-Enterprise Products Partners today proposed to build a 340,000-barrel-per-day oil pipeline from the Bakken shale to Cushing, Okla. As Reuters notes, it is Enterprise’s first foray into the North Dakota formation.
-Tesoro Logistics on Monday announced it would buy $270 million in West Coast terminal and pipeline assets from Tesoro Corp. Included in the purchase are three refined products terminals near Tesoro’s refineries in Martinez, Calif., Anacortes, Wash., and Kenai, Alaska; a marine crude oil and heavy products storage facility near the Anacortes plant; and a 70-mile refined products pipeline from the Kenai plant to Anchorage, Alaska.
-Duke Energy is planning a three-site, 52-megawatt solar project in Pasquotank County, N.C. Via the Charlotte Observer, Duke has entered into a 20-year agreement to sell the electricity generated to two universities and a hospital in Washington, D.C. The first 20-megawatt site will be built this year, with the others to follow next year.
-ExxonMobil executive Bill Colton on Monday told an audience of regulatory utility commissioners natural gas is the “case to beat” with regard to the electricity fuel source mix. Via Platts, Colton said no new technology is needed to boost natural gas given the advanced state of combined cycle power generation turbines.
-A new study by Ernst & Young showed that while spending among U.S. exploration and production firms was down 7% in 2013, oil and gas reserves each grew 9% last year. After-tax profits for the firms surveyed surged 53% last year.