Upstream

Uncertainty about natural gas and crude oil prices remains the No. 1 concern of upstream U.S. energy companies for the second year in a row, according to Grant Thornton LLP.

Uncertainty about natural gas and crude oil prices remains the No. 1 concern of upstream U.S. energy companies for the second year in a row, according to Grant Thornton LLP.

Cardinal Midstream II LLC has secured a $200 million equity commitment from EnCap Flatrock Midstream to support midstream infrastructure development in conventional and unconventional resource plays, particularly in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Cardinal is focused on natural gas and crude oil gathering, compression and centralized production facilities, condensate stabilization, vapor recovery, and natural gas treating and processing. With the new commitment, Cardinal is led by CEO Doug Dormer and President Marc Lyons. Mark Ward has joined the company as COO. Ward has more than 30 years of engineering, operations and project management experience in the upstream and midstream.

With production growing 39% in the Ardmore Basin’s Woodford Shale and a 75% increase in Bakken output, ExxonMobil Corp. plans to forge ahead with liquids and crude oil unconventional opportunities in North America, and keep its substantial natural gas prospects for better days, the investor relations chief said Thursday.

Private equity (PE) upstream investor Ridgewood Energy Corp. is partnering with a fund managed by Riverstone Holdings LLC to invest more than $550 million in a series of deepwater exploration projects in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Linn Energy LLC and LinnCo LLC are acquiring Berry Petroleum Co. for $4.3 billion, including debt, in a transaction said to be the first-ever acquisition of a C-corporation by an upstream limited liability company (LLC) or master limited partnership (MLP).

Chevron Corp. subsidiary Chevron Canada Ltd. will acquire a 50% operating interest in the Kitimat, British Columbia (BC), liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project and proposed Pacific Trail Pipeline (PTP), and a 50% interest in 644,000 acres of petroleum and natural gas rights in the Horn River and Liard basins in BC, and be a partner in the project and acreage with Apache Corp., the companies said Monday.

ExxonMobil Corp. has offered US$3.14 billion in a cash and debt deal to buy Celtic Exploration Ltd., a Calgary producer with a rich array of unconventional acreage spread across the Montney and Duvernay shales, as well as leaseholds in other formations in Alberta (AB) and British Columbia (BC). The offer that was announced on Wednesday has a cash value of about $2.6 billion, excluding debt.

Kinder Morgan Upstream LLC has agreed to pay $316,000 in penalties for allegedly violating the risk management plan requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) at its natural gas plants in Casper and Douglas, WY, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Thursday.