Plays

Houston-based El Paso Corp.’s exploration and production (E&P) subsidiary plans to pump up the volume in some of its key domestic tight gas plays with the $875 million cash purchase of Peoples Energy Production Co. The transaction, which was announced Friday, adds more than 600 proved and probable drilling locations in the ArkLaTex, Texas Gulf Coast, San Juan and Arkoma basins, and in Mississippi.

FERC last Monday gave the environmental go-ahead for Trunkline Gas Co.’s proposed pipeline expansion to increase access to Texas’ growing natural gas production, storage fields, pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.

Purchases for storage injection plays remained the best conjecture that sources could come up with for another day of rising prices at nearly all points Thursday. Heating load remains abnormally light in most areas outside the Rockies, Western Canada and Upper Plains, and attitudes about high storage levels are still bearish.

Adding to its stable of production plays, Denver-based PRB Energy Inc. said it is acquiring 13 natural gas wells and 330,000 net acres in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of northeastern Colorado and southwestern Nebraska. Terms of the deal and the seller’s identity were not disclosed.

Adding to its stable of production plays, Denver-based PRB Energy Inc. said Tuesday that it is acquiring 13 natural gas wells and approximately 330,000 net acres in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of northeast Colorado and southwest Nebraska. Terms of the deal and the seller’s identity were not disclosed.

Continuing to execute its plan of expanding onshore exploration and production plays, Denver, CO-based Forest Oil Corp. announced two transactions last week that will comprise additional building blocks of the company’s 2007 capital program beyond the “Big Three” primary growth areas (Buffalo Wallow, Wild River and Cotton Valley).

Continuing to execute its plan of expanding onshore exploration and production plays, Denver, CO-based Forest Oil Corp. announced two transactions Wednesday that will comprise additional building blocks of the company’s 2007 capital program beyond the “Big Three” primary growth areas (Buffalo Wallow, Wild River and Cotton Valley).

Royal Dutch Shell plc appears to sneaking into one of the largest new natural gas plays in the United States, after quietly signing a series of transactions in 2005 to explore about 70,000 acres of the Fayetteville Shale in north-central Arkansas. Shell is the first major to enter the region, following independents that include Southwestern Energy Co., which considers the play its bread and butter.

In a world of accelerating decline rates, depleting reserves and LNG uncertainty, unconventional gas plays in the Lower 48 are something to be excited about. This is particularly true of the burgeoning Barnett Shale play in the Forth Worth basin of north-central Texas.