Category:

Severance tax would backfire, Pennsylvania association leaders warn

WASHINGTON, DC, Dec. 17 12/17/2014 Enacting a severance tax aimed at Pennsylvania’s unconventional natural gas activity would substantially harm the commonwealth beyond the industry itself, three oil and gas trade association officials warned. Gov.-Elect Tom Wolf (D) made such a tax a major part of his campaign as a relatively quick way to increase revenue and begin bringing Pennsylvania’s budget in line. But the commonwealth’s economy has flourished as gas activity grew under the existing system, Associated Petroleum Industries of Pennsylvania Executive Director Stephanie Catarino Wissman said. “Energy development is sustaining families with new jobs and generating more income for communities,” she said during a Dec. 16 teleconference with reporters. “Don’t fix what is not broken. Don’t break the economic backbone of the commonwealth.” “The revenue projections that were out there during campaign season were wildly overestimated and can’t be supported by facts,” added Marcellus Shale Coalition Pres. Dave […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Woodside to Pay $2.75 Billion for Apache Project Stakes

Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL) agreed to pay Apache Corp. (APA) $2.75 billion for stakes in two liquefied natural gas projects, while delaying approval for its own $35 billion-development off the nation’s northwest coast. The Apache transaction will give Woodside interests in the Wheatstone LNG and Balnaves oil projects in Australia as well as Canada ’s Kitimat LNG development. The projects are among dozens under construction or consideration worldwide as companies seek to feed Asian markets hungry for gas. Woodside has been seeking acquisitions after its $2.7 billion plan to buy back shares from Royal Dutch Shell Plc was blocked by investors. Apache, facing pressure from activist hedge fund Jana Partners LLC to cut spending and focus on the U.S., said in July it was seeking to exit the proposed Canadian project and the facility under construction in Australia. The Apache deal “adds production growth in a period when […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Cheap Natural Gas Lures Private Equity to Power Industry

The companies most bullish on U.S. power aren’t from the energy industry . They are private equity firms, and here’s why: natural gas. Firms from Panda Power Funds to Energy Investors Funds are financing about 10 gigawatts of new gas-fired plants over the next five years in the 13-state mid-Atlantic grid. That’s enough power to run New York City on all but the hottest summer days. Traditional power companies are building less than 4 gigawatts. Part of the electric grid sits atop the Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania , which supplies 18 percent of U.S. gas production, up from 1.8 percent in 2007. Gas from the Marcellus shale deposit is helping boost U.S. production to a record for a fourth year. Growing supplies have cut gas prices in half over the past six years, double the drop in power, leaving investors with a healthy profit margin. Gas plants will […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Methane Emissions from Two Main Sources says UT Study

Study points to the greatest threat from methane emissions Natural Gas Emissions A new study led by researchers from The University of Texas hopes to provide clues to better understand the correlation between well technology and methane emissions during the natural gas production process. The findings, published December 9th in Environmental Science & Technology , indicate that the overwhelming majority of methane emissions are from two types of wells; those that use pneumatic devices and those that use liquid unloading. According to the study, 19% of Pneumatic Devices were responsible for 95% of methane emissions and were highest in the Gulf Coast Region, which was a similar result to the first part of the study conducted in 2013 . As for Liquid Unloading, 20% of these devices account for 65-85% emissions. Conversely, this finding showed emissions were highest (~50%) in the Rocky Mountain Region due to the higher number […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Who to Believe: U.S. Natural Gas May Peak in 2040. Or 2020.

ByNicole Friedman The U.S. has even more natural gas than previously thought, government forecasters said Thursday. Bloomberg News But not all scientists are buying it. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said that the country’s proved reserves – the amount of natural gas that can be drilled with current technology and at current prices – rose 9.7% in 2013 to 354 trillion cubic feet, the highest level ever. Nearly half of that is shale gas. The EIA expects natural-gas production to continue rising through 2040, unlike oil production, which is projected to peak in 2019. But a Dec. 3 article in the journal Nature cites a University of Texas at Austin study with a much more pessimistic outlook. Output from the four biggest shale-gas areas could peak in 2020, the article says. The Texas team assessed each shale-gas site by square mile, a more granular measurement than the EIA uses. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Texas study finds chink in U.S. shale gas armor

Texas study finds shale natural gas future may not be as bright as rival analyses predict. UPI/Gary C. Caskey AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 4 (UPI) — A study of shale natural gas plays in the United States finds some of the predictions for long-term growth may be overly optimistic, the journal Nature reports. The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects shale natural gas production to increase through 2040. Advances in hydraulic fracturing, the drilling practice known commonly as fracking, has given energy companies a way to coax gas out of shale rock deposits that were previously out of reach. Tad Patzek, director of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, said a detailed analysis of U.S. shale plays may be "bad news" for forecasters, describing the EIA’s forecast as optimistic. Policymakers on Capitol Hill have said the glut of natural gas means the United States should transform itself as […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Natural gas: The fracking fallacy

A rig drills for natural gas using hydraulic-fracturing methods in a Pennsylvania shale formation. Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Alamy When US President Barack Obama talks about the future, he foresees a thriving US economy fuelled to a large degree by vast amounts of natural gas pouring from domestic wells. “We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years,” he declared in his 2012 State of the Union address. Obama’s statement reflects an optimism that has permeated the United States. It is all thanks to fracking — or hydraulic fracturing — which has made it possible to coax natural gas at a relatively low price out of the fine-grained rock known as shale. Around the country, terms such as ‘shale revolution’ and ‘energy abundance’ echo through corporate boardrooms. Companies are betting big on forecasts of cheap, plentiful natural gas. Over the next 20 years, US industry and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Hard Times in a Boom Town: Pennsylvanians Describe Costs of Fracking

If you’re looking for the shale gas boom, northeastern Pennsylvania is the place to start. The Marcellus is the largest and fastest growing shale gas play in the U.S. and more than half of its 50 most productive wells were drilled in Susquehanna County in the northeast. Susquehanna and neighboring Bradford County produced 41 percent of all Marcellus gas this June . While drilling is down in other shale gas plays across the US, with major oil companies selling off their stakes and CEO’s expressing regret for buying in, the Marcellus has bucked some of the downward trends so far. A recent report from the Post Carbon Institute, “ Drilling Deeper: A Reality Check on U.S. Government Forecasts for a Lasting Tight Oil and Shale Gas Boom ,” has grave warnings about the Energy Information Administration’s figures nationwide, concluding that two-fifths of the shale gas the agency expects to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

32% of natural gas pipeline capacity into the Northeast could be bidirectional by 2017

Republished December 2, 2014, 11:00 a.m. to update text. Spurred by growing natural gas production in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, the natural gas pipeline industry is planning to modify its systems to allow bidirectional flow to move up to 8.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) out of the Northeast. As of 2013, the industry had the capacity to transport 25 Bcf/d of natural gas from Canada, the Midwest, and the Southeast into the Northeast. In addition to these bidirectional projects in the Northeast, the industry plans to expand existing systems and build new systems to transport natural gas produced in the Northeast to consuming markets outside the region. Flows on ANR Pipeline, Texas Eastern Transmission, Transcontinental Pipeline, Iroquois Gas Pipeline, Rockies Express Pipeline, and Tennessee Gas Pipeline accounted for 60% of flows to the Northeast in 2013. Flows on these pipelines in 2013 were between 21% and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

EU to Seek South Stream Pipeline Solution With Russia

A construction launch ceremony for the South Stream gas pipeline in Serbia last year. The… ENLARGE A construction launch ceremony for the South Stream gas pipeline in Serbia last year. The EU said Tuesday that a meeting on the South Stream gas pipeline would go ahead as planned “regardless of the announcement by Russia to stop the project.” European Pressphoto Agency BRUSSELS—The European Union said Tuesday it will continue to work with its member states on finding a deal with Russia to build a gas pipeline though southeastern Europe, despite an announcement by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin , that the project has been abandoned . “The next meeting [on the South Stream pipeline] had been planned for the 9 December 2014 and it will take place regardless of the announcement by Russia to stop the project,” the EU’s vice president for energy, Maros Sefcovic, said. “Obviously this new development […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple