Midcontinent

Emerging high-volume natural gas shale plays may create a bubble in gas supply and cause pipeline supply bottlenecks in the Midcontinent, but their addition to U.S. supplies is vital to offset constrained Canadian imports and a lag in liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, an energy industry veteran said this week.

Prices rose across the board Wednesday. Cooling load is building a bit in the Rockies, Midcontinent and western South but remains light overall. However, the ongoing shortfalls in Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production and the previous day’s 27.3-cent increase by October futures supported Wednesday’s cash prices. Also, storage purchases reportedly are fairly strong as the end of the traditional injection season begins to loom.

Although flat to nearly 30 cents higher numbers continued in parts of the cash market Tuesday — primarily in the Midcontinent/Midwest, Southwest basins, California and the Pacific Northwest/Western Canada areas — most points were still in softening mode as cooling load remains fairly meager for what is often the hottest month of the year and prior-day screen guidance was negative again.

The cash market experienced large declines — many exceeding a dollar — as expected Friday in the Midcontinent and much of the West, but the Gulf Coast, Midwest and Northeast defied predictions of major softness in seeing a mix of mostly small gains and losses instead, largely due to expectations of significant growth in cooling load by the end of the long holiday weekend.

There’s no room left in the pipe, according to the partner backers of the Midcontinent Express Pipeline LLC (MEP) project, who said last week their project is fully subscribed at its initial capacity of 1.4 Bcf/d.

There’s no room left in the pipe, according to the partner backers of the Midcontinent Express Pipeline LLC (MEP) project, who said Wednesday their project is fully subscribed at its initial capacity of 1.4 Bcf/d.

St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. said it intends to sell a package of noncore oil and gas properties, located primarily in the Rockies and Midcontinent regions. A preliminary estimate indicates that the package represents approximately 74 Bcfe of proved oil and gas reserves, the company said. The sales price of the properties will be determined by a competitive bidding process. Denver-based St. Mary Land & Exploration will complete the divestiture in late December if it receives what it believes is an appropriate offer. The company also announced that it repurchased a total of about 791,000 shares of outstanding common stock in the open market at a weighted average cost of $32.82 a share.

Tulsa oilman Randy Foutch, who created two Midcontinent-focused exploration and production (E&P) companies that were gobbled up by larger independents, has launched Laredo Petroleum with the backing of long-time financial partner Warburg Pincus.

Tulsa oilman Randy Foutch, who created two Midcontinent-focused exploration and production (E&P) companies that were gobbled up by larger independents, has launched Laredo Petroleum with the backing of long-time financial partner Warburg Pincus.