storage

Senators Thursday blasted the Obama administration’s nomination for a high-ranking position in the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife and Parks, citing her record opposing natural gas development and support for the funding of activist groups.

American Midstream Partners LP is acquiring Blackwater Midstream Holdings LLC, a developer and operator of terminal storage facilities, from an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners LLC for $60 million. “The strategic acquisition of Blackwater Midstream provides an attractive platform for American Midstream in a growing segment of the midstream industry that is fee-based and not directly correlated to commodity prices,” said American Midstream CEO Steve Bergstrom. The acquisition includes Blackwater’s three operating terminal sites in Westwego, LA; Brunswick, GA; and Salisbury, MD. The sites are multimodal, with access to deepwater dock, barge, rail and truck transportation. The deal also includes a brownfield development opportunity in Harvey, LA, near Blackwater’s Westwego terminal. The three operating terminals have 1.3 million bbl of storage capacity and store chemical, agricultural and petroleum liquid products. The deal is the first drop-down from American Midstream sponsor ArcLight since ArcLight acquired a controlling interest in American Midstream’s general partner in April.

Tucson, AZ-based UNS Energy Corp.’s board of directors unanimously approved the electric-natural gas utility holding company’s acquisition by Canada-based Fortis Inc. Owner of Canada’s largest gas and electric distribution utility, St. John’s, Newfoundland/Labrador-based Fortis is offering to pay about $2.5 billion, or $60.25/share, in cash to acquire UNS, which owns Tucson Electric Power and separate UNS Electric and UNS Gas utility operations, all in Arizona. This is Fortis’ second U.S. utility acquisition this year, having closed the nearly $1 billion purchase of CH Energy Group Inc. last June. Overall, the UNS purchase is considered to be a $4.3 billion transaction since Fortis has agreed to assume the $1.8 billion in outstanding UNS debt. The transaction is subject to various U.S. federal and state approvals, including the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), which in 2004 rejected an acquisition of UNS (the UniSource Energy Corp.) by a private investment group led by KKR & Co. That deal was found not to be in the public interest by the five-member ACC.

A division of Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) said it has completed seismic testing in New Brunswick, closing the latest chapter in the company’s troubled history in the province.

BHP Billiton’s U.S. shale business will grow liquids production to 200,000 b/d in fiscal 2017, based on planned annual investment of $4 billion, while the company’s total onshore U.S. production reaches 500,000 boe/d over the same period, Tim Cutt, president of the BHP’s petroleum and potash business said in Houston Tuesday.

Although brutally cold weather across much of the country is driving up natural gas delivery costs for utility companies, particularly those in the Northeast, increased production in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations has continued to push down the price customers are paying for the commodity this year as more utilities utilize local gas produced in the Appalachian Basin.

Natural gas-fired generation and renewables (wind and solar) have the future power generation needs of Texas covered; no new coal plants are necessary, according to a report by The Brattle Group that was commissioned by the Texas Clean Energy Coalition.

Improving well performance has Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) expecting to extract 244-249 Bcf from the Marcellus Shale next year, a 60% increase compared with an estimated 148-149 Bcf this year, the company said Tuesday.

Encana Corp. shares fell almost 6% on Wednesday after the natural gas-weighted operator said production in the first six months of 2014 will decline as it restructures to produce more natural gas liquids and oil output.