Utica

Dallas-based Summit Midstream Partners LP (SMLP) is buying two shale gas gathering systems — one in the Bakken and the other in the Marcellus — in two deals worth a combined $460 million. The Marcellus transaction marks the company’s entry into the play.

If West Virginia and the broader region encompassing the Marcellus and Utica shales take advantage of value-added opportunities associated with natural gas — in the manufacturing, transportation and electricity generation sectors — a greater share of the economic benefits of the shale boom will be retained by the region, according to a report issued by Vision Shared, a the Huntington, WV-based nonprofit organization. But significant investment is needed upfront to make that happen.

Bluegrass Pipeline, which if sanctioned would carry surging mixed natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Marcellus and Utica shales to Northeast markets and Gulf Coast petrochemical complexes, faces some hurdles before it would be sanctioned, the project partners said Tuesday.

With natural gas prices increasing, a joint venture (JV) in the Marcellus Shale has announced plans to build a dry gas pipeline across two neighboring counties in north-central West Virginia.

GreenHunter Resources Inc.’s planned water treatment, recycling and condensate handling logistics terminal in Wheeling, WV, to serve the Marcellus and Utica shale region could provide drillers with free recycled wastewater for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations.

Utility developers working on combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) projects in the Marcellus and Utica shales are looking for a “power price appreciation” that will come from the excess natural gas, according analysts with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Inc. (TPH).

Marcellus and Utica shale midstreamer MarkWest Energy Partners LP has expanded its service offerings in the Anadarko Basin in a $245 million cash agreement with Chesapeake Energy Corp.

Opponents of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Michigan plan to begin collecting signatures for a petition that could ask voters in 2014 whether to allow the drilling stimulation practice to be used in the state.

Halcon Resources Corp. said it has acquired more than 50,000 net acres of leasehold in an Eagle Ford Shale play in East Texas, and plans to eventually triple its presence and invest $100 million there this year.