Target

Dallas-based oil and natural gas company Gulf Onshore Inc. has formed a Pennsylvania operating company to target opportunities in the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale region, it said Monday.

With linepack falling to around the midpoint between its minimum and maximum target levels, Pacific Gas & Electric ended a systemwide high-inventory OFO Saturday after it had been in effect for two days. However, the utility said its California Gas Transmission (CGT) system’s Baja Path from the Southern California border was being constrained by 60 MMcf/d each day Friday and Saturday. “High overdeliveries earlier in the week resulted in sustained high system inventory, which we are still managing,” PG&E said. “These constraints will ensure the safe operation of PG&E’s system. While every attempt is made by CGT to avoid firm service level cuts, firm supplies coming into PG&E’s system on the Baja Path will be impacted by these constraints.”

Expecting linepack on its California Gas Transmission system to dip below minimum target levels Tuesday through Thursday, Pacific Gas & Electric issued a customer-specific OFO for Wednesday.

With its projected linepack threatening to sink well below minimum target levels, Pacific Gas & Electric made a belated declaration of a systemwide Stage 2 low-inventory OFO for Wednesday on its California Gas Transmission system and extended the OFO through at least Thursday. The penalty for exceeding a negative daily imbalance tolerance of 5% was set at $1/Dth on both days.

CNX Gas Corp. plans to use the bulk of its 2008 capital budget to target natural gas deposits in the Marcellus, Huron, Chattanooga and New Albany shales, as well as the Trenton Black River this year. In the Marcellus Shale, CNX has a leasehold that includes about 161,000 acres. In Kentucky and Virginia’s Huron Shale CNX holds another 193,000 acre-leasehold. Tennessee’s Chattanooga Shale holdings number about 132,000 acres, and in the New Albany Shale play, which extends into Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, CNX has about 300,000 acres. The Pittsburgh-based company said that overall, exploration spending will jump 35% to $470 million from $348.6 million in 2007. Of the total, $377 million directed toward drilling, midstream and land operations in the company’s Virginia and Pennsylvania coalbed methane (CBM) development projects. Besides its gas shale plays, CNX also will be developing its holdings in the Trenton Black River, which is “thought to underlie nearly all of the Appalachian shales,” the company said. In that leasehold, “CNX Gas believes it has 486,000 acres with Trenton Black River potential.”

Independent producer CNX Gas Corp. said it plans to use the bulk of its 2008 capital budget to target natural gas deposits in the Marcellus, Huron, Chattanooga and New Albany shales, as well as the Trenton Black River this year.

The start-up date for the western portion of the Rockies Express Pipeline, known as REX-West, has become a moving target. Sponsors are now projecting that service on the bulk of REX-West will begin on or about Jan. 12.

The start-up date for the western portion of the Rockies Express Pipeline, known as REX-West, has become a moving target. Sponsors are now projecting that service on the bulk of REX-West will begin on or about Jan. 12.

XTO Energy Inc. has set a target to jump its natural gas-heavy production volumes by 17% in 2008 over this year’s levels, but instead of pouring the lion’s share of the capital budget into its prodigious Barnett Shale play, the producer plans to spend more money on emerging gas plays in East Texas and Louisiana.