Union

Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) brought Southern Union Co. (SUG) under the ETE banner on Monday, completing a mega merger that creates a midstream powerhouse with more than 44,000 miles of interstate natural gas pipelines and an estimated 30.7 Bcf/d of transportation capacity.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) and Martin Midstream Partners LP have formed joint venture (JV) Pecos Valley Producer Services LLC to develop a multi-commodity rail terminal in Pecos, TX, to serve oil and gas producers in the Permian Basin of West Texas.

President Obama in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night, for the first time issued a strong call for development of domestic natural gas and oil as part of “an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy.”

President Obama, in his annual State of the Union speech Tuesday night, for the first time issued a strong call for development of domestic natural gas and oil as part of “an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy.”

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead on Wednesday asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cooperate in a scientific review and analysis of groundwater quality in Pavillion, which federal officials assert may have been polluted by natural gas drilling and well stimulation practices.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is convening a forum with ministers and senior government officials from 13 countries and the European Union that are engaged in offshore oil and gas extraction, along with representatives from industry, academia and nongovernmental organizations, to discuss the development of cutting-edge technologies for containing potential deepwater well blowouts on outer continental shelves. Salazar, who is meeting this week with Brazilian and Mexican officials to discuss cooperative efforts on safety in offshore energy development, said the Ministerial Forum on Offshore Drilling Containment will be held at the Interior Department in Washington, DC, April 14. More information about the forum, including a draft agenda, is available at http://www.doi.gov/whatwedo/energy/MFODC2011/index.cfm.

Florida Gas Transmission’s (FGT) Phase VIII Expansion was placed in service Friday as scheduled, according to Houston-based Southern Union Co. The announcement came one week after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave FGT the green light to place into service the remaining facilities associated with the $2.48 expansion to serve gas-fired power generators and utilities in Florida (see Daily GPI, March 28). The project, which FERC approved in November 2009, adds more than 483 miles of pipeline loops, laterals and mainline and installs 213,600 hp of compression at eight existing stations and one new station (see Daily GPI, Nov. 20, 2009). The project also called for FGT to acquire the existing 22.7-mile Martin Lateral from Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL), which will serve power plants in Manatee, Martin, Miami-Dade and Suwannee counties, FL. The Phase VIII Expansion is intended to create 820,000 MMBtu/d of capacity on FGT’s system from Alabama to Florida. The expansion’s Phase I facilities, which involved the construction and operation of facilities to serve FPL’s Manatee Power Plant, went into service in mid-2010. FGT proposes to transport gas to five other shippers: Florida Power Corp./Progress Energy Florida Inc.; Seminole Electric Cooperative Inc.; Tampa Electric Co.; the Orlando Utilities Commission; and the City of Tallahassee.

A congressional push to increase regulations on hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) would have little impact on Pennsylvania, according to a regional director of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Laflin, PA-based coal company Silverbrook Anthracite has leased approximately 1,635 acres for Marcellus Shale gas exploration in Lackawanna County, PA, to a Texas land services firm in what county officials are calling the largest such lease ever recorded in the northeastern Pennsylvania county.