Negotiating

Enterprise Products Partners LP said Tuesday an open season has shown that enough shippers are interested in taking capacity on its proposed Appalachia to Texas (Atex Express) ethane pipeline to support the 1,230-mile project. The pipeline would deliver ethane from the Marcellus/Utica Shale areas of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Tulsa-based Williams Partner LP is negotiating to buy Delphi Midstream Partners LLC, which among other things would give the natural gas operator ownership of the Laser Gathering System and other facilities that serve the Marcellus Shale.

Williams midstream partnership is negotiating to buy Delphi Midstream Partners LLC, which among other things would give the natural gas operator ownership of the Laser Gathering System and other facilities that serve the Marcellus Shale.

Federal agencies and the natural gas industry should provide communities newly affected by shale drilling activity with the kind of research needed to better understand those affects, according to Christopher Smith, the Department of Energy’s deputy assistant secretary for oil and natural gas.

Atlas Energy Inc. shareholders have overwhelmingly approved a proposed $4.3 billion merger with Chevron Corp., Pittsburgh-based Atlas said Wednesday.

Shale giant Chesapeake Energy Corp. “has one of the industry’s best collections of natural gas assets,” but “continuing concerns about the company’s profligate spending” and accounting methods led veteran analyst Philip H. Weiss of Argus Research to trim his recommendation to “sell” last week.

In a move that could be seen as retribution for state Senate Republicans’ negotiating tactics and opposition to a proposed natural gas severance tax, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell Tuesday signed an executive order placing an immediate ban on leases for oil and gas development on any land owned and managed by the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).

In a move that could be seen as retribution for state Senate Republicans’ negotiating tactics and opposition to a proposed natural gas severance tax, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell Tuesday signed an executive order placing an immediate ban on leases for oil and gas development on any land owned and managed by the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).

Governor sees a change of attitude among negotiators, based in part on a compromise plan proposed Tuesday.