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Study: Bakken no greater transport risk than other light crudes

The North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC) has released the final report on a study it commissioned to examine the characteristics of crude oil produced from the Bakken shale region. The third-party study, completed by Turner, Mason & Co., Dallas, and SGS Laboratories, indicates Bakken crude is similar to other North American light, sweet crudes and does not pose a greater risk to transport by rail than other crudes and transportation fuels, NDPC said. The final report follows preliminary results of the study presented in May ( OGJ Online, May 20, 2014 ). Designed to better understand the safety aspects of moving Bakken crude by rail, the study came as a response to concerns raised by government and industry groups as to the stability and safe transportability of the regional crude after its involvement in a series of high-profile railcar incidents in both the US and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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EIA: Marcellus accounts for 40% of US shale gas production

Natural gas production from the Marcellus shale has surpassed 15 bcfd through July and now represents 40% of US shale gas production, making it the largest producing shale gas basin in the country, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s Drilling Productivity Report . While the region’s rig count has leveled off at around 100 rigs over the past 10 months, improvements in drilling productivity have enabled operators to more efficiently support new wells. EIA expects wells coming online in August to add more than 600 MMcfd to existing production, more than offsetting a drop in production due to existing well decline rates, thus increasing the production rate by 247 MMcfd. Marcellus production in recent years has shot up to record levels after accounting for just 2 bcfd in 2010, resulting in record gas storage injections, multiple pipeline expansion projects to remedy bottlenecks, and stabilized or decreased prices ( […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Colorado Democrats Avoid Fracking Fight

Colorado Democrats avoided a politically costly fight over oil and gas drilling after a quid pro quo deal pitched by the state’s fracking-friendly governor prompted groups to drop their dueling ballot proposals. The cease-fire compromise from Gov. John Hickenlooper was announced with great fanfare at the state Capitol Monday morning with U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a fellow Democrat who helped finance two initiatives that sought to limit hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. He agreed to back off his proposals, and groups pitching two pro-fracking proposals said later in the day they would end their campaigns as well. A ballot-battle over drilling had Democrats worried about the implications. Taking the issue to voters could have negatively impacted Democrats in November by increasing fundraising for Republicans who favor oil and gas development and possibly boosting GOP turnout. Hickenlooper […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Groundwater Depletion in Colorado River Basin Poses Big Risk to Water Security

Resilience Published on Resilience (http://www.resilience.org) Published by National Geographic Newswatch on 2014-08-05 Original article:tellites of NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). Using data from this mission, scientists have determined that a vast volume of groundwater has been depleted from the Colorado River Basin over the last decade. Credit: NASA/JPL Let’s step back for a minute and consider the implications of  the study  released last week on the depletion of groundwater in the Colorado River Basin. For anyone concerned about the future of the American West, the findings of this study – which was published online in the journal  Geophysical Research Letters  and conducted by a team of scientists from NASA, the University of California-Irvine, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado—can make the heart pound. Let’s start with a little context above ground, before going below. Lake Mead […]

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California Experiencing Most Severe Drought Ever Recorded

One of the worst North American droughts in history could be getting a whole lot worse. According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor Map released on Tuesday, more than 58 percent of California is in an “exceptional drought” stage. That’s up a staggering 22 percent from last week’s report. And, in its latest drought report released earlier today, the National Drought Mitigation Center warned that “bone-dry” conditions are overtaking much of the Golden State, and noted that, overall, California is “short more than one year’s worth of reservoir water, or 11.6 million acre-feet, for this time of year.” All across California, streams are drying up, crops are dying off and local communities are struggling to maintain access to water , thanks to 3 years of persistent drought conditions. The situation is so dire that on Tuesday, California […]

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Lukoil dumps assets in Central Europe

Russian energy company Lukoil said it sold off its service stations in Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic as part of an optimization strategy. Hungarian energy company MOL acquired 44 retail service centers from Lukoil. It builds on a similar acquisition in the country from Italian energy company Eni, giving it 319 service stations in the Czech Republic. Rival company Norm Benzinkut purchased 75 filling stations in Hungary and 19 in Slovakia. The Russian energy company said the sales were part of an effort to streamline its asset base in Central Europe. "The decision to sell the assets was taken as part of the effort to optimize LUKOIL’s business in petroleum-product marketing," the company said in a statement Monday. Lukoil last week made a similar move with its network of filling stations in Ukraine. Lukoil was spared from the latest round of U.S. and European sanctions targeting […]

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Russia plans energy talks with EU

Members from the European Union are expected to meet with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak at the end of August, the Kremlin said Tuesday. European leaders are trying to diversify a natural gas sector that depends heavily on Russia. Most of the gas Russia sends to Europe runs through a Soviet-era pipeline network in Ukraine and ongoing crises there adds a layer of risk to the European energy sector. An unnamed representative from the Energy Ministry told RIA Novosti a meeting between Novak and European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger is scheduled for the end of August to review the situation. "Preliminarily, the meeting is scheduled to take place on Aug. 29," the representative said Tuesday. No venue was announced. Russian energy company Gazprom said Ukraine owes billions of dollars for recent gas deliveries. Debt disputes in 2006 and 2009 resulted in a Gazprom decision to cut gas through Ukraine, […]

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Dirtiest Fuel Threatens 700-Year-Old Villages in Europe

Europe’s energy dilemma — burning the dirtiest coal while meeting pollution targets — is crystallizing in opposition to a plan that would uproot 700-year-old villages and dig two pits the size of Manhattan. PGE SA and Vattenfall AB , the Warsaw- and Stockholm-based utilities, want to tap Europe’s richest lignite deposit, along the German-Polish border. They’re opposed by communities already suffering sporadic sand storms and crumbling roads, in an area where the 12 kilometer (7.5 miles) long Jaenschwalde mine has dominated the landscape for three decades. Locals will form an 8-kilometer cross-border human chain on Aug. 23 in protest. The battle reflects the divide across Europe. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk sees coal, used to generate 90 percent of his nation’s power, as a way for Europe to depend less on Russian natural gas. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government calls lignite “the black gold” that will help smooth out […]

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Defiant Putin Readies Retaliation Against Western Sanctions Over Ukraine

Dozens of Ukrainian soldiers who had crossed the border into Russia on Monday returned to Ukraine, after both Ukrainian and Russian officials gave conflicting explanations of why the Ukrainian soldiers had entered Russia. WSJ’s Niki Blasina reports. (Photo: AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he has ordered his government to prepare retaliatory measures against U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Russia last week, as the Kremlin stepped up pressure on Ukraine. Mr. Putin has shown no outward sign of buckling under the weight of sanctions—the harshest yet imposed by Brussels and Washington—aimed at getting him to stop supporting pro-Russia rebels across the border in Ukraine. The Russian Foreign MInistry described eastern Ukraine as on the verge of a "humanitarian catastrophe" and said Tuesday it would push for an international mission to help masses of civilians fleeing the fighting. At Russia’s request, the United Nations Security Council met for a […]

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Reducing Carbon by Curbing Population

Remember the population explosion? When population was growing at its fastest rate in human history in the decades after World War II, the sense that overpopulation was stunting economic development and stoking political instability took hold from New Delhi to the United Nations’ headquarters in New York, sending policy makers on an urgent quest to stop it. In the 1970s the Indian government forcibly sterilized millions of women. Families in Bangladesh, Indonesia and elsewhere were forced to have fewer children. In 1974, the United Nations organized its first World Population Conference to debate population control. China rolled out its one-child policy in 1980. Then, almost as suddenly as it had begun, the demographic “crisis” was over. As fertility rates in most of the world dropped to around the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman — with the one major exception of sub-Saharan Africa — population specialists and politicians […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple