November Newsreel: Gazprom launches business in North America; Quanta acquires Price Gregory and more

Delphi Midstream Acquires Gas Assets
Delphi Midstream Partners, LLC has agreed to acquire a natural gas gathering and compression system, the Mansfield System, located in Tarrant County, TX from Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. The Mansfield System has a current operating capacity of 70 MMcf/d and can be expanded to 90 MMcf/d with additional compression. The acquisition was expected to close in late October. In addition, DMP will obtain the right to invest up to an additional $100 million to develop midstream infrastructure in northeast Pennsylvania in support of Carrizo's Marcellus Shale development plan.

Natural Gas Utilities Winter Outlook: Lower Bills Likely
The American Gas Association saya natural gas customers can expect lower bills on average this winter compared to last year thanks to plentiful domestic supplies and lower wellhead prices.

“With natural gas storage at all time highs and prices well below past years, homeowners are in for some well-deserved relief from high energy costs when heating their homes this winter,” said David Parker, AGA president/CEO.

Invensys To Develop ConocoPhillips’ Proprietary E-Gas Technology
Invensys Operations Management has reached a multi-year agreement with ConocoPhillips to provide dynamic simulation for the development of ConocoPhillips’ proprietary E-Gas technology.

Under the terms of the contract, Invensys will supply its DYNSIM® modeling and simulation software to help improve the design, start-up and operation of new coal gasification plants. In addition, Invensys will be a preferred supplier of dynamic simulation software to licensees of ConocoPhillips’ E-Gas technology.

Plans For Texas Offshore Oil Port Back On Track
A settlement worked out by Oiltanking Holdings Amercias with ex-partners Enterprise Products Partners and Teppco Partner has cleared the way for a $1.8 billion oil port off the Texas coast to move forward.

In August 2008, affiliates of Enterprise TEPPCO and Oiltanking Holding Americas, Inc. formed a joint venture to design, construct, own and operate a new Texas Offshore Port System (TOPS). As proposed, the project would be located 36 miles off the coast of Freeport, TX and designed to unload crude from two supertankers at a time, totaling up to 1.8 MMbpd.

The project calls for storage facilities with 5.1 MMbbls of crude storage capacity and an associated 160-mile pipeline system with capacity to deliver up to 1.8 MMbpd of crude oil. System capacity could be expanded with construction of additional offshore facilities. Development of the offshore port system and onshore infrastructure is supported by long-term contracts with Motiva Enterprises LLC and an affiliate of ExxonMobil which together have committed a total volume of 725,000 BPD.

Despite losing two of its three founding partners, the Texas Offshore Port System will continue with permit applications in the works and a search for new investors, according to a Houston Chronicle article.