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Enable completes Align Midstream purchase
Enable Midstream Partners LP has completed its previously announced, $300 million purchase of Dallas-based Align Midstream LLC, which owns natural gas gathering and processing assets in northern Louisiana.
The deal includes natural gas systems in the Cotton Valley and Haynesville plays in Louisiana and east Texas. Both plays are part of the Ark-La-Tex Basin and extend Enable’s existing footprint in the area.
Align operated about 190 miles of natural gas gathering pipelines across Rusk, Panola and Shelby counties in Texas and DeSoto Parish in Louisiana and a cryogenic natural gas processing plant in Panola, Texas. Enable operates about 12,900 miles of gathering pipelines, 14 processing plants, 7,800 miles of interstate pipeline and about 2,200 miles of intrastate pipeline.
“We are pleased to complete this acquisition, which extends our Ark-La-Tex footprint in active areas of the basin and is expected to be accretive to our 2018 distributable cash flow per unit,” Enable CEO Rod Sailor said. “We are excited about the increasing development in the area, and the integration of these new assets will allow us to further optimize our midstream platform in the region and provide our new customers with an expanded suite of midstream services.”
Gulfport gives update on SCOOP program
Gulfport Energy Corp. this week provided an update on its SCOOP drilling program.
The Oklahoma City-based oil and natural gas company highlighted five wells that each had 24-hour initial production rates of between 8.8 million and 22.9 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day, each composed of about 50 percent natural gas and between 25 percent and 28 percent oil.
Also this week, Gulfport executives said they plan to offer $450 million in 6.375 percent senior notes due 2026. The company said it will use proceeds from the sale to repay the remaining balance on its secured revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes, which may including funding a portion of its 2017 drilling plans.
Oseberg invests in research, development
Oklahoma City-based oil-field data company Oseberg has created a new department dedicated to research, innovation and product development, the company said.
OseLabs is designed to rapidly prototype and validate data, application and visualization concepts, the company said.
“We created OseLabs to rapidly test our most creative and ambitious ideas,” OseLabs Director Beau Babst said. “Labs takes high-impact hypotheses and validates them by building prototypes and bringing them to market. We’re learning everyday.”
Former Devon exec hired as adviser
Former Devon Energy Corp. executive Duke R. Ligon has been named a senior adviser for Houstonbased energy advisory group Peter J. Solomon Co.
Ligon has nearly 50 years experience in the energy sector and is owner and CEO of Mekusukey Oil Co. He spent much of his career as a senior executive, general counsel and management committee member at Devon before retiring from the company in 2007.
“We are thrilled that an industry veteran with the stature and experience of Duke Ligon is joining our firm,” Solomon Co. CEO Marc S. Cooper said. “He has for many years been a great friend and mentor to our partners in the energy group and we all look forward to many more years of partnership with him.”
Empire hires Pritchard Griffin Advisors
TULSA — Empire Petroleum Corp. directors have hired Pritchard Griffin Advisors to advise the company on its previously announced potential northwest Louisiana transaction and on other prospective mergers, joint ventures and acquisitions, the company said.
“We are very pleased to have PGA engaged with the company,” Empire President Mike Morrisett said. “Their breadth of experience, knowledge, and contacts in most of the major oil and gas basins in the U.S., specifically within the East Texas/Louisiana Cotton Valley/Haynesville play, provides the company with the confidence to implement our initial strategy within this region.”
Tommy Pritchard, managing director and founder of Pritchard Griffin, will be appointed as an Empire director and assume a key senior management role within the company after it closes its previously announced Haynesville-Cotton Valley transaction, the company said. That deal is scheduled to close in early November.
OSHA honors Tenaska Kiamichi Station
KIOWA — Employees at Tenaska Kiamichi Generating Station near Kiowa have been honored with Voluntary Protection Program Star, the country’s highest safety designation.
The recognition is awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The natural gas-fired electric plant has 35 employees and has received 18 National Safety Council Awards since 2003.
“We are very proud of the employees at Tenaska Kiamichi for their continued commitment to safety,” Tenaska CEO Jerry Crouse said. “A safe workplace helps to ensure that employees return home safely at the end of the day and that the community remains protected from potential hazards. It also contributes to the reliable operation of the plant.”