On steel wheels: Nearly 2,000 barrels of raw rice from farmer Glenden Marceaux is waiting in storage at a new $4 million high-speed rail facility nearing completion in Lacassine, an unincorporated community in rural Jefferson Davis Parish. Marceaux’s rice will be used to test the facility’s operation. Marceaux, the vice chairman of the South Louisiana Rail Facility, tells the (Lake Charles) American Press the owners hope to have the facility open by the end of the month, although construction continues on a grading room.
From one pocket to another: Kinder Morgan Energy Partners announced Monday it will buy Tennessee Gas Pipeline and a 50% interest in El Paso Natural Gas pipeline from Kinder Morgan Inc. for $6.2 billion. The move is part of Kinder Morgan’s $21 billion acquisition of El Paso Corp., which it absorbed to form the nation’s largest natural gas hauler. Kinder Morgan Inc. owns Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ general partner. The deal is expected to close this month. The Houston Chronicle has the full story here.
Coming up dry: A second deep-water exploratory well in the Gulf of Mexico has proved a bust, Cuba’s state oil company announced Monday, dealing another blow to the island’s dreams of petroleum riches. The drilling operation carried out by PC Gulf, a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Petronas, and Gazpromneft of Russia concluded July 31 off the western province of Pinar del Rio, Cuban state oil company Cubapetroleo says in a statement. Get all the details on Cuba’s hopes of becoming an oil-producing state in the full story here.
