Time

MarkWest Energy Partners is getting ready for “explosive growth” in the Northeast “in 2013 and beyond,” CEO Frank Semple said Thursday. Next year, natural gas liquids (NGL) processing in the Marcellus and Utica shales combined should increase to 4.8 Bcf/d from 2.7 Bcf/d to serve producer customers.

Inergy Midstream LP announced Monday that it plans to purchase Rangeland Energy LLC — which owns and operates the Colt crude oil rail terminal, storage and pipeline facilities near Epping, ND, in the Bakken and Three Forks shale — in a cash and stock deal valued at $425 million.

The initial phase of Enterprise Products Partners LP’ Enterprise Crude Houston (Echo) storage terminal is complete and the facility is receiving deliveries of crude oil. Separately, the partnership said its sixth natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionator at Mont Belvieu, TX, has entered operation.

Higher rig counts and new infrastructure contributed to record production from the Permian and Anadarko basin operations, Apache Corp. said Thursday.

The Boulder County, CO, planning commission on Tuesday proposed to offer exploration and production (E&P) operators an option of expedited oil and natural gas drilling permits in return for meeting stricter environmental standards. An industry association spokesman told NGI’s Shale Daily they favored existing state mechanisms over the county proposal.

The railroad transportation of Bakken oil supplies continues to grow, and transporters are investing in new facilities on a pace with pipeline takeaway growth, according to the latest statistics from the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and the state pipeline authority.

Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. grew its natural gas production by 31% and its liquids production 61% during the third quarter compared to year-ago levels, the company said. It credited much of the growth to the Marcellus Shale, where infrastructure constraints that delayed some wells during the second quarter have been overcome.

President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney wasted little time in clashing over energy issues in the second presidential debate last Tuesday, with the Obama administration’s record on oil and natural gas permitting on public lands triggering plenty of fireworks.

CNBC and NBC News on Thursday used cross-network programming to train their cameras on the resurgence in Ohio, once the heart of the U.S. steel industry, which has been reborn in part from the growth in the auto industry, as well as drilling operations in the Utica Shale.