Launched

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has launched an open season through July 31 for firm natural gas transportation capacity on the Connecticut Expansion Project, which would deliver gas from its existing interconnect with Iroquois Gas Transmission in Wright, NY, to Zone 6 delivery points on Tennessee’s 200 and 300 Lines in Connecticut. The project, which would require upgrades and modifications to the existing pipeline system in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, is slated for service by November 2016. Available capacity would be about 72,100 Dth/d. The pipeline has entered into binding precedent agreements with three anchor shippers. Inexpensive shale gas has recently caught the attention of the Constitution State. In June Connecticut gas distribution utilities Yankee Gas, Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas, filed a joint gas expansion plan with the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (see NGI, June 24). The plan outlines how the utilities would meet expansion goals proposed in the Gov. Dannel Malloy’s comprehensive energy strategy and the the recently enacted HB 6360 (see NGI, March 18). The utilities plan a “structured approach” to add 280,000 new gas heating customers over the next 10 years.

BP plc last week launched a Gulf Claims Fraud Hotline “to help protect the integrity of the claims processes” related to the 2010 Macondo well blowout and Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

One of Colorado’s richest local jurisdictions, Weld County, with extensive oil/natural gas and agricultural operations, in June launched discussions with a number of other counties in the northeastern part of the state about a move to secede and form a new state.

Century Midstream LLC, whose focus primarily will be to develop and expand emerging liquids plays across North America, was launched Wednesday by private equity energy firm First Reserve Corp. and a team of seasoned midstream veterans.

ExxonMobil Corp. on Friday launched a workforce training initiative to enable the Greater Houston area’s community colleges to prepare students for high-paying jobs in the re-emerging petrochemical manufacturing industry along the Texas Gulf Coast.

A MDU Resources Group Inc. subsidiary last week launched a natural gas pipeline project that would stretch across the Bakken Shale from western North Dakota to western Minnesota, where it would connect with Viking Gas Transmission Co.’s gas system.

Organizers at a meeting in early June in Indonesia will be reviewing the beta testing of an international natural gas database expected to be launched to the public later this year. About 70 countries representing about 75% of global natural gas supply and demand are currently submitting data to the JODI-Gas (Joint Organizations Data Initiative) database on a monthly basis. JODI-Gas joins JODI-Oil, which has been in operation for 10 years providing information on oil production, consumption and trade movements. The database initiative is designed to increase transparency of oil and gas supply and demand. The agenda at the Third Gas Data Transparency Conference June 4-5 in Indonesia will also involve an expert review of the final draft of the JODI-Gas Training Manual, and establishing a timeline for the public launch the JODI-Gas database later this year. Organizations involved in the data and transparency initiative include the International Energy Forum, Eurostat, the International Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the Latin American Energy Organization, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the United Nations statistics division.

George P. Mitchell, whose company successfully paired horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which launched the rebirth of onshore natural gas and oil drilling in North America, was honored last week by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and state legislators.

George P. Mitchell, whose company successfully paired horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which launched the rebirth of onshore natural gas and oil drilling in North America, was honored Monday by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and state legislators.