Late

Chesapeake Energy Corp., which continues to shed assets or secure partners to pare debt, late Monday laid plans to launch its diverse onshore oilfield services unit through an initial public offering (IPO), but the separate company would continue to be closely tied to its main customer, the Oklahoma City-based producer.

The project manager for the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along the south-central coast of Oregon told NGI late Monday that he was surprised by FERC’s move earlier in the day to vacate the project’s 2009 conditional approval to build an LNG import terminal and connecting 230-mile transmission pipeline (see Daily GPI, April 17). The project had expanded into a proposed import-export facility.

The Interior Department responded late Tuesday to the House Natural Resources Committee’s subpoena for documents related to the imposition of the May 2010 moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). However, the House panel said the department’s reply was “noncompliant,” which came more than five hours after a noon deadline.

Marathon Oil Corp., an Alaska operator for more than 55 years, late Monday agreed to sell nearly all of its natural gas properties in the state for an undisclosed sum to a unit of privately held heavyweight Hilcorp Energy Co.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP (KKR) and affiliates have agreed to pay $306 million to acquire Barnett Shale and Arkoma Basin properties from WPX Energy.

Following through with market commitments to break through the Midcontinent crude bottleneck, Enbridge Inc. and Enterprise Products Partners LP said late Monday they will double the capacity of the Seaway Pipeline to 850,000 b/d by mid-2014 after lining up capacity commitments from shippers.

With the Marcellus and Utica shale ethane situation under control for the moment, propane is becoming the next natural gas liquid (NGL) to trouble producers in Appalachia.

Seneca Resources Corp., the exploration and production (E&P) arm of National Fuel Gas Co., has curtailed some Marcellus Shale production, is delaying some well completion activities there and possibly may not participate in some joint venture wells with partner EOG Resources Inc. because of low natural gas prices, the company said Monday.

BP plc still faces legal hurdles, but it jumped a big one late Friday after clinching a hard-fought settlement with the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee (PSC) to resolve a “substantial majority of legitimate economic loss and medical claims” from the Macondo well blowout two years ago in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The PSC acts on behalf of thousands of individuals and businesses in the multi-district litigation (MDL) proceedings pending in New Orleans (MDL 2179).