Mountain

Legislators in the West Virginia House of Delegates on Monday overwhelmingly passed a bill designed to entice companies to build an ethane cracker in the state by slashing the facility’s property taxes for its first 25 years.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin told legislators in his State of the State Address on Wednesday that he would intensify efforts to attract an ethane cracker to the state.

Natural gas pipeline giant El Paso Corp. on Wednesday reported a one-time quarterly loss for its investment in the Ruby Pipeline, which is carrying Rocky Mountain gas to West Coast markets, but the company completed a historic $8 billion pipeline backlog and continues to add new projects to meet customers’ infrastructure needs, said CEO Doug Foshee.

Marcellus Shale natural gas pipeline takeaway capacity will jump to 8.5 Bcf/d by 2013, more than double its current level, according to Bentek Energy LLC.

Morgan Stanley Private Equity has taken a majority stake in newly formed Sterling Investment Holdings LLC, the firm and Sterling Energy Co. said Thursday. The move is intended to support growth of Sterling Energy’s midstream business in Colorado and North Dakota.

Affiliate of Peoples Natural Gas Co. LLC seeks to have storage facility operating by start of winter heating season.

Extensive rain and flooding have hampered MDU Resources Group Inc.’s operations and delayed growth activity in key producing states in the Rocky Mountain region, including the Bakken Shale, to such an extent that the company is lowering its 2011 natural gas and oil production forecasts.

Resources exploration and production unit QEP Energy continues to turn away from its traditional area of activity in the Rocky Mountain region and focus more on the Midcontinent and a handful of shale plays.

QEP Resources exploration and production unit QEP Energy continues to turn away from its traditional area of activity in the Rocky Mountain region and focus more on the Midcontinent and a handful of shale plays.