Energy News Briefs for the First Week of July

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News highlights gathered by Industrial Info and IIR Energy (Sugar Land, Texas) over the past week.

TOP NEWS
BP Reaches Deepwater Horizon Settlement - BP has reached a landmark $18.7 billion settlement with the U.S. government and five states over the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and subsequent oil spill.

Supreme Court Rules Against EPA on MATS Rule - The Supreme Court ruled against the Environmental Protection Agency's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule to limit mercury and other pollutants from power generating stations, saying that the agency should have considered compliance costs when making the rule. However, many companies have said that they will continue with compliance projects, and plans to retire thousands of megawatts of coal-fired power are not expected to change significantly.

Chesapeake to Divest Oklahoma Property - Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) will sell 250,000 net acres of oil and gas properties in western Oklahoma to Colorado-based FourPoint Energy for $840 million.

TERMINALS
Companies Team Up for New Crude Oil Storage Facility Near Houston - Magellan Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:MMP) (Tulsa, Oklahoma) and LBC Tank Terminals (Mechelen, Belgium) say that they will build a 700,000-barrel, $95 million crude oil storage facility near Houston.

Cheniere to Proceed Ahead with Condensate Terminal - Cheniere Energy Incorporated (NYSE:LNG) (Houston, Texas) says that it will proceed with construction of a $550 million condensate export terminal on the Corpus Christi Bay in Texas. The terminal will be capable of exporting all types of crude if the U.S. crude export ban is repealed.

PIPELINES
Energy Play Highlight: Eagle Ford's Takeaway Capacity Far Exceeds Demand - The prolific Eagle Ford Shale has been a hotbed of drilling and development for the past several years as access to its oil has improved. While its primary products have been on the lighter side, including natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and light crude oil/condensate, its proximity to the Gulf Coast has given refiners in the region access to a nearby, and thereby inexpensive, source of crude. As such, midstream companies have rushed to develop more pipeline infrastructure that takes those hydrocarbons into the refiners' and gas processers' backyards. With the drop in oil prices, however, production has been pulled back as well. As a result, the takeaway capacity built to accommodate rapid growth in production remains excessive.

OIL & GAS PRODUCTION
Shell to Move Ahead with Arctic and Gulf of Mexico Projects - Although the U.S. Department of the Interior approved Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (The Hague, Netherlands) to drill two wells nine miles apart simultaneously in the Alaskan Arctic, a regulation by the Department of Fish & Wildlife prevents the simultaneous drilling of wells less than 15 miles apart, meaning that Shell can drill with only rig at any given time. Shell says that it will still proceed with the project despite the change in the drilling schedule. The company also announced that it would proceed with a deepwater platform in the Appomattox field in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell says that cost reductions will allow the project to be profitable if oil remains above $55 per barrel. The platform has a planned startup date of 2020.

Baker Hughes: Oil Rig Count Rises for First Time Since December - Baker Hughes (Houston, Texas) reported on Thursday that the number of U.S. rigs drilling for oil increased by 12 last week to 640, following 29 consecutive weeks of declines.

U.S. Oil Reserves Show Unexpected Build - While most analysts expected a drawdown in U.S. oil reserves last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that inventories actually rose 2.4 million barrels, including a 123,000-barrel rise at the Cushing hub. The increase widened WTI's discount to Brent to more than $5 for the first time in more than three weeks.

OPEC Production Hits 3-Year High in June - OPEC's oil production in June reached a three-year high of 31.6 million barrels per day (BBL/d), up from 31.3 million BBL/d in May, thanks largely to record production from Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

New York Formalizes Fracking Ban - New York, part of which sits atop the Marcellus Shale, has formalized its rule forbidding hydraulic fracturing after a seven-year study and moratorium on the process.

POWER
New Unit at Exelon's Perryman Peaking Plant in Maryland Begins Operations - Unit 6 at Exelon Corporation's (NYSE:EXC) (Chicago, Illinois) natural gas-fired Perryman Generating Station in Maryland began commercial operations on Sunday, June 28.

Engie Purchases French Solar Developer - France's Engie (EPA:GSZ) (Paris) (formerly GDF Suez) is purchasing French solar developer Solairedirect (Paris) for about $222 million. Solairedirect is responsible for the development of about 486 MW of solar development. .....

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Energy asset information on power plants, oil refineries and natural gas infrastructure is now more important than ever. A unit of Industrial Info Resources IIR Energy provides infrastructure information on these assets, as well as real-time tracking of planned and unplanned interruptions affecting the trading, logistics and marketing communities. We are the number one source for information about electricity outages, refinery turnarounds and midstream natural gas disruptions.

About Industrial Info
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.