Locations

There were still a few softening locations in the market Monday, but it was strength all the way Tuesday. Slightly milder temperatures will be returning in parts of the South Wednesday, but they will be offset by cooling trends in the previously unseasonably moderate Northeast.

Two monitoring wells specifically installed to test water supplies deep within an aquifer near natural gas drilling locations in Pavillion, WY, found high levels of benzene and other chemicals, including petroleum-related compounds, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 8 office.

Two monitoring wells specifically installed to test water supplies deep within an aquifer near natural gas drilling locations in Pavillion, WY, found high levels of benzene and other chemicals, including petroleum-related compounds, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 8 office.

Although softening continued at New England locations, most of the market found enough impending increases in heating load to spur higher prices Tuesday. The overall cash bullishness was able to overcome a prior-day drop of 8.7 cents by December futures and expectations that a net build in storage had extended into at least the first week of November.

AmeriGas Partners LP on Monday agreed to pay $2.9 billion for the propane businesses of Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP).

The last day of summer saw lower prices at all but a few locations Thursday. Although the season doesn’t officially start until Friday, fall-like weather was already in place for many market areas. The previous day’s drop of 6.8 cents by October futures, restrictions to avoid packing pipeline (particularly those serving the Northeast), and further evidence that storage injection options are quickly fading added to the overall bearishness.

Ceramic products company Saint-Gobain is developing a ceramic proppant manufacturing plant in Saline County, AR. The company said its proppants division will build a 100,000-square-foot facility on 68 acres at a cost of $100 million.

NuStar Energy LP and Valero Energy Corp. have struck an agreement for NuStar to modify existing sections of its South Texas pipeline system and build new sections to transport Eagle Ford and other crude oils. NuStar will reverse an eight-inch diameter refined products pipeline that currently runs from Corpus Christi to Three Rivers and will convert it to crude service. The pipeline will provide capacity to transport Eagle Ford crude and condensate to Valero’s Corpus Christi refinery; the line is expected to be in full service by the end of September. NuStar will also construct 55 miles of new 12-inch diameter pipeline that will connect to existing pipeline segments to move crude from Corpus Christi to Valero’s Three Rivers refinery. This system is expected to be in service by the second quarter of 2012. “With the growing production from the Eagle Ford region, NuStar is in the unique position to provide Valero and our other customers with quick transportation solutions given the fact that we have hundreds of miles of existing pipeline running from that region into Corpus Christi, where it can be refined or transported to other locations,” said NuStar CEO Curt Anastasio.

Seeking gas gathering capacity for its joint venture exploration and production operations in the Marcellus Shale, Ontario-based Epsilon Energy Ltd. said it has entered an agreement with its partners Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Statoil USA Onshore Properties Inc. to construct a new gathering system.