MIDSTREAM NEWS

May 7, 2014

RiverRock secures $125M equity commitment from EnCap Flatrock

San Antonio, TX-based RiverRock Energy LLC has received an initial equity commitment of $125 million from private equity firm EnCap Flatrock Midstream and management.

RiverRock will develop midstream solutions for oil and gas producers and other customers needing crude oil logistics services to gather, store and transport crude oil by pipeline and rail. In addition, RiverRock will provide infrastructure to handle condensate, fresh and produced water, natural gas liquids and natural gas.

The company is pursuing greenfield and acquisition opportunities in emerging resource plays and other producing basins.

RiverRock's founding partners are president and CEO Greg Schmidt, executive vice president and COO Patrick Eurek and vice president of commercial development Keith Taylor.

Schmidt has more than 36 years of domestic and international experience in the energy industry. Prior to RiverRock, Schmidt served for two years as senior vice president of commercial operations at Energy Transfer.

Eurek also holds 36 years of industry experience. Prior to RiverRock, Eurek served as vice president of business development at NuStar Energy LP.

A 15-year industry veteran, Taylor was previously responsible for new commercial business for the majority of NuStar's common carrier pipelines.

Jones Day represented RiverRock Energy. Thompson & Knight LLP represented EnCap Flatrock Midstream.

Sage Launches West Coast Propane, Butane Export Terminal Project

Sage Midstream LLC has launched a project to build a West Coast propane and butane export terminal at the Port of Longview in Washington State through its subsidiary Haven Energy Terminals LLC.

Haven Energy will construct a unit train accessible rail unloading facility, storage tanks, and ship loading area at the Port with the capability to load marine vessels with up to an approximate capacity of 550,000 barrels. The terminal will have a capacity of 47,000 barrels per day and is expected to be operational by Q4 of 2016.

Sage commissioned ECONorthwest to conduct an independent economic study of the Haven Energy project. During the construction period, the project is expected to create over 2,000 construction jobs with over $135 million in payroll and benefits, while generating over $17 million in state and local tax revenue. Once operational, the project is expected to create between 100 – 125 permanent direct and indirect jobs and generate over $80 million in local and state tax revenue in the first 20 years.

Exterran Completes Acquisition of Assets from MidCon Compression

Exterran Partners has completed its previously announced acquisition of compression assets from MidCon Compression LLC, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corp., for approximately $360 million.

The acquired assets include 337 compression units, with a total horsepower of approximately 440,000, which currently are being used to provide compression services to Access MLP Operating LLC, a subsidiary of Access Midstream Partners LP.

In connection, Exterran Partners and Access have entered into a seven-year contract operations services agreement under which Exterran Partners will provide contract compression services to Access in regions including the Permian, Eagle Ford, Barnett, Anadarko, Mississippi Lime, Granite Wash, Woodford, Haynesville and Niobrara Basins.

The acquisition was funded using proceeds from Exterran's March 2014 equity offering and a portion of its March 2014 debt offering.

The Omnibus Agreement between Exterran Partners and Exterran Holdings has been amended to increase the cap on selling, general and administrative costs from $15 million per quarter to $17.7 million per quarter.

Oryx enters Permian with $300M equity commitment

Oryx Midstream Services LLC has received an equity commitment totaling up to $300 million from Quantum Energy Partners, Post Oak Energy Capital, Wells Fargo Energy Capital, Oryx management, and other private investors. Oryx will pursue midstream opportunities in the Permian Basin, focusing initially on the Delaware Basin in Texas and New Mexico.

Oryx has signed long-term, fee-based contracts with three exploration and production companies to support drilling programs in the northern Delaware Basin. The three companies have dedicated to Oryx production from wells drilled within an area encompassing approximately 340,000 acres in Lea County, New Mexico.

Oryx plans to initially construct up to 60 miles of rich-gas-gathering pipeline and up to 80 miles of crude-oil-gathering pipeline. Construction will be conducted in phases.

The pipeline systems will serve production from multiple formations including the Second Bone Spring, Third Bone Spring, Avalon/Leonard, and Wolfcamp shales. Oryx also plans to pursue third-party volumes inside the acreage dedication area and more broadly across the basin.

ONEOK Partners completes capital-growth projects

ONEOK Partners LP has completed three natural gas gathering and processing and natural gas liquids (NGL) capital-growth projects worth an approximate investment of $1 billion.

As part of the partnership's $6–$6.4 billion capital-growth program through 2016, the completed projects include:

  • The Sterling III Pipeline, a 540-plus-mile, 16-inch-diameter NGL pipeline that transports either unfractionated NGLs or NGL purity products from the US Mid-Continent region to the Texas Gulf Coast
  • The Canadian Valley natural gas processing facility, with a capacity of 200MMcf/d, and related infrastructure in the Cana-Woodford shale play in Oklahoma
  • An ethane/propane splitter at the company's Mont Belvieu, Texas, NGL storage facility.

TGP awards capacity to Antero Resources

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP reports that KMP's Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. (TGP) has awarded Antero Resources 100% of the capacity offered in TGP's binding open season for its proposed Broad Run Flexibility and Broad Run Expansion projects.

The open season, which closed April 11, totaled 790,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) for long-term firm capacity for 15 years on the Broad Run Lateral in West Virginia and on TGP's 100 and 500 mainlines. Anticipated capital cost of the projects totals $782 million, which includes horsepower and piping modifications at existing stations, and a new compressor station on the Broad Run Lateral, all in West Virginia; two new TGP mainline compressor stations in Tennessee and Kentucky; and modifications to five existing mainline compressor stations in Kentucky.

Kinder Morgan East Region Natural Gas Pipeline President Kimberly S. Watson said, "The results of the Broad Run open season demonstrate that demand for clean, efficient natural gas is continuing to drive production growth in the Marcellus, Utica and other shale resource plays, and that our assets are well positioned to serve those plays. The capacity subscribed in this open season also underscores continued growth in Gulf Coast consumption markets and the need for more supply for processing, fractionation and liquefaction, and other end uses in the area."

Nuevo Expands Services in Delaware Basin

Houston-based Nuevo Midstream LLC has completed a processing capacity expansion to its Ramsey system in the Delaware Basin near Orla, Texas.

Nuevo's new 200 MMcf/d Ramsey III cryogenic processing plant is now online at the company's Ramsey processing facility in Reeves County, Texas, bringing Nuevo's total cryogenic processing capacity to 300 MMcf/d. The Ramsey system also includes amine treating capacity of 1,800 gpm, more than 270 miles of low and high-pressure gathering lines, four field compressor stations and interconnections into the El Paso Natural Gas and DCP Sandhills pipelines.

Nuevo's Ramsey IV plant expansion will include an additional 200 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant and a new 1,000 gpm amine plant. Nuevo expects to bring the Ramsey IV plant online in the third quarter of 2015, bringing total cryogenic processing capacity to 500 MMcf/d and amine treating capacity to 2,800 gpm. The Ramsey V plant expansion is expected to be operational in the summer of 2016 and will include an additional 400 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant and an additional 1,000 gpm amine treating plant, bringing Nuevo's cryogenic processing capacity to a total of 900 MMcf/d and total amine treating capacity to 3,800 gpm. Additional expansion plans include two new compressor stations and more than 75 miles of additional high pressure gathering lines in operation by the end of 2016.

BRIEFS

Lockheed Martin rolls out its First LNG Tank

Lockheed Martin's first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tank has transitioned from the assembly line to the shipyard for integration with the Wartsila LNG propulsion system.

The tank will be used for marine applications under contract to Wartsila, a Finnish power solution provider for Harvey Gulf International Marine LLC.

The LNG tank will be installed in Harvey Gulf's LNG powered offshore support vessel currently under construction at Gulf Coast Shipyard Group in Gulfport, Miss.

This is the first in a series of cryogenic tanks Lockheed Martin will produce in support of expanding use of LNG tanks for marine applications and land-based storage.

LNG approvals continue

The Jordan Cove project in Coos Bay, OR has received DOE approval for non-FTA LNG exports. The approval, the first on the West Coast, is the seventh LNG terminal to get the regulatory green light.