Utah

The Houston Exploration Co. said Tuesday it has entered into a joint venture agreement with Enduring Resources LLC in Utah’s Uinta Basin. Under the terms of the agreement, each company will contribute 40,000 acres, and in turn, earn a 50% working interest in all contiguous 80,000 acres.

MRT is canceling Friday a System Protection Warning that was implemented at the start of Thursday’s gas day.

Two units at CIG’s Rawlins (WY) Compressor Station will be out of service Aug. 1-31, reducing capacity through the station by 150 MMcf/d. In Utah, the entire Natural Buttes Compressor Station will be out of service Aug. 9-23 for plant upgrades and modifications, during which nominations will be scheduled to zero. In conjunction with the Natural Buttes outage, the Questar 101 Meter Station will be down with nominations scheduled to zero Aug. 9-12.

Negotiations to sell Vintage Petroleum Inc. some of El Paso Corp.’s producing properties in the Uinta Basin of Utah have ended after the two companies failed to reach an agreement before the scheduled closing date. The $52.5 million acquisition, announced in November, would have given Vintage an 80% operated working interest in about 200,000 net acres (see Daily GPI, Nov. 12, 2003).

Denver-based St. Mary Land & Exploration Co., which controls approximately 16,400 acres (10,803 net) of leasehold in Uinta Basin of Utah, said it is completing its Ute Tribal KMV #1 in the its Duchsne Deep Prospect there. The independent is responsible for 100% of the well costs through the completion of the well and will own a 77.5% working interest thereafter. Testing of the lower Mesaverde Blackhawk and Castlegate intervals already has been completed, the company said. To date, two intervals in the lowermost Blackhawk interval between 15,300 feet and 15,900 feet have been tested, and two additional intervals were tested in the Castlegate interval between 14,400 feet and 15,250 feet. However, St. Mary noted that the zones tested have flowed natural gas and water at “sub-commercial rates.” The Blackhawk and Castlegate intervals were secondary targets in the test, “but the failure to establish commercial production is a disappointment.” Testing of the primary Mesaverde section between 11,700 feet and 14,380 feet is expected to take 60 to 90 days, and will involve multiple sand intervals and multiple fracture stimulations. The company also announced that COO Ron Boone will retire at the end of the year. He will be replaced by Doug York, who has been with St. Mary for seven years, most recently as manager of engineering and acquisitions.

Projecting a need for additional resources starting in 2011, Xcel Energy this week told Minnesota utility regulators that the company plans to initiate an all-source bidding process in 2005 for up to 450 MW of generation to be in service between 2011 and 2013.

A unit of Williams has sold an interest in a central Utahnatural gas property to Texaco Exploration and Production Inc. forapproximately $8 million. The non-operated interest includes 32producing wells and more than 30,000 net acres in the Ferroncoalbed methane play in Emery and Sevier counties. Williams saidthat Texaco is already the operator on most of the propertiesincluded in the transaction. “We’re designing our reserve basearound Williams’ infrastructure and merchant activities,” saidBryan Guderian, vice president of exploration and production forWilliams. “This allows us to support other parts of Williams’energy business, such as gathering and processing and trading. TheFerron assets simply fell outside our plan.”

A deal reached last year that transferred all of Chevron’s oiland gas assets in Utah’s Uinta Basin to the newly formed ShenandoahEnergy (SEI) in exchange for an equity ownership interest is payingoff big time for the energy giant, said Chevron North AmericaPresident George L. Kirkland.

A deal reached last year that transferred all of Chevron’s oiland gas assets in Utah’s Uinta Basin to the newly formed ShenandoahEnergy (SEI) in exchange for an equity ownership interest is payingoff big time for the energy giant, said Chevron North AmericaPresident George L. Kirkland.