Prairie

A train derailment near the town of Parkers Prairie, MN, Wednesday morning spilled 20,000-30,000 gallons of crude oil into a field, but frozen, snow-covered ground was “a saving grace” that should keep environmental damage to a minimum, a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) spokesman told NGI’s Shale Daily. Fourteen of the Canadian Pacific Railroad train’s 94 cars derailed and oil from three of them was leaked, the spokesman said. “They’re going to be able to recover most, if not all” of the oil, according to MPCA spokesman Dan Olson. No injuries were reported.

Encana Corp. and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling solutions provider Ferus LNG Inc. plan to build a 190,000 liter per day LNG production facility near Grande Prairie, Alberta (AB). The facility is to be near high levels of energy industry activity in northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia and is expected to be operational by the end of 2013. It would be among the first in Canada designed to produce high-quality LNG fuel specifically for high-horsepower (HHP) engines used in drilling rigs, pressure pumping services and heavy-duty highway and off-road trucks, the partners said. Other HHP applications for the LNG supply include rail, mining, and remote power generation. To support the entire LNG supply chain, Encana and Ferus LNG have also designed and are in the process of building specialized mobile storage and dispensing equipment. Ferus and Encana said they have committed to using LNG for their own fueling needs. In 2011 alone, Encana saved $12 million in fuel costs by using natural gas instead of diesel in drilling rigs and company trucks and is on track to exceed this figure in 2012, the company said (see NGI, March 26). Earlier this year Ferus said it was putting into service the first LNG-powered heavy duty truck in Alberta (see NGI, April 30).

Dozens of applications for oil and gas wells and ancillary facilities in the Dakota Prairie and Little Missouri National Grasslands in North Dakota and South Dakota are among the infrastructure projects that will be expedited through permitting and environmental review processes, President Obama announced Tuesday.

Northwest said the Jackson Prairie storage facility will become available again for customer withdrawals on Friday’s gas day. The pipeline said it also will perform a withdrawal test that day and encouraged customers to limit banking as on-system balancing will be limited.

Xcel Energy’s 550 MW Unit 1 at its Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant in Minnesota began a planned four- to six-week refueling outage late last Friday, meaning the multi-state utility holding company will be drawing on added supplies from its other generation sources or purchasing more power in the wholesale market. The refueling comes after more than 500 days of continuous operation of the unit, Xcel said. The unit is one of two at the 1,100 MW plant in Red Wing, MN. One of the reactors typically is refueled every 18 months.

Alliance Pipeline has completed construction of a new interconnect facility near Bantry, ND, connecting its system to Pecan Pipeline’s Prairie Rose Pipeline and providing a route for natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) to travel from the Bakken Shale to the Chicago hub, the Calgary-based company said.

Alliance Pipeline has completed construction of a new interconnect facility near Bantry, ND, connecting its system to Pecan Pipeline’s Prairie Rose Pipeline and providing a route for natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) to travel from the Bakken Shale to the Chicago hub, the Calgary-based company said.

Alliance Pipeline has completed construction of a new interconnect facility near Bantry, ND, connecting its system to Pecan Pipeline’s Prairie Rose Pipeline and providing a route for natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) to travel from the Bakken Shale to the Chicago hub, the Calgary-based company said.

El Paso Natural Gas Co. provided an update Tuesday on the investigation into a rupture and explosion on its pipeline that occurred Nov. 5 in the Texas Panhandle in the Prairie West subdivision of the town of Bushland.