Operating

Lone Star Fractionator I in Mont Belvieu, TX, a 100,000 b/d natural gas liquids (NGL) facility designed to handle prolific NGL production in the Permian and Eagle Ford regions, is now in service, according to Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and Regency Energy Partners.

Chevron Corp. subsidiary Chevron Canada Ltd. will acquire a 50% operating interest in the Kitimat, British Columbia (BC), liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project and proposed Pacific Trail Pipeline (PTP), and a 50% interest in 644,000 acres of petroleum and natural gas rights in the Horn River and Liard basins in BC, and be a partner in the project and acreage with Apache Corp., the companies said Monday.

Chevron Corp. subsidiary Chevron Canada Ltd. will acquire a 50% operating interest in the Kitimat, British Columbia (BC), liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project and proposed Pacific Trail Pipeline (PTP), and a 50% interest in 644,000 acres of petroleum and natural gas rights in the Horn River and Liard Basins in BC, and be a partner in the project and acreage with Apache Corp., the companies said Monday.

Range Resources Corp. will fund its $1.3 billion 2013 capital expenditures (capex) budget from operating cash flow, available liquidity under its bank credit facility and proceeds from asset sales, including a planned sale of Permian Basin properties in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas, the Fort Worth, TX-based company said last week.

Range Resources Corp. will fund its $1.3 billion 2013 capital expenditures (capex) budget from operating cash flow, available liquidity under its bank credit facility and proceeds from asset sales, including the planned sale of some Permian Basin properties in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas, the Fort Worth, TX-based company said Wednesday.

Atlas Pipeline Partners LP (APL) on Monday agreed to pay $600 million for all of the operating assets of privately held Cardinal Midstream LLC, which would give it cryogenic processing plants, associated gathering pipelines and a gas treatment business that includes facilities in the Woodford, Eagle Ford, Haynesville and Fayetteville shales, as well as the Granite Wash and Avalon formations.

As they continue to pursue rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), California oil/gas officials are not seeing the increase in exploratory activity or permitting as other shale basins around the nation have experienced. Drilling activity is down slightly compared to this time last year, a spokesperson for the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) told NGI’s Shale Daily Wednesday.

A Southwestern Energy Co. official said the company will donate $900,000 to The Nature Conservancy to fully fund the first of a three-phase project to restore waterways in Arkansas’ portion of the Fayetteville Shale.

Spectra Energy Corp. is taking a one-third interest in the Sand Hills and Southern Hills pipelines, both of which are under construction by DCP Midstream LLC, a joint venture of Spectra and Phillips 66. The deal is expected to close by the end of November when Spectra, Phillips 66 and DCP Midstream each would own one-third of the pipelines and equally fund their completion. The aggregate investment by Spectra is expected to be $700-800 million. Sand Hills, which would take natural gas liquids from the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale to Gulf Coast markets, would have an initial capacity of 200,000 b/d and be expandable to 350,000 b/d. The first phase recently came online and connection to Mont Belvieu, TX, is expected by year-end (see Shale Daily, Oct. 29). The timing of Sand Hills’ second phase, the Permian portion of the pipeline, has advanced and is due to be in service in 2Q2013. Southern Hills would provide 150,000 b/d, expandable to 175,000 b/d, of capacity from the Midcontinent to Mont Belvieu and has a targeted in-service date of mid-2013.