-Refiners processed 16.6 million barrels per day of crude and other liquids last week — a record amount for this time of year, according to the Energy Information Administration. Via Bloomberg, the production boost — driven by the end of seasonal maintenance — is helping to extend a drop in gasoline pump prices that analysts expect to run through Christmas. Meanwhile, oil prices rose as crude stockpiles fell.
-QEP Resources completed the $2.5 billion sale of its midstream business to Tesoro Logistics. Tesoro acquired natural gas gathering and processing assets in the Rockies, Uinta and North Dakota in the deal. Tesoro also received a 58% ownership interest in QEP Midstream Partners.
-PBF Logistics agreed to acquire a tank farm at PBF Energy’s Toledo, Ohio, refinery for $150 million. The tank farm consists of approximately 3.9 million barrels of feedstock and product storage capacity. PBF Logistics in September agreed to buy a heavy crude oil unloading rack in Delaware City, Del., from PBF Energy.
-Southwestern Energy agreed to acquire 46,700 net acres in northeast Pennsylvania from WPX Energy for $300 million. Southwestern will also assume transportation capacity of 260 million cubic feet per day of gas on the Millennium pipeline, effective upon closing. The acreage being acquired produces 50 million cubic feet per day of gas from 63 horizontal wells.
-Australian Oil Co. Limited (AOC) formed a joint venture to develop an LNG export terminal on the U.S. West Coast. The Sacramento-Basin-focused firm said it had identified project sites and that negotiations were progressing. AOC is seeking to capitalize on the lack of LNG export facilities under development on the West Coast. The only West Coast projects approved by the DOE thus far are Jordan Cove LNG in Coos Bay, Ore., and LNG Development Co.’s proposed facility in Warrenton, Ore.
