Michigan

Riviera Resources Inc. has agreed to sell its interest in oil and natural gas properties in Michigan to an undisclosed buyer for $44.5 million.

Consumers Energy told regulators in Michigan that “unique and extreme weather conditions” during a safety venting fire-gate process caused a compressor station (CS) fire in January.

Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5, a 540,000 b/d oil pipeline, Thursday has temporarily survived the opening legal shots in a revived Michigan campaign to shut it down by demolishing its four-mile underwater leg across the Straits of Mackinac.

Enbridge Inc. has agreed to cover the costs of an underwater tunnel that would accommodate a replacement for its 65 year-old oil and natural gas liquids pipeline beneath the Straits of Mackinac.

Natural gas expansion in an unlikely area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula promises to fuel the bulk of the growth at Milwaukee, WI-based WEC Energy Group Inc., formed by the recent marriage of Wisconsin Energy and the Illinois-based Integrys Group.

Regulators in Michigan agreed with an administrative law judge’s finding that plans by DTE Electric Co. to contract with Nexus Gas Transmission LLC to buy natural gas for power generation appear “reasonable and prudent,” despite the pipeline being partly owned by a utility affiliate.

DTE Energy is proceeding with plans to retire eight coal-fired generation units at three locations in Michigan over the next seven years, replacing them with a mix of generation including natural gas and renewables, the Detroit-based company said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice announced a settlement with Enbridge Energy LP and several related Enbridge companies to resolve claims stemming from two separate oil spills in Marshall, MI and Romeoville, IL, in 2010. Enbridge agreed to spend at least $110 million on measures to prevent spills and improve operations across nearly 2,000 miles of its pipeline system in the Great Lakes area, and to pay $62 million in civil penalties for Clean Water Act violations, the agencies said. Enbridge will also pay more than $5.4 million in unreimbursed costs incurred by the government in connection with cleanup of the Marshall spill, as well as all future removal costs incurred by the government in connection with the spill. In addition to payments required under the proposed settlement, Enbridge has already reimbursed the government for $57.8 million in cleanup costs from the Marshall spill and $650,000 for cleanup costs from the Romeoville spill, and reportedly incurred costs in excess of $1 billion for required cleanup activities relating to the spills, the agencies said. Enbridge was held responsible for the discharge of at least 20,082 bbls of oil in Marshall and another 6,427 bbls in Romeoville. In 2012, the National Transportation Safety Board said the 30-inch diameter pipeline rupture and spill in the Kalamazoo River in Marshall was the most expensive onshore oil spill in U.S. history (see Daily GPI,July 16, 2012).

Natural gas for weekend and Monday delivery slipped in Friday’s trading as plentiful supply and the ease of making prompt purchases with cell phones and laptops gave buyers little incentive to commit to three-day purchases.