Reserves

Offshore the East Coast in the Atlantic Continental Shelf, a treasure trove of energy reserves could be deep beneath the water, holding as much as 37 Tcf of natural gas and 3.8 billion bbl of oil, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) said late Wednesday.

Offshore the East Coast in the Atlantic Continental Shelf, a treasure trove of energy reserves could be deep beneath the water, holding as much as 37 Tcf of natural gas and 3.8 billion bbl of oil, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) said late Wednesday.

Denali — The Alaska Gas Pipeline LLC will begin its open season in April for capacity on a pipeline that would tap North Slope gas reserves for Canadian and Lower 48 markets. In announcing the open season last week, the company, a venture of BP plc and ConocoPhillips, signaled that market developments may dissuade shippers from stepping up.

Denali — The Alaska Gas Pipeline LLC will begin its open season in April for capacity on a pipeline that would tap North Slope gas reserves for Canadian and Lower 48 markets. In announcing the open season late Tuesday, the company, a venture of BP and ConocoPhillips, signaled that market developments may dissuade shippers from stepping up.

In a sign of renewed optimism in U.S. drilling, Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. last week agreed to pay $494 million to buy nearly all of the natural gas and oil reserves in eastern Colorado held by the U.S. arm of Canada’s Suncor Energy Inc.

Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. on Tuesday agreed to pay $494 million to buy nearly all of the reserves in eastern Colorado held by the U.S. arm of Canada’s Suncor Energy Inc.

Midland, TX-based Legacy Reserves LP, which focuses its exploration and production in the Permian Basin and in the Midcontinent, has ended discussions with Apollo Management VII LP to take the company private. The Legacy board of directors’ conflicts committee said it was unable to reach an agreement with Apollo and that it would be in the best interests of its unitholders to remain a publicly held partnership. To improve its liquidity position and mitigate the risk of falling commodity prices, Legacy, which was formed in 1993, also has entered into new oil and natural gas commodity swaps.

StatoilHydro ASA, which owns substantial reserves both on- and offshore in the United States, is getting a new name — Statoil — following approval by officials. The proposal to change the name of the national oil company, which is 67% owned by Norway, was suggested by the board of directors. Also approved was a proposal to widen the producer’s objectives to include other energy besides oil and natural gas to reflect its investments in renewable energy. The amendments are expected to be implemented by the end of the year. Norway’s Statoil ASA and Norsk Hydro ASA proposed a merger in late 2006 (see Daily GPI, Dec. 19, 2006).

TransCanada Corp. CEO Hal Kvisle said Friday he didn’t want to sound pessimistic about the reserves potential of the ballyhooed North American natural gas shales. “But in the grand scheme of things,” he said, “they’re just one more source of supply.”