natural gas data

With a mitigation agreement with local county officials signed in mid-June, Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KM) proposed Sierrita Pipeline link to new natural gas transmission pipelines in northern Mexico won FERC approval Tuesday to begin construction, opening the door wider to future U.S. natural gas exports.

Physical gas prices for Thursday delivery fell hard Wednesday as the impact of Tropical Storm Arthur reverberated through short-term weather forecasts. Eastern and Northeast points were the hardest hit, as the storm was expected to travel up the East Coast and cause rain and thunderstorms across major population centers.

A petition challenging FERC’s order granting a certificate to build a natural gas pipeline that would connect New York and New Jersey was rejected Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

In two separate deals, Denver-based Hawkwood Energy LLC has made its entry into the emerging East Texas Eagle Ford and Woodbine plays, acquiring producing and nonproducing assets in Brazos, Leon, Madison, and Robertson counties, TX.

Overall processing times at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for drilling applications on onshore federal and Indian lands have improved, but review times remain very long, largely due to government inefficiencies. However, oil and gas operators share some of the blame, according to the Inspector General’s (IG) Office at the U.S. Department of Interior.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. and former subsidiary Access Midstream Partners LP cheated Pennsylvania landowners of more than $5 billion in natural gas and oil royalties through inflated and unreasonable fees, a class action lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania is claiming.

Combined unconventional and conventional natural gas production in Ohio nearly doubled from 86 Bcf in 2012 to 171 Bcf last year, an increase driven mainly by high-volume horizontal fracturing (fracking) in the Utica Shale, according to data released Wednesday by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

Nationally, July bidweek averages slipped, but those traders and marketers fortunate enough to be selling gas to the “hot” California market saw bidweek quotes rise well into double digits. Outside of the West, strong production, temperate weather and a continuous stream of weekly triple-digit storage injections combined to push NGI’s National July Bidweek Average down 10 cents from June bidweek to $4.02.

Williams has completed the previously announced acquisition of the 50% general partner interest and 55.1 million limited partner units in Access Midstream Partners LP previously held by Global Infrastructure Partners II for $5.995 billion in cash (see Daily GPI,June 16). Williams now owns 100% of the general partner and about 50% of the limited partner units in Access Midstream Partners. As previously announced, Williams is proposing the merger of Williams Partners LP with and into Access Midstream Partners in a unit-for-unit exchange at a ratio of 0.85 Access Midstream Partners units per Williams Partners unit. The merged master limited partnerships would be named Williams Partners LP.