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With oil production booming in the Permian Basin of West Texas, projects are being developed to serve producers wanting to get their oil to Houston. But going west on a converted portion of Kinder Morgan’s El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) system could one day be an option, too.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) staffers planning to go Down Under over the holidays to escape talk of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and their market impacts might want to reconsider. LNG and gas markets are a source of controversy in Australia, too.

Waller LNG Services LLC has applied to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for authorization to export liquefied U.S. gas to free trade agreement (FTA) countries from its Waller Point LNG terminal, now under development at the entrance of the Calcasieu Ship Channel in Cameron Parish, LA.

A research team led by the University of Texas at Austin (UT) is collaborating with nine natural gas producers on a major field study to measure methane emissions at onshore gas well sites, about which only a handful of empirical data exist.

Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC and Sabine Pass LNG LP have asked FERC for authorization to add facilities to their liquefaction and export project, now under construction in Cameron Parish, LA, and to expedite construction of the project’s second stage (the third and fourth liquefaction trains).

Penn Virginia Corp. has acquired about 4,100 net Eagle Ford Shale acres in Gonzales and Lavaca counties, TX, for about $10 million. Under existing joint venture agreements, other nonoperated working interest owners are expected to acquire 17% of the net acreage in Gonzales County and 46% of the net acreage in Lavaca County, increasing Penn Virginia’s Eagle Ford acreage position by about 3,000 net acres to a total of 30,000 net acres (40,100 gross). The acquired 3,200 net acres of leasehold in Gonzales County is adjacent to Penn Virginia’s development area and is estimated to contain 20 horizontal well locations, excluding any down-spaced drilling opportunities. The acquired 895 net acres of leasehold in Lavaca County is complementary to existing leasehold in nine units, with an estimated addition of 10 horizontal well locations, the company said.

Encana Corp.’s board of directors has concluded that the producer did not collude with “competitors” on land leasing in Michigan two years ago.

Fort Worth, TX-based Quicksilver Resources Inc. provided an operational update on its recently completed well in the Delaware Basin in West Texas and the completion of an eight-well pad in the Horn River Basin in British Columbia (BC).

The United States likely will add 11 Bcf/d of natural gas to its reserves this year at total finding, development and completion costs under $3.00/Mcf, while a review of 45,000 unconventional oil wells is finding “tremendous” growth in oil reserves, preliminary IHS Inc. data indicate.