Nine

Apache Corp.’s acquisition of nine Permian Basin natural gas and oil fields from Marathon Oil Corp. may be the first of several purchases this year, executives said Thursday.

ExxonMobil Corp. launched nine major projects in the first three months of 2009, including the first phase of its Piceance Basin project in Colorado, and the company will continue to advance other natural gas and oil projects despite the downturn in the economy, an executive said Thursday.

The Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) plans to hire 14 staffers to help implement revised energy rules taking effect in 2009. The nine-member regulatory agency is formally approving the rules this week, and most of them are expected to take effect in April and May — well past the original schedule.

The Utah Senate Thursday approved a bill expressing its opposition to environmental group efforts to place more than nine million acres of public lands in the state off limits to development of oil and natural gas, coal, oil shale and other natural resources.

The Utah Senate Thursday approved a bill expressing its opposition to environmental group efforts to place more than nine million acres of public lands in the state off limits to development of oil and natural gas, coal, oil shale and other natural resources.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said production through the Independence Hub natural gas platform in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico has reached 440 MMcf/d from nine wells. As the initial 15 wells are brought on-line, producers expect that production at Independence Hub will reach its capacity of 1 Bcf/d by the end of the year. Located in 8,000 feet of water on Mississippi Canyon Block 920, approximately 123 miles southeast of Biloxi, MS, Independence Hub is in the deepest waters in which a production platform has ever been installed and also is the world’s largest offshore gas processing facility. Installation was completed earlier this year (see Daily GPI, March 9). The project is backed by the Atwater Valley Producers Group, which consists of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Devon Energy Corp., Eni and Hydro, along with the owners of the Independence Hub, Enterprise and Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. First gas was achieved on schedule and within budget, the group said in March. The project is seen as a blueprint for future deepwater exploration (see Daily GPI, Oct. 23, 2006).

The amount of Canadian gas available for export to the United States will decline by about 4 Bcf/d over the next nine years, from 9.7 Bcf/d in 2006 to about 5.7 Bcf/d in 2015, according to Calgary-based Ziff Energy Group. And to a great extent gas consumption by Alberta oilsands producers can be blamed.

The amount of Canadian gas available for export to the United States will decline by about 4 Bcf/d over the next nine years, from 9.7 Bcf/d in 2006 to about 5.7 Bcf/d in 2015, according to Calgary-based Ziff Energy Group. And to a great extent gas consumption by Alberta oilsands producers can be blamed.

Mexican Congressman Eduardo De La Torre told a Houston audience Thursday that strategies his country’s government has espoused over the last nine years have been a failure. He called for a more modern vision as Mexico embraces the principles of a market economy. That vision includes integration with Central America, both economically and through infrastructure projects, particularly those related to energy. “Our society is lost when we are just importers,” he said.