natural gas data

MarkWest Energy Partners LP has completed its 200 MMcf/d Buffalo Creek cryogenic gas processing plant and associated high-pressure trunkline in the Granite Wash. The facility is supported by long-term, fee-based agreements with Chesapeake Energy Corp., which dedicated 130,000 acres throughout the Anadarko Basin. The completion of the plant increases the partnership’s total processing capacity in the Anadarko Basin to 435 MMcf/d at two complexes. The Buffalo Creek facility and the 235 MMcf/d Arapahoe processing complex in western Oklahoma are connected through the partnership’s rich-gas gathering system, which provides 575 MMcf/d of gathering capacity.

It was a wild and wooly week of gas trading where multiple dollar gains and losses were commonplace throughout the country as frigid temperatures in some regions were offset by more temperate conditions in others. Pipelines strained under the high demand. No matter the weekly gain or loss, prices were regionally and nationally high across the country for the week ending Feb. 7, with the NGI National Weekly Spot Gas Average vaulting $1.67 to a stout $9.43.

The final environmental impact statement for Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC project in Texas and associated pipeline is to be issued Oct. 8, with a deadline of Jan. 6, 2015 for a decision on whether to authorize the project, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said. Corpus Christi Liquefaction would construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export and import terminal on the north shore of Corpus Christi Bay in Nueces and San Patricio counties. The terminal would be capable of liquefying about 2.1 Bcf/d and vaporizing about 400 MMcf/d of LNG. The project would also include three 160,000 cubic-meter LNG storage tanks; two LNG berthing docks; about 23 miles of 48-inch diameter, bi-directional pipeline capable of transporting 2.25 Bcf/d of gas; and two compressor stations. In December Corpus Christi Liquefaction struck an agreement with PT Pertamina (Persero) under which Pertamina would purchase about 0.8 million tonnes per annum of LNG from the terminal (see Daily GPI, Dec. 6, 2013).

Physical natural gas prices for Friday delivery fell hard and fell often in Thursday’s trading as weather forecasters called for warming trends in the Midwest, East and California.

Miles Tolbert, former Secretary of the Environment for Oklahoma, is joining Chesapeake Energy Corp. in mid February to lead the company’s environment, health and safety (EH&S) legal group. Tolbert served as Oklahoma’s environment secretary from 2003-2008, where he was responsible for protecting the state’s natural resources. He joined the law firm Crowe & Dunlevy in 2008. Previously Tolbert served the U.S. Department of Justice in the Environmental and Natural Resources Division. He also formerly was chief of the environmental protection unit for the Oklahoma Attorney General.

Rex Energy Corp.’s proved reserves increased 37% to 849.8 Bcfe at the end of 2013, mostly due to its Marcellus Shale operations in central and western Pennsylvania, the company said.

Ceramic proppant leader Carbo Ceramics Inc. is attempting to get the word out that “low quality” products from China aren’t worth the lower price producers pay to increase oil and gas recoveries.

More than three years after ruptured natural gas pipeline killed eight people and destroyed a neighborhood in San Bruno, CA, officials again are challenging state regulators and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) by filing a lawsuit alleging they failed to produce public documents related to the tragedy.

The window is closing on the opportunity to export liquefied U.S. natural gas to world markets and the U.S. Department of Energy should approve all remaining export license applications by the end of the year, the House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a report released Tuesday.