Planned

Exploration and production (E&P) companies that chased natural gas liquids (NGL) targets in the second quarter may have spent more than they had planned and could be forced to raise full-year 2012 capital expenditure (capex) guidance or cut incremental activity, which in turn would affect production growth, according to Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH).

Houston-based Dynegy Inc.’s recent filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and planned merger with its Dynegy Holdings LLC (DH) unit, which was already in bankruptcy, has drawn differing reactions from the two major credit rating agencies, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s Rating Services (S&P).

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is seeking stakeholder comments on eight planned oil and natural gas lease sales scheduled in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) over the next five years. The call for information does not include Lease Sale 229 in the Western GOM and Lease Sale 227 in the Central GOM because calls for comments and information on those two sales have already been completed.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is seeking stakeholder comments on eight planned lease sales scheduled in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) over the next five years, excluding Lease Sale 229 in the Western GOM and Lease Sale 227 in the Central GOM because information for those sales has been completed. In late June Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued the final version of the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017, which includes 10 potential lease sales (see NGI, July 2) and BOEM now is asking stakeholders for information about potential leasing and development of these areas, including geological, environmental and biological conditions; archaeological resources, socioeconomic factors and potential concerns about conflicts with other uses. BOEM also is initiating the next stage of environmental and socioeconomic analysis for Western GOM Lease Sale 233 and Central GOM Lease Sale 231, proposed for 2013 and 2014, respectively, by publishing a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement to build on the final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for the Western and Central GOM lease sales. The FEIS provides baseline analysis in support of 10 lease sales scheduled in the Central and Western GOM, and it evaluates baseline conditions and potential environmental effects of leasing, exploration and development in those two offshore regions.

Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission LP is proposing a pipeline expansion project to carry natural gas produced in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas across the Mexican border.

Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s board of directors Thursday said it was working with CEO Aubrey McClendon to end the Founder Well Participation Program (FWPP) in which the CEO has the contractual right to participate and invest up to a 2.5% working interest in every new well the company drills.

Oneok Partners LP said it will invest $340-360 million by the first quarter of 2014 to construct a gas gathering and processing plant and related infrastructure in the Cana-Woodford Shale in Oklahoma.

Some of Halliburton Co.’s pressure pumping deliveries in North America originally planned for this year will be deferred to 2013 to deal with “inefficiencies” that followed onshore producers moving from dry natural gas plays to more liquids-rich regions, company executives said Wednesday.

Dow Chemical Co. plans to build a world-scale ethylene production plant at its Dow Texas Operations in Freeport, TX, as part of a plan to capitalize on low-cost feedstocks available from growing U.S. shale gas supplies, the company said Thursday.