Pursuing

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) said Wednesday it was teaming up with Pennsylvania-based Smart Sand to supply Northern White sand to drillers in key North American unconventional plays beginning with the Bakken Shale, where the first of several transload facilities is planned.

After securing a natural gas midstream partnership in the Horn River Basin with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Quicksilver Resources Inc. now is pursuing a partnership to develop its upstream leasehold, executives said Thursday.

Williams Partners LP has agreed to acquire the Laser Northeast Gathering System and other midstream businesses from Delphi Midstream Partners LLC for about $750 million. Laser is composed of 33 miles of 16-inch diameter gas pipeline and associated gathering facilities in Susquehanna County, PA, as well as 10 miles of gathering pipeline in southern New York. The acquisition is supported by existing long-term gathering agreements that provide acreage dedications and volume commitments. As production in the Marcellus Shale increases, the Laser system is expected to reach a capacity of 1.3 Bcf/d, said Williams Partners, which plans to fund the purchase with $300 million in cash and 7.5 million common units. The deal, which the partnership said it earlier was pursuing (see Shale Daily, Dec. 5), is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Nuevo Midstream LLC is beefing up its gas processing and treating capacity in the Delaware Basin near Orla, TX, targeting service to producers that are pursuing the liquids-rich Bone Spring, Wolfcamp and Avalon Shale plays, the company said Wednesday.

PDC Mountaineer (PDCM), a joint venture of Petroleum Development Corp. and Lime Rock Partners V LP, will pay $152.5 million to National Grid plc for Seneca-Upshur LLC, including the rights to an estimated 90,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale in north central West Virginia, the company said Monday. Closing is scheduled for Monday (Oct. 3), with an effective date of July 1, 2011.

Rex Energy Corp. is joining the ranks of companies pursuing the Utica Shale of eastern Ohio. The State College, PA-based company recently acquired 11,000 net acres in Carroll County, OH, for an estimated $40 million and plans to continue acquiring acreage in preparation for a drilling program in 2012.

Shale gas is already impacting the Northwest; the question is whether it can realize its full potential, said a regional gas industry trade group head.

Attorneys for Ensco Offshore Inc. and the federal government are jointly pursuing an extension of the deadline for the Interior Department to act on offshore permit applications so that the two sides can continue ongoing settlement negotiations.

Anadarko sales volumes from the Eagle Ford have been 46% oil, 27% natural gas liquids and 27% dry gas.