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What It’s Like to Have Fracking in Your Backyard

4725 Votes Ed Wade’s property straddles the Wetzel and Marsh county lines in rural West Virginia and it has a conventional gas well on it. “You could cover the whole [well] pad with three pickups,” said Wade. And West Virginia has lots of conventional wells — more than 50,000 at last count. West Virginians are so well acquainted with gas drilling that when companies began using high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing in 2006 to access areas of the Marcellus Shale that underlie the state, most residents and regulators were unprepared for the massive footprint of the operations and the impact on their communities. When it comes to a conventional well and a Marcellus well, “There is no comparison, none whatsoever,” said Wade, who works with the Wetzel County Action Group . “You live in the country for a reason and it just takes that and turns it upside down. You […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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50 Ways to Leave The Marcellus—The Race to Increase Natural Gas Take-Away Capacity

4725 Votes The economics of natural gas production in the dry Marcellus, the wet Marcellus and the Utica are so favorable—and the shale gas resource so bountiful—that the only real limit on how much the Marcellus/Utica plays can produce is the capacity of the pipeline network in the Northeast and neighboring regions to take gas to market. And there’s the rub, because the region’s gas transmission infrastructure was designed decades ago to deliver large volumes of gas to the Northeast, not away from it. That’s why the midstream sector has made “a new plan, Stan,” and is now in now in the midst of a major reworking of the pipeline system—not just within and near the Marcellus/Utica but just about everywhere east of the Mississippi. The $30 billion re-plumbing effort and its effects on the gas market as a whole are the subject of RBN’s latest Drill-Down Report, “ 50 […]

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Did Russia and China just sign a death warrant for U.S. LNG exports?

Printer-friendly Russia and China have signed  two large natural gas deals  in the last six months as Russia turns its attention eastward in reaction to sanctions and souring relations with Europe, currently Russia’s largest energy export market. But the move has implications beyond Europe. In the department of everything is connected, U.S. natural gas producers may be seeing their dream of substantial liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports suffer fatal injury because of Russian exports to the Chinese market, a market that was expected to be the largest and most profitable for LNG exporters. Petroleum geologist and consultant  Art Berman –who has been consistently skeptical of the viability of U.S. LNG exports–communicated in an email that Russian supply will force the price of LNG delivered to Asia down to between $10 and $11, too low for American LNG exports to be profitable. Now, let’s back up a little. U.S. natural […]

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Natural gas is the dominant heating fuel in colder parts of the country

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Natural gas consumption varies widely by region of the country. The majority of households that heat with natural gas are located in the Midwest and Northeast. In the upcoming winter months, homes in the East North Central Census division are expected to consume the most natural gas, but not as much as last winter. Extreme cold weather in natural gas-intensive regions caused unexpectedly high consumption during the winter of 2013-14. Residential and commercial consumers use natural gas primarily for space heating . The East North Central Census division (Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio) is the largest residential and commercial natural gas-consuming division in the country, making up 28% of all residential consumption and 24% of commercial consumption in 2013. Because the East North Central Census division has the largest number of households heating […]

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EIA: ‘Modest’ benefits from LNG exports

Positive, but limited, benefits seen coming from more exports of LNG from U.S. ports, analysis finds. UPI/A.J. Sisco WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (UPI) — An increase in natural gas production from U.S. shale basins should support export growth, but the economic benefits will be modest, the government said. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a daily brief Wednesday the increase in U.S. natural gas production should support as much as 80 percent of the potential increase in demand resulting from the steady gains in exports of liquefied natural gas from the Lower 48 states. EIA in an analysis found LNG exports reach 2 billion cubic feet by next year, and eventually surge to as high as 20 billion cubic feet per day. In its study, EIA found the "effects on overall economic growth [from the emerging LNG market] were positive but modest." Construction began in Louisiana for the Cameron […]

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U.S. shale gas output breaking records

No signs U.S. shale natural gas boom will slow down, a division of the Platts energy services company says. UPI/Gary C. Caskey DENVER, Nov. 7 (UPI) — U.S. natural gas production has risen for the 10th consecutive month, moving steadily into "unchartered territory," analysis from Platts finds. Bentek Energy, the forecasting unit of Platts, found gas production in the Lower 48 states averaged 69.9 billion cubic feet per day in October, breaking the previous record and posting the 10th straight month of gains. Gas production in October was 7.9 percent higher year-on-year. Jack Weixel, director of analysis at Bentek, said projects slated to come online in the U.S. northeast should push the U.S. gas output above the 72 billion cubic feet per day mark by the end of the year. "The current level of production is unchartered territory for the domestic natural gas market and shows no signs of […]

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EIA: Gas storage levels now within 7% of 5-year average

HOUSTON, Nov. 7 11/07/2014 By OGJ editors Working natural gas in storage ended October at 3,571 bcf, a record increase of 2,734 bcf during the Apr. 1-Oct. 31 injection season, and within 7% of the average of the last five end-of-season storage levels, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration . “While end-October natural gas stocks are at a 5-year low, increased natural gas production, which has reached an all-time high, and new pipeline projects will help meet winter natural gas demand,” EIA said. As of August, dry gas production was 3.5 bcfd higher compared with the same month a year ago. Even if this winter were as cold as last year, EIA expects that gas storage at the end of March 2015 will be above its March 2014 level, largely because of the gains in US gas production. After a prolonged and severe winter, inventories by […]

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Illinois Lawmakers Approve Fracking Rules

URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/135811/Illinois_Lawmakers_Approve_Fracking_Rules CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois lawmakers signed off Thursday on long-awaited rules regulating high-volume oil and gas drilling, clearing the way for companies to get "fracking" permits and unleash what they hope will be an energy boom in the southern part of the state. But a number of key details were not disclosed including how the state plans to fund the hiring of new workers to oversee the practice, which uses high-pressure mixtures to crack open rocks and release trapped oil and gas. The delay in the fracking rules — which took more than a year for the state Department of Natural Resources to write and which were revised by a legislative committee — prompted complaints from industry that energy development would suffer. The final rules must be submitted to the Secretary of State to be published by Nov. 15. The secretive approval process set off alarm bells […]

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IEA: Asia missing out on LNG opportunities

Asian powers need to embrace market reports to take advantage of opportunity presented by natural gas, International Energy Agency says UPI/Stephen Shaver TOKYO, Nov. 6 (UPI) — Asia needs market reforms to capitalize on the "golden opportunity" represented by liquefied natural gas, the International Energy Agency said Thursday. The IEA issued a report saying natural gas prices in Asia may be as much as four times as high as in other markets. Asian demand for gas, meanwhile, is expected to grow by as much as 8 trillion cubic feet, while 5.3 trillion cubic feet of new supplies of liquefied natural gas come on stream by 2020. "The advent of new LNG supplies represents a golden opportunity for Asia, but first the region’s governments must address the rigid and illiquid markets that undermine affordability and accessibility for consumers," IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in a statement from […]

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Chesapeake Subpoenaed By DOJ, States Over Royalty Payments

HOUSTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Chesapeake Energy Corp has received subpoenas from states and the U.S. Department of Justice seeking information on its royalty payment practices to mineral owners, according to a regulatory filing. Chesapeake, which is also being probed by the DOJ and states over possible antitrust violations related to land purchases, said it is responding to the subpoenas, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A spokesman for the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma company declined to comment on Thursday. Chesapeake faces a slew of lawsuits from landowners and others who allege the company has underpaid royalties for produced and sold natural gas and natural gas liquids through the use of improper deductions or below-market pricing. Chesapeake said in its quarterly SEC filing on Wednesday that it has resolved a number of those claims and has also prevailed in some lawsuits. Shares of Chesapeake fell […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple