E&P

Genesis Energy LP has completed preliminary work and is preparing to begin construction of a $75 million crude oil unit train unloading facility in Raceland, LA, the Houston-based company said Monday.

Oneok Partners LP said it plans to invest $440 million in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin to buy a natural gas liquids (NGL) processing facility and to upgrade related infrastructure.

While earlier research in Texas’ Barnett Shale linked drilling waste injection into underground storage wells with increased seismic activity, new work in the Eagle Ford by the same geologist suggests that drawing liquids out of the ground can induce earthquakes there.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. is building its presence in the Williston Basin by purchasing some acreage in North Dakota and Montana, the Denver-based operator said Tuesday.

Goodrich Petroleum Corp. announced the completion of an Encana Corp.-operated well in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) in which it holds a minority interest. Initial production was lower than other recent wells in the play but still apparently economic and boding good things to come from the TMS, one analyst said Tuesday.

A charter amendment to ban new natural gas and oil activities in Lafayette, CO, to be on the city’s ballot this fall, “could have incredibly damaging, unintended consequences,” said a spokesman for the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA).

Spectra Energy Transmission’s Texas Eastern Transmission announced an expansion to serve industrial markets in South Louisiana by Spring 2015 with shale gas supplies from multiple basins. An open season runs through Sept. 27.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is setting the wheels in motion to accelerate U.S. onshore drilling following the $2.64 billion cash sale for part of its offshore Mozambique natural gas project.

Liquids-rich and oil plays have clearly won the hearts and dollars of North American producers. The Eagle Ford and Bakken shales are stars now, but several others are poised to join or possibly eclipse them, according to a recent note by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P).