT. The BLM received bonus bids totaling $49.4 million for 8,271 acres in 11 of the 13 offered parcels. The other major bidder was Bill Barrett Corp., which won two parcels covering 1,773 acres, also in Carbon County, with bonus bids totaling nearly $10 million. The producer submitted the highest total bid per acre: $12,100 on parcel No. 20 containing 811 acres.

Encana Corp. is taking a 30% stake in the planned Kitimat liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal on the west coast of central British Columbia (BC) and its associated gas pipeline, the Calgary-based company said last Friday. Encana is joining units of Apache Corp. and EOG Resources Inc. in the project, which will target Asian markets with western Canadian gas supplies.

NorTex Gas Storage Co. LLC is holding an open season through Thursday (Feb. 17) for capacity at its Hill-Lake and Worsham-Steed gas storage facilities in North Texas. Up to 6 Bcf of high-deliverability, multi-cycle (HDMC) firm capacity will be available starting April 1. Service levels range from single-cycle to four-cycle, including hourly profiling customized for power generators, which are significant gas consumers in the Dallas/Ft. Worth market during the summer. For bidding instructions, contact John Holcomb at jholcomb@nortexgasstorage.com, or Johnny Ulrich at julrich@nortexgasstorage.com.

An offshore platform about 93 miles south of Lake Charles, LA, in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) used to process natural gas has been evacuated following discovery of an underwater gas leak, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.