Northwest

Gulfport Energy Corp. said Monday it has agreed to buy 30,000 net acres in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio for approximately $300 million, a transaction that would boost the company’s position in the play to about 137,000 gross acres (99,000 net).

The cost of integrating expanded wind power sources into the overall generation mix in the Pacific Northwest was reduced fivefold in the past two years through greatly reduced natural gas prices, according to a draft updated 2012 integrated resource plan (IRP) by Portland, OR-based PacifiCorp.

ExxonMobil Corp. and Imperial Oil Ltd. are in the “very early stages” of planning a business to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from British Columbia’s west coast, Imperial CEO Bruce March said Monday.

A year-long study has concluded that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in an urban oilfield in the Los Angeles area will not harm the environment.

Northwest Pipeline has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for another month to complete and place into service the North Seattle Delivery Lateral Expansion to meet the growing demand for gas in the Seattle area. At the same time, the agency approved Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America’s (NGPL) request for an additional year to complete a project in Oklahoma. It requested that the in-service of the lateral be delayed until Nov. 1, which the Commission approved. The North Seattle Delivery Lateral Expansion, being built for Puget Sound Energy, calls for removing an existing eight-inch diameter pipeline and replacing it with a new 20-inch diameter pipe within the existing right-of-way, and upgrading the existing North Seattle meter station. The expansion will raise delivery capacity on the North Seattle Delivery Lateral by 84,200 Dth/d. NGPL is proposing to increase the maximum allowable operating pressure of the gathering system at its Sayre Storage Field in Beckham County, OK.

A combination of slackened demand and robust production will make natural gas supplies plentiful in the Pacific Northwest until 2029 at least, Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities recently told regulators in the three states in which it has gas and electric operations.

Two small earthquakes in northwest England that occurred earlier this year at some natural gas drilling sites likely were caused by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), according to a report issued on Wednesday by UK-based Cuadrilla Resources Ltd.

Northwest said the Jackson Prairie storage facility will become available again for customer withdrawals on Friday’s gas day. The pipeline said it also will perform a withdrawal test that day and encouraged customers to limit banking as on-system balancing will be limited.

Saying its system was operating at high inventories and its two storage fields (Bear Creek in northwest Louisiana and Muldon in Mississippi) are at maximum injection capability, Southern implemented an OFO Type 6 for long imbalances Thursday until further notice. The pipeline said it was highly likely that the OFO would continue through Friday, but a further extension for Saturday was “too close to call.”