Recent

The Port of Vancouver, WA, Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a 10-year lease with a joint venture (JV) involving units of Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies for a crude oil rail terminal at the port.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said shale and other formations might be a safe place to dispose of nuclear waste, specifically spent nuclear fuel (SNF) currently being stored at nuclear power plants around the world.

In recent months, the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) has examined shale oil and natural gas potential in southeastern and westerly parts of the state, in addition to the already exploratory drilled northern formations, particularly in the northeast Four Corners area in which the Mancos Shale is found.

Exco Resources Inc. is back in the acquisition game after having struck a $1 billion deal with Chesapeake Energy Corp. last week, CEO Douglas Miller said Monday. There are plenty of deals, and financing is available, he told analysts following the company.

TransCanada Corp.’s first quarter earnings were positively impacted by the recent decision by Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) on the company’s Mainline restructuring proposal, the company said Friday. TransCanada also pushed back the in-service date of its long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline to late 2015 from the previously planned late 2014/early 2015 due to regulatory delays.

Given current commodity prices, natural gas wells drilled in the Marcellus Shale — wet or dry — compete favorably with marginal Bakken Shale oil wells, but that’s the only gas play in the U.S. onshore that today can compete with Bakken oil well economics, according to an analysis by Barclays Capital.

BreitBurn Energy Partners LP is adding to its Permian Basin portfolio after agreeing to pay about $860 million for stakes in Whiting Petroleum Corp.’s Postle and North East Hardesty oilfields in Oklahoma.

Spectra Energy Corp.’s (SE) recent announcement that it would accelerate dropdowns to Spectra Energy Partners (SEP) did not placate activist investor Sandell Asset Management, which has called again for further action and threatened to seek changes to the company’s board.

Atlas Energy LP (ATLS) exploration and production (E&P) subsidiary Atlas Resource Partners LP (ARP) is buying 466 Bcf of natural gas proved reserves in the Raton (New Mexico) and Black Warrior (Alabama) basins from EP Energy E&P Co. LP (EP Energy), a unit of EP Energy LLC, for $733 million.