Service

After an unfavorable federal court decision earlier this year, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) probably won’t meet its target in-service date in late 2019, but the regulatory setbacks and rising costs could serve to further demonstrate the project’s value.

Enbridge Inc.’s underwater border crossing in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), which will connect Texas natural gas to Mexico markets, has been given the green light by FERC to begin service.

National Grid said more than 7,000 customers in Rhode Island could be without natural gas service for several days because of a transmission supply issue, prompting Gov. Gina Raimondo to declare a state of emergency.

After roughly two years of delays, Energy Transfer LP (ET) said partial service started Saturday on the Mariner East (ME) 2 pipeline.

The Texas Petro Index (TPI), an indicator of upstream oil and gas activity in Texas, increased modestly but steadily during the first half of the year, beginning July a scant 1.2% from matching the peak index achieved nearly five years ago, according to data released Monday. As has been the case for a while, oil production is the big story, but casinghead gas is lending support to natural gas output.

Goodrich Petroleum Corp. is buying a 66.7% working interest in producing assets and about 277,000 gross acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) for $26.7 million as it continues to build scale in the play and improve its drilling performance.

XTO Energy Inc.’s natural gas liquids (NGL) recovery facility in Butler County, PA, has entered service processing wet gas from Marcellus and Utica shale drilling in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The Sand Hills and Southern Hills natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelines have entered service, according to DCP Midstream, Phillips 66 and Spectra Energy Corp., which each own a one-third interest in the pipelines. The 720-mile Sand Hills is transporting NGL from the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale. The 800-mile Southern Hills is transporting NGL from production in the Midcontinent. “DCP Midstream will have an integrated NGL pipeline system, consisting of Sand Hills and Southern Hills as well as our interests in the Front Range and Texas Express pipelines, that connect our gathering and processing systems located in most of the major liquids-rich and oil-driven shale plays to growing Gulf Coast markets,” said DCP Midstream CEO Wouter van Kempen.

Inergy LP’s Tres Palacios 20-mile header pipeline extension is now in service, allowing shippers to transport up to 300 MMcf/d of natural gas from the tailgate of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP’s Houston Central gas processing plant in Colorado County, TX, to the Tres Palacios gas storage facility. The 24-inch diameter extension also enables delivery of gas from the Houston Central plant to any of the 10 interstate and intrastate pipelines interconnected with the Tres Palacios header system. “Beyond providing Eagle Ford Shale producers with significant new market options, we believe our new Houston Central interconnection will increase liquidity at the Tres Palacios hub point for marketers to access supply,” said Bruce Page, Tres Palacios vice president for commercial operations and business development. The Houston Central plant provides 700 MMcf/d of processing capacity and 22,000 b/d of fractionation capacity and is being expanded to process an additional 400-800 MMcf/d of rich gas from the Eagle Ford Shale.