Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP (PVR) has begun service on a new 30-mile, 24-inch diameter trunkline serving Marcellus Shale producers in north-central Pennsylvania with 750 MMcf/d of capacity. The capacity gives producers shipping gas out of the Marcellus a way around constraints on Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s congested 300 Line.
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Bakken/Three Forks Oil Transport Capacity Grows
Rangeland Energy LLC’s COLT facility — North Dakota’s largest open-access crude oil marketing terminal, according to the company — has begun serving Bakken and Three Forks shale oil producers, the company said Monday.
Kinder Wraps $38B El Paso Deal; ‘Bullish’ on Gas Future
Wrapping up the $38 billion acquisition that has been called a “once in a lifetime transaction,” Kinder Morgan on Thursday completed its acquisition of El Paso Corp., creating the largest midstream and the fourth largest energy company in North America, owning an interest in or operating approximately 75,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals with an enterprise value of more than $90 billion.
People
After serving as director of the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the last three years, Bob Abbey on Thursday announced that he will retire from public service at the end of the month. Abbey has overseen the BLM since August 2009 when he was confirmed by the Senate. His retirement culminates a 34-year career in state and federal service. The agency during his term implemented a number of regulations affecting the oil and natural gas industry — the latest being rules governing hydraulic fracturing on public and Native American lands (see Daily GPI, May 7). BLM Deputy Director Mike Pool will serve as acting director following Abbey’s retirement.
MarkWest: Utica More Competitive Than Marcellus
The early days of the Utica Shale are proving to be far more competitive than the early days of its cousin, the Marcellus Shale, the head of a major midstream player told NGI’s Shale Daily.
Enterprise, Enbridge Plan Open Seasons for Seaway Pipeline
Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPP) and Enbridge Inc. will hold concurrent open seasons Jan. 4-Feb. 10 to solicit capacity commitments from shippers for an expansion of their Seaway crude oil pipeline and an extension of the pipeline into the Port Arthur/Beaumont refining market in southeast Texas, the companies said.
Industry Briefs
Water services company Heckmann Corp. reiterated its emphasis on serving shale gas and oil developers in the United States in announcing the divestment of China Water & Drinks Inc. through the sale of nine of its 25 Chinese legal entities to Pacific Water & Drinks (HK) Group Ltd. (PWD). The deal closed Sept. 30, and Heckmann will no longer have business exposure in China except through its equity holding in PWD. “With our positive view of our current core water business and the growth opportunities in the United States, we are pleased to put the China experience behind us,” said CEO Richard J. Heckmann. “We now have almost 1,100 employees in the U.S., up from fewer than 30 a year ago. We believe that the water business as it relates to shale gas and shale oil production will continue to drive our growth. In addition, the customer reaction to our conversion to LNG [liquefied natural gas] powered vehicles [see Shale Daily, Aug. 23], which we are now putting in service, has been very positive.”
Transportation Notes
Florida Gas Transmission did not extend an Overage Alert Day beyond Thursday, but Gulfstream, another pipeline serving the Florida market, said actual deliveries from its system recently were exceeding receipts and it was experiencing low linepack levels as a result. Thus Gulfstream issued an Action Alert Friday requiring shippers to keep imbalances flat “regardless of whether any operational variation is allocated to an operational balancing agreement for later imbalance resolution.” See the bulletin board for further details.
SEC Said to Be Probing Possible ‘Overbooking’ of Shale Reserves
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “recently began serving” subpoenas on producers active in natural gas shale development, according to Baird Equity Research, which cited an “attorney advertisement” issued by Houston law firm Fulbright & Jaworski as its source.
Bentek: Shifting Supply to Spark ‘Several’ Pipe Rate Cases
As natural gas pipelines serving traditional long-line routes to market in North America have begun filing for new rate hikes in an attempt to make up for the load lost to locally delivered shale gas, fundamental market changes associated with the rate increases could affect basis differentials going forward, according to a new report from Evergreen, CO-based Bentek Energy.