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Fearless Oil & Gas-Related Predictions for 2014

Well, it’s the end of the year 2013, and everyone and his or her brother is busy compiling a Top Ten Something-or-Other (take your pick: movies, songs, celebrity faux pas, football players, baseball players, basketball dunks, Miley Cyrus embarrassments, etc.)  list for 2013. Turns out I’m too lazy to compile my own Top Ten Energy Stories for 2013, because that would require going back through a year’s worth of stories and doing a bunch of time-consuming research.  I figured instead I’d compile my own list of Fearless Oil & Gas-Related Predictions for 2014, since I can just make those up off the top of my head, throw ‘em against the wall, and see which, if any of them, stick. So, here goes nothing: Prediction #1 :  Every day during 2014, an earthquake will take place somewhere on the face of the earth.  And every day, no […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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‘Polar Pig’ Threatens Coldest U.S. Weather in Two Decades

The coldest air in almost 20 years is sweeping over the central U.S. toward the East Coast, threatening to topple temperature records, ignite energy demand and damage Great Plains winter wheat. Chicago’s high today won’t reach zero Fahrenheit (minus 18 Celsius) and may just hit that tomorrow, according to the National Weather Service . New York City ’s low will fall to 8, Washington will see 5 and Dallas ’s low will be 19. Orlando , Florida , may drop to freezing at 32 degrees. For the East, tomorrow will be even worse. Winter storms and frigid air add volatility to commodities trading and spot power markets. Natural gas futures in New York have surged 23 percent since Nov. 1 as the coldest start to the U.S. heating season in 13 years boosted fuel demand. Last week, as snow and cold gripped the nation, spot power […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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N.D. Gov. Dalrymple wants safety assurances from BNSF Railway

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple, citing a December derailment, said he’ll "pursue" BNSF Railway until he’s satisfied appropriate safety measures are in place. Dalrymple met with Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Matt Ross at the company’s headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, to discuss safety issues associated with rail delivery of crude oil. A BNSF train carrying oil derailed Dec. 30 about 25 miles west of Fargo, N.D., after colliding with a train carrying soybeans. No injuries were reported. "I wanted to ask BNSF more questions about the operation of trains that carry oil, their safety measures and about the tank cars used to ship North Dakota crude oil," Dalrymple said in a statement Friday. "We’re going to pursue this until we’re satisfied that the appropriate measures are in place for maximum public safety." Energy companies are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Colorado River Drought Forces a Painful Reckoning for States

LAKE MEAD, Nev. — The sinuous Colorado River and its slew of man-made reservoirs from the Rockies to southern Arizona are being sapped by 14 years of drought nearly unrivaled in 1,250 years. The once broad and blue river has in many places dwindled to a murky brown trickle. Reservoirs have shrunk to less than half their capacities, the canyon walls around them ringed with white mineral deposits where water once lapped. Seeking to stretch their allotments of the river, regional water agencies are recycling sewage effluent, offering rebates to tear up grass lawns and subsidizing less thirsty appliances from dishwashers to shower heads. But many experts believe the current drought is only the harbinger of a new, drier era in which the Colorado’s flow will be substantially and permanently diminished. Faced with the shortage, federal authorities this year will for the first time decrease the amount of water […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Water pollution in four states linked to oil and gas drilling

In at least four states that have nurtured the nation’s energy boom, hundreds of complaints have been made about well-water contamination from oil or gas drilling, and pollution was confirmed in a number of them, according to a review that casts doubt on industry suggestions that such problems rarely happen. The Associated Press requested data on drilling-related complaints in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Texas and found major differences in how the states report such problems. Texas provided the most detail, while the other states provided only general outlines. And while the confirmed problems represent only a tiny portion of the thousands of oil and gas wells drilled each year in the U.S., the lack of detail in some state reports could help fuel public confusion and mistrust. The AP found that Pennsylvania received 398 complaints in 2013 alleging that oil or natural gas drilling polluted or otherwise affected […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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New York real-time power prices remain volatile as loads exceed forecasts

New York electricity markets were feeling the brunt of a Nor’easter Friday, with real-time electricity prices in some zones coming in hundreds of dollars above Thursday’s levels, and loads for the state above forecasts. At the same time, New England, which saw incredibly strong day-ahead pricing in the bilateral and ISO markets, has been much less volatile. One reason for the differing price behavior has been loads. New England’s load has come in as much as 2,000 MW below forecasts, but New York has seen loads as much as 1,000 MW above state-wide forecasts and about 100 MW over forecasts for the Hudson Valley Zone. Zones in eastern New York saw real-time prices climb above $1,000/MWh from 9:30 am to 11:30 am EST, with Hudson Valley, Zone G seeing a five-minute increment above $2,500/MWh. The average real-time price for the hour that ended 11 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pa. Asks State Supreme Court To Reconsider Decision On Oil, Gas Law

The state of Pennsylvania on Thursday asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider its December decision that struck down parts of an oil and gas law. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court voted 4-2 in mid-December saying key provisions in Act 13, a 2012 law that governs oil and gas drilling, is unconstitutional. In a state known for its shale gas bounty, the decision broadened the rights of local governments to restrict the controversial fracking process within their city limits, dealing a blow to oil and gas interests. The state is asking the Supreme Court to remand the case to a Pennsylvania court for further evidence, exhibit and testimony gathering. The state Department of Environmental Protection is also asking the court to reconsider its decision, saying its duty to protect public parks […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Study Shows Fracking Is Bad for Babies

The energy industry has long insisted that hydraulic fracking — the practice of fracturing rock to extract gas and oil deep beneath the earth’s surface — is safe for people who live nearby. New research suggests this is not true for some of the most vulnerable humans: newborn infants. In a study presented today at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in Philadelphia, the researchers — Janet Currie of Princeton University, Katherine Meckel of Columbia University, and John Deutch and Michael Greenstone of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — looked at Pennsylvania birth records from 2004 to 2011 to assess the health of infants born within a 2.5-kilometer radius of natural-gas fracking sites. They found that proximity to fracking increased the likelihood of low birth weight by more than half, from about 5.6 percent to more than 9 percent. The chances of a low […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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In Bakken (ND) it is Now Mostly about McKenzie County

Figure 01: In this post I present an update to my previous posts over at The Oil Drum (The Red Queen series) on developments in tight oil production from the Bakken formation in North Dakota with some additional estimates, mainly presented in charts. The expansion is much about the differences between wells capable of producing, actual producing wells and idle wells (here defined as the difference between the number of wells capable of producing and the number of actual producing wells). Figure 01: The chart above […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The deadly secret behind the Lac-Mégantic infernoAdd to …

An investigation into the disaster and its causes. The shrieking whistle of escaping gas continued for hours. Emergency crews ran for cover when they heard the noise, as they fought blasts of burning oil during the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster. The kettle-boil scream meant one thing: Oil vapours were shooting out of a derailed tank car and another fireball was about to rip from the broken train. It wasn’t until four days after the July 6 derailment that the fires finally subsided. But even before the inferno was extinguished and the burned-out town counted its 47 dead, rescue workers and rail, petroleum and government officials were asking the same troubling question: Why was the oil so explosive? The North Dakota crude that levelled Lac-Mégantic was classified as flammable, a long-standing practice for all oils moved by rail. Hazardous material experts and rail officials interviewed by The Globe and Mail say […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple