Sinopec Resumes Production at Sichuan Gas Processing Unit
China's Sinopec Corp last month resumed production at a key natural gas processing plant in southwestern Sichuan province after a planned maintenance, the parent company of the state oil and gas group said on Tuesday.By August-end, Sinopec had completed maintenance at a desulphurising facility at Puguang gas field - the firm's largest gas-producing asset in China - ahead of the heating season, which normally begins at mid-November.There will be a surge in the consumption of natural gas surge during the heating season.The company…
GoM Offshore Platforms Evacuated Ahead of Hurricane
Energy companies on Monday halted nearly a fifth of Gulf of Mexico oil production and evacuated staff from 10 platforms as Hurricane Michael intensified and headed for a path up the eastern U.S. part of the Gulf.BHP Billiton, BP, Equinor and Exxon Mobil Corp were evacuating personnel from oil and gas platforms in the Gulf as forecasters predicted the storm would become a Category 3 hurricane.Companies turned off the daily production flow of 324,190 barrels of oil and nearly 284 million cubic feet of natural gas at midday, according to a survey of producers.
Exxon Assessing Earthquake Damage to New Guinea NatGas Plant
LNG export project knocked out by major quake in late Feb. A senior Exxon Mobil Corp executive said on Wednesday the company is still assessing damage to its natural gas processing plant in the mountains of Papua New Guinea, knocked out by a strong earthquake last month. A powerful 7.5 magnitude quake struck near Exxon's Hides facility on Feb. 25, killing dozens of people and halting production at the site. The temblor damaged power infrastructure and also led to the closure of the Komo jungle airfield, making access to the remote facility difficult.
WPX forms JV to Develop Permian Assets
U.S. oil and gas producer WPX Energy Inc said it had agreed to form a joint venture with privately held Howard Energy Partners to develop oil gathering and natural gas processing infrastructure in the Permian basin. The joint venture will complete the construction of a pipeline, already started by WPX, and develop a new natural gas processing plant, the company said. The pipeline is designed to move about 125,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), while the natural gas plant will have an initial capacity of 400 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). WPX said it would receive $300 million upfront in cash from Howard Energy.
Canada's AltaGas to Jointly Build Natgas Processing Plant
Energy infrastructure company AltaGas Ltd said it would jointly build a natural gas processing plant and a natural gas liquids separation train with a privately held producer in the Montney shale play in western Canada. AltaGas said on Monday that while the deep-cut processing facility will be jointly owned, the NGL separation train and a rail terminal will be fully owned by AltaGas. The plant is expected to cost C$100 million-C$110 million ($75 million-$83 million), while the separation train and rail terminal are expected to cost about $60 million-$70 million. (Reporting by John Benny in Bengaluru)
Norway Oil & Gas Workers May Strike
Workers at three onshore plants serving Norway's oil and gas industry will strike from Oct. 7 unless they get a new wage deal, the SAFE labour union said on Monday, potentially threatening Britain's natural gas supplies. Some 338 workers at Statoil's Melkoeya LNG plant, Shell's Nyhamna natural gas processing plant and ExxonMobil's Slagen refinery terminal would go on strike if talks on a new pay deal break down, the union said. The Melkoeya plant turns gas from the Arctic Snoehvit field into liquefied natural gas (LNG) which is shipped worldwide…
Enterprise to Export First Ethane Cargo from Houston Terminal in August
Enterprise Products Partners on Thursday said the first ship to load ethane for export from its new terminal on the Houston Ship Channel will arrive on Aug. 1, the first such export of the light natural gas liquid from the U.S. Gulf Coast. Exports from the terminal are expected to ramp up to 1.9 million barrels per month by the end of the year, executives said on Thursday during the company's second quarter earnings call. Enterprise said it was currently in the process of commissioning the ethane export facility, as well as its Waha natural gas processing plant in the Delaware Basin.
Gas Plant Fire Halts US Gulf Coast Platforms
At least two offshore oil platforms halted operations on Tuesday in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico after a fire at a natural gas processing plant in Mississippi shut a crucial pipeline that brings output onshore, several companies said. The fire at Enterprise Products Partners plant in Pascagoula was brought under control, but officials were still forced to close the 225-mile Destin gas pipeline system that can carry 1.2 billion cubic feet per day from offshore fields to Pascagoula. Destin, majority-owned by BP with Enbridge Inc a minority partner, said it was declaring force majeure, a legal clause that allows it to scrap commitments, as a result of the fire.
Norway Gas Export Plant Hit by Fire During Maintenance
Norway's Nyhamna natural gas processing plant was evacuated on Tuesday following a fire during maintenance work, operator Royal Dutch Shell said, confirming earlier police reports. The plant supplies gas from the Ormen Lange field to Britain through a pipeline under the North Sea, but is currently shut due to the ongoing work, the company added. The fire was quickly put out and none of the 650 workers were injured, Shell said. (Reporting by Camilla Knudsen)
Nyhamna Gas Plant Fire Forces Evacuation
Norway's Nyhamna natural gas processing plant, which supplies Britain through a pipeline under the North Sea, was evacuated on Tuesday following a fire, the local police force said on its Twitter account. It did not say whether the plant was shut. The fire has been put out and there were no injuries, police later added. The plant supplies about a fifth of Norway's output and processes gas from Royal Dutch Shell's Ormen Lange field. Shell was not immediately available for comment. Reporting by Camilla Knudsen
MEG Latest to Shut Oil Sands Project on Alberta Fire Threat
MEG Energy Inc said on Tuesday it was suspending operations at its 80,000 barrel per day Christina Lake oil sands project and evacuated non-essential staff as wildfires rage through northeastern Alberta. MEG said in a statement that there was as yet no safety risk from the forest fires, but it has halted work on a planned maintenance shutdown at its project site, the latest of several oil producers in the region to move staff away from the potential danger. "As a precautionary measure, we have temporarily suspended operations, including our planned maintenance turnaround," the company said in a statement.
Norway's Gas Plant Suffers Unexpected Outage
Norway's Nyhamna natural gas processing plant, which supplies Britain through a pipeline under the North Sea, suffered an unexpected outage on Saturday due to power loss, its operator told the Nordic Power bourse. The plant, which supplies about a fifth of Norway's output and processes gas from Royal Dutch Shell's Ormen Lange field, will be ramped up as soon as possible, the power bourse added. Norway is western Europe's biggest gas supplier and accounts for a fifth of the European Union's consumption. (Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Michael Urquhart)
Norway's Kollsnes Gas Output Reduced due Repairs
Natural gas output from Norway's natural gas processing plant Kollsens will be reduced by 16.5 million cubic metres per day on Monday and Tuesday due to corrective maintenance, gas system operator Gassco said on Saturday. The 143 mcm/day capacity plant on Norway's western coast processes gas from the country's biggest field, Troll, before sending it to customers in Britain and the continental Europe. Norway's Statoil is technical service provider at the plant. Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis
Algerian Reggane Nord Gas Project entering execution phase
A project consortium that includes RWE Dea has signed a major contract for the construction of a natural gas processing plant and infrastructure in the Algerian Sahara for the Reggane Nord project. The contract is valued at US$976 million and represents an important step forward for the project. Representatives of the Groupement Reggane of which RWE Dea is a partner signed the contract to construct the natural gas processing facilities and corresponding infrastructure including the gathering network and export pipeline on Thursday.
Wyoming Natgas Plant to Restart after Blast
Williams Partners LP said Monday it plans to return to service the four undamaged units at its natural gas processing plant in Opal, Wyoming, which shut last week after an explosion and fire damaged one of the facility's five units. Officials at the company were not immediately available for comment. The April 23 incident at Opal was the second explosion and fire to shut a Williams gas facility in a month, leading some to worry that incidents like these will make it tougher for the industry to replenish stockpiles drained to critically low levels after a brutal winter.
Oil Producers Hope DC Talks Ease Export Ban
Recent meetings between U.S. oil producers and Commerce Department officials have fueled industry hopes that the Obama administration may soon begin to ease a longstanding ban on oil exports. Although it would require an act of Congress to end the four-decade export ban, some analysts and executives believe the White House may be getting ready to open up the taps a bit, allowing some export of a super-light form of oil known as condensate, which falls into a regulatory gray area. Executives and sources said a number of major shale oil producers have quietly stepped up lobbying efforts over the contentious energy issue in recent weeks…
MarkWest Shuts Penn. Natgas Plant After Lightning Strike
A MarkWest Energy Partners LP natural gas processing plant in southwest Pennsylvania was shut on Wednesday after an apparent lightning strike, according to local media reports. MarkWest Energy Partners spokesman Robert McHale said, "At approximately 6:00 p.m., during severe weather conditions, MarkWest's Houston facility was struck by lightning," according to a report on the WPXI News website. "All employees and contractors are accounted for and there are no reported injuries. The facility will remain shut down until a thorough inspection is completed," McHale said, according to the report. The plant processes Marcellus shale natural gas.
Hess Plans IPO for Bakken Assets
Hess to form a MLP holding pipeline and other assets; file registration statement with regulators in Q4. Expects to launch an IPO in 1st-quarter of 2015. Oil and natural gas producer Hess Corp said it plans to form a publicly traded master limited partnership (MLP) comprising its pipeline and storage assets in North Dakota's Bakken oil shale field. The company's shares rose nearly 5 percent to $103.99 in light premarket trading on Wednesday. Hess said it expected the MLP to file a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the fourth quarter.
Four Hurt in 'Flash Fire' at Wyoming Natgas Tank
Four workers were injured Tuesday in a storage tank fire at a natural gas production facility at top gas producer EOG Resources Inc in Wyoming, the company said on Wednesday. The EOG employees and two contract workers were cleaning the tank when the fire broke out at about 2:00 p.m., said Houston-based EOG Resources spokeswoman K Leonard. "The tank stores natural gas, and was undergoing cleaning when the explosion occurred," the Lincoln County Homeland Security & Emergency Management said in a statement. Leonard said the site contains one well and two small liquids storage tanks. She said the fire was extinguished and the well was shut in.
Hess Files for IPO of Bakken Master Limited Partnership
Hess Midstream Partners, a master limited partnership (MLP), filed for a $250 million initial public offering representing an interest in Hess Corp's North Dakota oil and gas storage facilities and processing plants, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday. MLPs are tax-advantaged structures favored by many energy companies that use them as a way to lower the cost of capital and highlight the valuation of certain assets. The partnerships, which trade in units instead of shares, pass their tax burden to investors who receive nearly all the business' income in the form of hefty distributions.
