Plains

Cash natural gas on average added 14 cents Monday as a late-winter storm carrying high winds ripped through the Midwest and Plains, making travel difficult and prompting double-digit gains at virtually all pricing points.

With an eleventh-hour donation, a regional unit of the national Trust for Public Land (TPL) said Wednesday it completed an $8.75 million transaction with Plains Exploration and Production Co. (PXP) to acquire and retire oil and natural gas leases in the Wyoming Range.

Cash prices advanced 8 cents on average Thursday as a winter storm that began in the West and Rockies marched through the Great Plains and into the Great Lakes. Only a few Northeast points showed declines.

Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) has agreed to pay Chesapeake Energy Corp. $125 million for crude oil and condensate gathering assets in the Eagle Ford Shale. The acquired assets are complementary to and would be connected with PAA’s existing crude oil and condensate gathering systems. Included in the purchase are 40 miles of crude oil/condensate gathering pipelines with a throughput capacity of 50,000 b/d; 150,000 bbl of existing crude oil and condensate storage capacity; 300,000 bbl of storage capacity under construction; and a truck unloading terminal. Chesapeake agreed to provide long-term acreage dedications of future production from its South Texas leasehold in Webb and Dimmit counties.

A land conservation group reached an agreement Friday with Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) to purchase the company’s oil and natural gas leases on 58,000 acres in the Hoback Basin of the Wyoming Range.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., which continues to shed assets or secure partners to pare debt, late Monday laid plans to launch its diverse onshore oilfield services unit through an initial public offering (IPO), but the separate company would continue to be closely tied to its main customer, the Oklahoma City-based producer.

Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) plans to build a 170-mile pipeline between Alfalfa County, OK, and its Cushing, OK, storage facility to service increasing Mississippi Lime crude oil production in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas, the Houston-based company said.

U.S. natural gas and oil reserves ended 2010 with the strongest combined annual growth in five years, according to the fourth annual benchmark study by Ernst & Young LLP.

Growing production from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas has prompted Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) to agree to build a new 130-mile crude oil and condensate pipeline, a marine terminal facility and 1.5 million bbl of storage capacity, the Houston-based partnership said Tuesday.