Southeastern

After increasing its stake in Consol Energy Inc. to 21%, Southeastern Asset Management Inc. said the company is significantly undervalued and has indicated that it would likely push for a sale or spinoff of the natural gas division.

In recent months, the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) has examined shale oil and natural gas potential in southeastern and westerly parts of the state, in addition to the already exploratory drilled northern formations, particularly in the northeast Four Corners area in which the Mancos Shale is found.

Twin Eagle Resource Management LLC said it will market crude oil rail trans-loading capacity at GT Logistics LLC’s GT OmniPort facility in Port Arthur, TX. GT Logistics operates a unit train facility with about eight miles of track, 18 rail car unloading racks and a two-station barge dock. It maintains direct rail service with the Union Pacific and Burlington NorthernSanta Fe rail lines. The facility has direct access to the Intercoastal Waterway and will have deepwater access after further capital investment, the companies said. GT OmniPort began operations in September and has capacity of 100,000 b/d. Twin Eagle unit Enserco Midstream LLC plans to construct four crude oil storage tanks at the GT OmniPort facility that are expected to be operational in the third quarter. The parties intend to construct additional storage capacity and to establish pipeline connectivity with refiners and other markets in the area. GT OmniPort is adjacent to the Port Arthur refinery community, which has demand for about 2 million b/d of crude oil.

The FracTracker Alliance and Mountain Watershed Association (MWA) are offering free training sessions across southeastern Pennsylvania for citizens who want to utilize the mapping capability of fractracker.org, a web-based tool for tracking and visualizing data related to shale gas extraction operations. The sessions “will show people how to find where drilling operations are located and learn more about them, according to MWA, which said the tool is already being used by citizen water monitoring volunteers and community advocates. Sessions are scheduled in Washington County Feb. 26, Butler County March 26, and Westmoreland County April 30, with more sessions planned through October. Information and registration is available by contacting Melissa Troutman (melissa@mtwatershed.com, (724) 455-4200 ext 6). The training sessions are sponsored by the Heinz Endowments (see Shale Daily, Sept. 2, 2011).

In the November offering, 29 tracts totaling slightly less than 10,000 acres of oil and natural gas leases were sold in four southeastern New Mexico counties, including three in the Permian Basin, New Mexico’s Land Office said Monday. All 29 tracts offered were sold among 10 bidders.

Crestwood Midstream Partners Monday said it has completed the acquisition of gathering and processing assets from subsidiaries of Devon Energy Corp. for $87.1 million, which is $2.9 million less than the originally reported acquisition price (see Shale Daily, July 25).

Nova Scotia on Monday announced its largest offshore lease sale ever — 7.6 million acres in 11 blocks off the southeastern coast — that are to be auctioned to operators in an area thought to contain about 120 Tcf of natural gas and 8 billion bbl of oil.

After three years of exponential growth, the Marcellus Shale is showing signs of plateauing this year.

Triad Hunter LLC, a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., has closed on a $24.8 million acquisition of approximately 15,558 gross (12,186 net) acres in southeastern Ohio’s Utica Shale from an undisclosed seller, the company said Friday.