Rigs

A unit of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP plans to build a $90 million gathering system in northeastern Pennsylvania to connect Southwestern Energy Co. wells in the region to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.’s (TGP) Line 300.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) has increased its inspection force of oil and natural gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) by more than 40% since April 2010, according to the agency.

It’s a long way from New York City to Shreveport, LA, in more ways than one, but that distance was bridged recently when a Gotham-based news website gave props to the capital of the Ark-La-Tex for its hospitality to recent college graduates. In other words, there are jobs down there, the Yankees heard. And that’s thanks mainly to the Haynesville Shale.

Federal officials said the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will begin a two-year study of the Bakken Formation in October to obtain a better estimate of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas contained in Montana and North Dakota portions of the shale play.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Office of Oil and Gas (OOG) has ordered Antero Resources Appalachian Corp. and Bronco Drilling Corp. to cease operations at an Antero well pad in Harrison County, WV, following a March 21 incident in which drill cuttings were washed into a nearby stream, OOG said.

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

The Interior Department agency overseeing the safety of offshore rigs Monday approved the first deepwater drilling perrmit since the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig and resulting oil spill last April. The permit allows Noble Energy to move forward with a bypass well in the Santiago prospect in Mississippi Canyon Block 519, about 70 miles southeast of Venice, LA. The Houston-based producer is the operator with a 23.25% working interest.

Enterprise Products Partners LP has struck 10-year agreements to handle “a substantial portion” of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s liquids-rich gas production in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.

Houston-based Goodrich Petroleum Corp. said Monday its preliminary 2011 capital expenditure budget is $225 million, a $30 million reduction from 2010 spending; however, production is expected to grow.