Southeast

Texas-based Frac Tech Services LLC, a hydraulic fracturing (fracking) specialist, apparently is in talks to sell a stake in the company to one of three foreign oil giants for $2 billion-plus and also is close to completing joint ventures (JV) to work overseas on unconventional oil and gas prospects, sources told NGI’s Shale Daily on Thursday.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has withdrawn more than 3,300 acres of public land in southeast Ohio from a federal oil and natural gas lease sale scheduled for Dec. 7, pending a study on the possible effects hydraulic fracturing (fracking) could have on the state’s only national forest.

Transco said it is conducting unplanned maintenance to repair a leak on its Southeast Louisiana Lateral in Terrebonne Parish, LA, and asked operators of receipt points upstream of the affected area to shut in immediately. The outage affects flows of about 100,000 Dth/d, and Transco said effective Tuesday it was not scheduling or confirming quantities at the upstream points until the maintenance is complete, which it estimated will take seven days.

Encana Corp.’s long awaited Deep Panuke project, 155 miles southeast of Halifax on the Nova Scotian Shelf, will begin shipping its first natural gas by the end of March, according to company officials.

Marcellus Shale natural gas pipeline takeaway capacity will jump to 8.5 Bcf/d by 2013, more than double its current level, according to Bentek Energy LLC.

Encana Corp.’s long awaited Deep Panuke project, 155 miles southeast of Halifax on the Nova Scotian Shelf, will begin shipping its first natural gas by the end of March, officials said last week.

Panhandle Eastern expects to begin three days of odorization on the Battle Creek Lateral Monday, during which the Battle Creek #1 interconnect with Southeast Michigan Gas will be unavailable; however, the Albion and Battle Creek #2 meters at the utility’s citygate will remain available.

High Point Gas Transmission (HPGT) will purchase onshore and offshore natural gas pipeline assets in southeast Louisiana from Southern Natural Gas Co. (SNG), the companies said Friday. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close next year, were not disclosed.

FERC has approved Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) proposed 225,000 Dth/d expansion of its system to serve growing natural gas markets in the Southeast region, the Williams Partners LP subsidiary said Wednesday.