Planned

Gastar Exploration Ltd. has agreed to sell its East Texas assets to Cubic Energy Inc. for $46 million and will redeploy capital to higher-return projects in the Marcellus Shale and Hunton Limestone. Meanwhile, Cubic views its acquisition as an entry point to the oil-rich Eagle Ford and Woodbine formations.

Australia-based and Eagle Ford-focused Aurora Oil & Gas Ltd. said a downspacing pilot on its non-operated acreage in the Eagle Ford’s Sugarkane Field is yielding strong results and the company is planning 40-acre spacing on its recently acquired operated acreage in the play.

Because of production growth in U.S. oilfields, Calgary’s Suncor Energy has thrown in the towel on the centerpiece of its long-planned, $20 billion oilsands expansion, the Voyageur Upgrader.

Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. is considering a plan to exit shale development in Poland, a move that helps the company focus elsewhere but is also a blow to what was once considered Europe’s best source for shale natural gas and a hedge against pipeline gas supplies from Russia.

Enterprise Products Partners LP said Tuesday it has signed up enough customers to support its planned 270-mile pipeline header system to carry ethane from Mont Belvieu, TX, to petrochemical plants in the Gulf Coast region.

NuStar Energy LP’s planned acquisition of natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline and fractionation assets could be in jeopardy as seller TexStar Midstream Services LP told the company in mid-February that it was terminating the sale. NuStar disclosed during a midstream conference presentation in early March that it was evaluating its legal options in the matter. “If NuStar does not complete this acquisition, we do not expect a material adverse impact on our results of operations,” the company said in a presentation to a Morgan Stanley midstream conference. Last November, NuStar said it was buying the Eagle Ford Shale NGL assets, as well as Eagle Ford crude oil pipeline, gathering and storage assets (see Shale Daily, Nov. 9, 2012). The crude oil asset transaction, worth about $325 million, has closed. The pending NGL asset transaction is worth about $100 million.

Cheniere Energy Inc. unit Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC has applied to the U.S. Department of Energy to export additional volumes from its planned terminal in Cameron Parish, LA. Sabine Pass is seeking authorization to export to both free trade agreement (FTA) and non-FTA countries the equivalent of 101 Bcf per year in support of a contract it struck last December with Total Gas & Power North America Inc. (see Daily GPI, Dec. 18, 2012). The term of the 20-year agreement begins upon the first commercial delivery for the project’s fifth train and has an extension option of up to 10 years. However, Sabine Pass said it is not obligated to serve the Total contract from train five and may use whatever capacity is available at the facility. Recently, Sabine Pass and related companies filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to set in motion the approval process for the project’s fifth and sixth trains (see Daily GPI, March 7).

FERC has approved the request of Southern LNG Co. LLC and Elba Express Co. LLC (EEC) to use the agency’s pre-filing process for their planned Elba export liquefaction and related expansion projects.

FERC has approved the request of Southern LNG Co. LLC and Elba Express Co. LLC (EEC) to use the agency’s pre-filing process for their planned Elba export liquefaction and related expansion projects.