Potential

No place in the entire world has better dry or wet gas potential than the Marcellus Shale, now “four years into a 50-year play,” but ensuring that there’s enough infrastructure for adequate takeaway will take some time, a top Williams executive said Tuesday.

The shale gas and oil revolution has created a 20-year opportunity for technology and sustainable economic development, but to realize its full potential, the people who think about energy will have to adopt a new mindset, Deloitte’s Joseph Stanislaw said in a new whitepaper, in which he argues that shale resources should be a bridge to a lower-carbon future.

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP has received enough binding commitments to enable its Mariner South Pipeline project to proceed. Mariner South will transport export-grade propane and butane from Lone Star NGL LLC’s storage and fractionation complex in Mont Belvieu, TX, to Sunoco Logistics’ terminal in Nederland, TX. A binding open season continues to solicit additional business (see Shale Daily, March 22). In addition to propane and butane, the pipeline will be available for other natural gas liquids and petroleum products depending on shipper interest, Sunoco Logistics said. It is expected to have initial capacity of 200,000 b/d with the potential for expansion. Operation is expected during the first quarter of 2015.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Wednesday and, among other things, talked up potential exports of liquefied U.S. gas to Germany.

Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. is in talks with three parties for the potential sale of Eagle Ford Shale assets as part of plans this year to sell $400-500 million of assets. An announcement is expected soon, according to the company. During a recent conference call, CEO Gary Evans said all three Eagle Ford bidders have made offers in the same price range. Two are offering all cash and one is offering cash and equity, he said. “So from our perspective, it doesn’t really matter who ends up with it. But we do feel like we will have an announcement on that in short order,” he said.The company also is considering selling assets in the Pearsall Shale as well, and assets in the Williston Basin and potentially in Kentucky, Evans said.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s Buffalo Field Office in Wyoming has approved Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s Crazy Cat East oil and natural gas drilling project about 40 miles south of Buffalo in North Central Wyoming.

A joint venture (JV) of Battelle and Winner Global LLC expects to begin building its first unit in April to respond to a potential water shortage facing oil and natural gas companies that are engaged in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activities in the Utica and Marcellus shales in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Converting more pipeline in TransCanada Corp.’s troubled mainline to oil service would avert potential railway congestion as well as reduce the old natural gas system’s chronic excess capacity, say federal officials in Ottawa.

Converting more pipeline in TransCanada Corp.’s troubled mainline to oil service would avert potential railway congestion as well as reduce the old natural gas system’s chronic excess capacity, say federal officials in Ottawa.