Working

KeySpan Corp., focusing on its regulated activities in the East, currently is working on the tax aspect of a plan to divest its remaining 56% interest in Houston Exploration Co., an independent E&P company operating in the U.S. with 94% of its reserves in natural gas.

KeySpan Corp., focusing on its regulated activities in the East, currently is working on the tax aspect of a plan to divest its remaining 56% interest in Houston Exploration Co., an independent E&P company operating in the U.S. with 94% of its reserves in natural gas.

Denver-based Evergreen Resources Inc. now holds a 100% working interest in more than 650,000 acres in eastern Kansas after acquiring 113,000 acres of prospective coalbed methane (CBM) acreage from a private Midland, TX-based producer. Evergreen paid $10.2 million in cash.

Lodi Gas Storage LLC said Wednesday that it is holding an open season for about 3 Bcf of working firm storage capacity with 100,000 MMBtu/d of withdrawal and injection capability. The open season will close on June 16 and the results will be released on June 20. The storage company is seeking minimum lease terms of nine months.

Bids during an open season for working storage capacity in the Phase II expansion of the Hill-Lake Gas Storage field exceeded planned capacity by nearly 50%, according to developer Falcon Gas Storage Co. Inc.

Rather than pre-judge how the Commission would implement legislation working its way through the House of Representatives directing FERC to boost natural gas price transparency, FERC Chairman Pat Wood last Wednesday said his inclination would be to instead hold an open workshop to get feedback on this and several other energy-related issues should the bill be signed into law.

Rather than pre-judge how the Commission would implement legislation working its way through the House of Representatives directing FERC to boost natural gas price transparency, FERC Chairman Pat Wood on Wednesday said his inclination would be to instead hold an open workshop to get feedback on this and several other energy-related issues should the bill be signed into law.

Enron affiliate Mariner Energy has sold its remaining 25% working interest in 32 blocks in the Falcon area in the Gulf of Mexico, including the Falcon field and the first quarter 2003 Harrier discovery located in East Breaks 758 and 759 to Pioneer Natural Resources for $121.6 million. Mariner said it will retain a 4.25% royalty interest on seven non-producing blocks in the Falcon Area. Pioneer also assumed certain contractual obligations relating to the Falcon Area from Mariner.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who has been quietly working to assuage landowners, environmental interests and the state’s lucrative coalbed methane (CBM) developers, said he wants to now encourage the state legislature to give agencies more flexibility to apply site-specific permitting. The state, already months behind in processing requests for the industry’s potential 51,000-well sprawl in the northeast Wyoming, has been further stymied by recent budget and staff cuts.