natural gas

Gasfrac Energy Services Inc. has obtained court approval from Canadian officials to begin a sales process, and it’s gotten an OK from its primary lender to fund ongoing operations into March.

An Idaho House committee Tuesday approved pre-oil and natural gas drilling rules, including one involving mineral rights owners now bidding for development. The provision is being pushed by the state’s Department of Lands (DOL).

Dallas-based Navigator Energy Services LLC is expanding the capacity of its Big Spring Gateway (BSG) Pipeline System from 85,000 b/d of crude oil to 140,000 b/d to serve the Permian Basin. Construction has begun and the system is expected to be placed into service in the second half of 2015 to serve new origin points in western Midland County, southern Glasscock County and western Martin County in Texas, in addition to points already planned in Glasscock, Martin and Howard counties. Navigator also said it would launch a supplemental binding open season for additional transportation commitments starting Monday (Feb. 2). The system is to include more than 250 miles of gathering pipeline, 200 miles of transportation mainline, seven truck injection stations and 225,000 bbl of planned storage capacity, and it would offer delivery into the BridgeTex Pipeline and Sunoco-operated pipelines near Colorado City, TX. The system would provide West Texas producers a direct path to 900,000 b/d of takeaway capacity from Colorado City to Texas Gulf Coast and Midcontinent markets. Contact Matt Vining at (214) 880-6001, or mvining@nesmidstream.com.

Next-day gas for Thursday delivery fell hard and often in Wednesday’s trading as temperature forecasts in key market centers showed a warming trend and power prices retreated.

The expiring February futures contract is expected to open 7 cents lower Wednesday morning at $2.91 as traders factor in yet another modification to the near-term weather outlook. Overnight oil markets were mixed.

Citing depressed oil prices, California Resources Corp. (CRC), the recently spun off statewide operations of Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy), decided Monday to pull the plug on a controversial proposal to step up directional drilling from a small wellsite in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, CA.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) has deferred activity in a natural gas-rich trend of the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and onshore Louisiana in response to current market conditions.

A draft strategy for offshore oil and natural gas leasing, released Tuesday by Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper, includes for the first time a portion of the Mid- and South Atlantic outer continental shelf (OCS) from Virginia to Georgia.

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. will join its peers and “downshift” its drilling program this year, company management said during an analyst conference Tuesday, announcing a plan to stick with oil, cut spending and stay flexible in the event that commodity prices rebound.