Planning

Authorities Tuesday said no one was killed after a 20-inch diameter transmission line owned by NiSource Inc. exploded just after midday near its Columbia Gas Transmission Lanham Compressor Station near Sissonville, WV, a rural community of 4,000 about 15 miles north of the state capital, Charleston.

As part of a continuing effort to stretch Bakken and western Canadian oil supplies into new markets, Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. on Thursday outlined a $6.2 billion, four-year effort to expand several of its pipelines to access light oil markets in the eastern United States and Canada.

Idaho regulators last Friday asked for stakeholder and general public comments on a long-term planning document by Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities that forecasts 20 years of low gas prices and demand by its retail residential and business natural gas customers in the northern panhandle of the state.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) staffers planning to go Down Under over the holidays to escape talk of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and their market impacts might want to reconsider. LNG and gas markets are a source of controversy in Australia, too.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) staffers planning to go Down Under over the holidays to escape talk of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and their market impacts might want to reconsider. LNG and gas markets are a source of controversy in Australia, too.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) on Tuesday published recommended practices to respond to stray gas incidents, the fourth in a series of guidance documents published by the industry group.

Calgary-based Keyera Corp. is planning a $210 million enhancement project to recover ethane and other natural gas liquids from the raw gas stream at the Rimbey gas plant in the Hoadley region of central Alberta. The project would include installing a 400 MMcf/d turbo expander unit and constructing a 34 kilometer, six-inch diameter ethane pipeline to connect to the Alberta Ethane Gathering System. The enhancements would allow Keyera to recover more than 90% of the ethane at the plant. Upon completion of the project, Keyera expects to extract up to 20,000 b/d of ethane through the turbo expander unit, which would be sold to a large consumer in Alberta under a long term sales agreement. The company has also secured a long-term, fee-for-service processing agreement and is in discussions with other producers interested in contracting processing capacity at the plant. Subject to regulatory approvals, construction of the expansion is anticipated to begin in 4Q2012, with start-up expected in late 2014.

CHS Inc., the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperative, launched a proposal Wednesday to build a $1.1-1.4 billion nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing plant in North Dakota that would take advantage of natural gas feedstock to provide U.S. and Canadian farmers with enhanced supplies of crop nutrients.

Spectra Energy Corp. and BG Group plc are planning a new natural gas transportation system from northeast British Columbia (BC) to serve BG Group’s potential liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Prince Rupert on the province’s northwest coast.