Spend

UGI Energy Services Inc., a subsidiary of UGI Corp., said it plans to spend $150 million to build a 30-mile extension of its Auburn Gathering System. The project calls for extending Auburn from its terminus in Wyoming County, PA, to Luzerne County, PA, and for building a connection to the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line. The extension is expected to be in service in the second or third quarter of 2013.

Boosted by the “shale gas revolution,” Williams on Tuesday said it will spend up to $400 million to expand its Geismar olefins production facility near Baton Rouge, LA.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) said many existing regulatory and industry efforts on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) were overlooked by the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) Natural Gas Subcommittee’s initial report on the practice, which was released last week.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon told financial analysts on Friday the company’s Utica Shale leasehold in Ohio “is likely most analogous, but economically superior to, the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.”

Tesoro Corp. said it plans to spend about $50 million on rail facilities to boost Bakken Shale crude oil shipments from North Dakota to its refinery in Anacortes, WA. The San Antonio-based company said it hopes to deliver up to 30,000 b/d after the project’s completion, up from the current rate of 1,000 to 2,000 b/d. The project will include loading and unloading facilities and a unit train. Tesoro estimates construction will take between nine months to a year to complete, once the necessary permits are received.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has agreed to spend millions for repairs to roads in four counties in the West Virginia Panhandle, in order to mitigate damage done to the roads by trucks hauling equipment and water to its wells sites in the region.

Regency Energy Partners LP said it will spend about $450 million to construct a wellhead gathering system and other infrastructure in order to serve an undisclosed producer in the Eagle Ford Shale with gas and condensate gathering.

Even in a period of slowing U.S. wind development, Spain-based Iberdrola Renewables announced that it will spend $6 billion in the United States for new and upgraded wind developments through the end of this year. Iberdrola Chairman Ignacio Galan made the commitment during a meeting earlier in May with the U.S. secretaries of Energy and Commerce. The company head said $3.9 billion will be focused on construction of new wind farms and they will be eligible for up to $1 billion from the Department of Energy’s loan guarantees under the federal stimulus program. The remaining $2.1 billion in investment will be used for what Iberdrola called “improving the quality of supply” to an existing base of 2.4 million customers that Iberdrola serves in the United States. Iberdrola said it installed 1.78 GW of wind power capacity last year in the United States, and it estimates that 1.5 GW of U.S. wind power will be added this year.

ONEOK Partners LP said it plans to spend $910 million to $1.2 billion between now and late 2013 in order to develop natural gas liquids (NGL) infrastructure to serve the Gulf Coast market.