Transaction

Progress Energy Canada Ltd., Pacific NorthWest LNG Ltd. and Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) have closed the previously announced transaction that saw Japex Montney Ltd., the Canadian subsidiary of Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd., acquire a 10% interest in Progress Energy Canada’s natural gas assets in northeast British Columbia (BC), and in the proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG export facility on Canada’s West Coast near Prince Rupert, BC. Japex has agreed to buy a 10% share of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility’s production for a minimum of 20 years for domestic use in Japan (see Daily GPI, March 5). “This Japex investment in upstream natural gas resources in British Columbia and the downstream LNG facility further solidifies the North Montney as a world-class natural gas asset, and it clearly defines British Columbia and Canada as attractive and competitive destinations for global investment,” said Progress Energy Canada CEO Michael Culbert.

After drilling some disappointing wells targeting the Hogshooter interval of the Granite Wash in the Texas Panhandle, Linn Energy LLC is now concentrating its efforts on the Oklahoma Hogshooter, where the reservoir is seen to be of better quality with less variability, CEO Mark E. Ellis said Thursday.

Royale Energy Inc. said Wednesday it struck a $43 million joint venture (JV) agreement with an unnamed company to fund exploration costs on its Alaska North Slope acreage.

Europe’s EDF Trading has acquired ConocoPhillips’ Midwest commercial and industrial (C&I) natural gas portfolio, the EDF Group subsidiary said Thursday. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Norway’s Statoil ASA on Wednesday said it has snapped up another 70,000 net acres in liquids-rich areas of the Marcellus Shale for $590 million in cash. The portfolio additions, which give the producer full or joint partnership in close to 750,000 net acres in the play, are spread across West Virginia and Ohio.

Gulfport Energy Corp. said Monday it has agreed to buy 30,000 net acres in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio for approximately $300 million, a transaction that would boost the company’s position in the play to about 137,000 gross acres (99,000 net).

Natural gas and oil transactions to date are down about 20% this year from the same period of 2011 “in both the number and the transaction volume,” but a lot of money remains on the table for dealmaking as the market strengthens, according to the CEO of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH).

TPC Group Inc. plans to produce on-purpose isobutylene with the refurbishment and restart of dehydrogenation assets at its Houston operations. The isobutylene feedstock will be used for the company’s performance products and fuels business, including methyl tertiary-butyl ether, polyisobutylene, high-purity isobutylene and diisobutylene. Start-up is planned for the second half of 2014. The facilities will produce up to 650 million pounds per year of isobutylene from isobutane, a natural gas liquids feedstock whose production volumes continue to increase as a result of U.S. shale gas development, TPC said. Total capital expenditure for the project is estimated at $265 million. TPC recently agreed to be taken private by First Reserve Corp. and SK Capital Partners in a cash-and-debt transaction valued at $850 million (see Shale Daily, Aug. 30).

Denver-based explorer Voyager Oil & Gas Inc. on Tuesday agreed to buy a unit of Australia’s Emerald Oil & Gas NL in a deal that would create a U.S.-based Rocky Mountains operator focused on established and emerging unconventional oil and natural gas plays.