Services

Plains All American Pipeline LPandEnterprise Products Partners LPare expanding their Eagle Ford Joint Venture (JV) crude oil pipeline to 470,000 b/d of light and medium crude grades to accommodate additional volumes expected from Plains’ Cactus pipeline, which is under construction. The expansion is expected to cost $120 million and be in service in the second quarter of 2015. The Eagle Ford system, most of which is in service and expected to be completed by Sept. 30, serves the Three Rivers and Corpus Christi refineries and other markets via marine transport facilities at Corpus Christi. The Cactus Pipeline is being constructed by Plains from McCamey, TX, in the Permian Basin area to Gardendale (seeShale Daily,April 16). It will have an initial capacity of 200,000 b/d and is expected to be in service in the second quarter of 2015.

Some of the pieces, albeit uneven, were being put back in place Tuesday by natural gas and oil operators that have felt the sting of the torrential rains and flash flooding that has claimed lives and property throughout the Front Range of Colorado.

FERC Monday issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) of Texas Eastern Transmission LP’s (Tetco) expansion project for existing facilities that would pave the way for the delivery of 600,000 Dth/d of Marcellus gas to the pipeline’s market areas in New Jersey and New York.

The outlook for global independents is looking good, particularly for oil-focused operators, but headwinds still persist for the smaller sector of North America’s oilfield services providers, where a plethora of providers is chasing limited new demand, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

With the exception of some flattening in the overall oil and natural gas rig count this year, a steady increase is forecast through 2015, particularly for horizontals drilled on multi-pad well sites, according to Halliburton Co. COO Jeff Miller.

Maine’sBureau of General Services (BGS) has selectedMaine Natural Gas(MNG) to deliver natural gas to 19 of its 25 facilities in the state’s capital for the next decade, the company said. The facilities consume more than 87% of the gas used by the state in Augusta. The award decision is subject to final approval by theState Procurement Review Committee. MNG said it expects to begin contract discussions with BGS “immediately” since the state plans to begin receiving gas at some Augusta facilities by Nov. 1. MNG in March signed a contract with three companies to begin building the 12-inch diameter steel pipeline backbone of its Augusta gas distribution system (seeDaily GPI,March 11). The 21.4-mile Augusta backbone pipeline is 99% completed and is expected to be ready to start gas delivery to its first Augusta customers by the end of this month, MNG said. MNG andSummit Natural Gas of Mainehave been racing to bring natural gas to the area for some time. Summit on Tuesday said it has signed agreements withInland HospitalandRedington-Fairview Hospitalto supply those central Maine facilities with natural gas line and utility service.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) on Friday revised its outlook for Chesapeake Energy Corp. to “stable” from “negative,” citing new CEO Doug Lawler as part of the reason. The former Anadarko Petroleum Corp. executive took over in June (see Shale Daily, May 21).

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) on Friday revised its outlook for Chesapeake Energy Corp. to “stable” from “negative,” citing the new CEO as part of the reason. Former Anadarko Petroleum Corp. executive Doug Lawler took over in June (see NGI, May 27).

Halcon Field Services, a unit of Halcon Resources Corp., is proposing to build a storage and rail-loading terminal for Utica Shale oil at the Ohio Commerce Center industrial rail park in the village of Lordstown, in Trumbull County, OH. Plans call for four bay truck racks, a 20-rail car loading platform, and six 90,000 bbl storage tanks. The $50-$60 million project is to be completed in three phases, with the first phase expected to go into service by the end of this year. A zoning variance was recently approved to allow construction to begin.