natural gas data

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) announced Wednesday it would invest more in its midstream and retail segments over the next three years to take advantage of growing North American crude oil markets.

An affiliate of Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy Partners LP has up to $500 million in private equity (PE) commitments to pursue working stakes in “various onshore basins,” the producer said Wednesday.

The Texas upstream energy industry — oil and gas, but mostly oil — had one of its most successful years last year, according to industry barometer the Texas Petro Index (TPI).

Hess Corp. announced Wednesday that it plans to sell about 74,000 acres in the Utica Shale, classified as dry natural gas acreage, to an undisclosed buyer for $924 million.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has authorized the transfer of certain natural gas distribution facilities in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas from Oneok Inc. to ONE Gas Inc. as part of a company reorganization (CP13-550-000). The FERC order came three weeks after the board of directors on Wednesday unanimously approved the separation of the company’s natural gas distribution business into ONE Gas, a stand-alone, publicly traded company (see Daily GPI, Jan. 8). ONE Gas would consist of Kansas Gas Service, Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. and Texas Gas Service, and be headquartered in Tulsa. It would be one of the largest natural gas utilities in the United States, serving more than two million customers in three states, and a 100% regulated, publicly traded natural gas utility. The plan to spin off the utility business was announced in 2013 (see Daily GPI, July 26, 2013). ONE Gas common stock is expected to begin “regular-way” trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Monday (Feb. 3) under the symbol “OGS.”

Spot natural gas for Wednesday delivery traded sharply lower Tuesday and with the exception of a handful of West Coast points all actively traded market locations fell into the loss column, with some Northeast and Midwest locations dropping $20 to $60.

Jim Scheel has been appointed senior vice president (SVP) of Williams’ Northeast gathering and processing unit and takes over responsibility for the midstream business in the Marcellus/Utica shale regions, the Tulsa operator said.Frank Billings, who formerly helmed the midstream unit, was named SVP of corporate strategic development. “As the build-out of our gathering and processing business in the Marcellus-Utica advances, we’re at a point where we realize the greatest value by having Northeast-region leadership with deep operational experience,” said CEO Alan Armstrong. Williams has about $3.3 billion in projects through 2015 underway to increase takeaway and processing capacity in the Northeast.

Production has been delayed at Magnum Hunter Resources Corp.’s Stalder pad in Monroe County, OH, due to colder than normal temperatures in the state. Financial analysts had expected initial production (IP) results from the pad’s first Utica well sometime last week (see Shale Daily, Jan. 15). Topeka Capital Markets said in a research note that those results could come as late as Feb. 6. Analysts with the investment bank said the well could come online with an IP rate in the 15-30 MMcf/d range. The well has been closely watched to date, as it’s one of the play’s largest thus far, designed to handle 10 Marcellus and eight Utica wells in the play’s dry-gas window. In December, the company said liquids fallout and delays in the construction of gathering lines caused by cold weather was delaying some production in southeast Ohio and West Virginia (see Shale Daily, Dec. 20, 2013).

David Hochschild has been reappointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to the California Energy Commission (CEC) to a full five-year term. Brown had appointed Hochschild last year to fill out a term on the five-member CEC as its environmental representative. Hochschild was a vice president at Solaria Corp. 2007-2013. The appointment requires state Senate confirmation.