Utica Shale

Nearly one year after it started looking for buyers for some of its acreage in Ohio’s Utica Shale, EV Energy Partners LP (EVEP) and its partnerships have made their first sale, agreeing to part with 22,535 net acres in the wet gas window for $284.3 million, the company said Friday.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and MarkWest Utica EMG LLC (MarkWest Utica) are putting up a $2 billion y-grade natural gas liquids (NGL) processing and transportation combo project that competes with the Bluegrass Pipeline, which has been proposed by Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP and Williams.

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce on Monday launched a campaign to educate voters about the state’s oil and natural gas business in an attempt to prevent any municipal or legislative bans on unconventional drilling.

 Halcon Resources Corp. said an exploratory well targeting the Utica Shale has been producing more than 2,000 boe/d. The company said it plans to spend "significant time" in the play, where it has the acreage to drill up to 500 gross wells.

Demand between now and 2015 will prop up natural gas prices, even with a backlog of drilled wells awaiting connection, and from 2016 to 2018 a “dramatic structural increase” in demand could outpace supply additions and send gas prices to as high as $6.00/MMBtu, BNP Paribas’ Teri Viswanath, director of commodity strategy, said Friday.