Lateral

ANR Pipeline Co. on Monday announced two open seasons for projects intended to give Marcellus and Utica shale gas a new export option and access to the pipeline’s markets in the Midwest and Gulf Coast.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) is holding an open season for its Atlantic Sunrise project, which would provide between 450,000 and more than 1 million Dth/d of new, year-round firm transportation capacity by its proposed in-service date of July 1, 2017, the Williams subsidiary said in a notice posted Thursday. The open season is due to end Sept. 27.

Despite disappointing earnings at Consol Energy Inc. during the first quarter, the company reported 10.7 Bcfe of production in the Marcellus Shale, a 60% increase that signaled that the play is becoming increasingly important for the coal and natural gas producer.

Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. did something in the final three months of 2012 that no other onshore oilfield services provider has announced yet: hydraulic fracturing (fracking) services climbed and sales surpassed expectations — surprising even company executives.

Growth of crude oil production from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas has Corpus Christi, TX-based Flint Hills Resources considering a $250 million expansion of its West Refinery.

Williams Partners LP is holding a nonbinding open season through June 28 for expansion of its Transco pipeline to provide incremental firm service to markets in northern Georgia and Alabama by 2016.

North Dakota’s oil/natural gas boom continues to be a mixed blessing for state energy planners, and future pipeline infrastructure’s adequacy is one of many questions state officials hope to have some answers for by mid-year. A study is under way by the state Pipeline Authority to determine if existing infrastructure will be adequate.

As TransCanada Corp. pursues various parts of the spurned Keystone XL oil pipeline project, shippers who hold long-term firm contracts equating to 850,000 b/d are continuing to stick with the C$7 billion, 1,700-mile pipeline project, TransCanada CEO Russ Girling told an institutional investment conference in British Columbia (BC) Thursday.

Transco said it is conducting unplanned maintenance to repair a leak on its Southeast Louisiana Lateral in Terrebonne Parish, LA, and asked operators of receipt points upstream of the affected area to shut in immediately. The outage affects flows of about 100,000 Dth/d, and Transco said effective Tuesday it was not scheduling or confirming quantities at the upstream points until the maintenance is complete, which it estimated will take seven days.