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Siemens To Buy Dresser-Rand To Tap US Shale Gas Boom

Siemens To Buy Dresser-Rand To Tap US Shale Gas Boom FRANKFURT, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Germany’s Siemens has agreed to buy U.S. oilfield equipment maker Dresser-Rand for $7.6 billion in cash, aiming to catch up with arch-rival General Electric in a booming U.S. shale gas market. The acquisition, which ranks among the biggest in the history of the German industrial group, will strengthen Siemens’ position in the United States, its weakest region, and focus the group more tightly on its industrial customers. Siemens embarked on a corporate overhaul in May dubbed "Vision 2020", seeking to make up ground on more profitable competitors such as Switzerland’s ABB as well as U.S-based General Electric (GE), while reducing its exposure to more cyclical consumer businesses where it has had limited success. As part of that drive, the group said on Monday it had also agreed to sell its stake in household appliances […]

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With 38% of Global Shale Gas Located in Regions of Water Stress, More Oversight of Fracking is Urgently Needed

Natural gas rig in the Piceance Basin in Colorado. Fracking in water-stressed areas poses risks to energy producers and communities. Photo: Energy Tomorrow/Creative Commons 2.0. As more data emerge, shale gas increasingly appears to be in the cross-hairs of the water-energy nexus, and far too little is being done to defuse impending conflicts. While  hydraulic fracturing  (or “fracking”), the process used to unleash natural gas from shale deposits, has raised serious concerns about  groundwater contamination , less attention has been given to the added competition for limited water supplies the process can bring. Each fracking well can require up to 25 million liters (6.6 million gallons) of water. A new  study  by the  World Resources Institute  (WRI), a research group based in Washington, DC, attempts to fill this knowledge gap by overlaying known recoverable resources, or “plays,” of shale gas onto maps of water stress.   The results raise concerns. […]

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Surging Gas Supply Masks Risk of Winter Price Shock

Gas traders betting that ample supply will limit price gains risk a repeat of last winter’s rally as forecasts for another frigid season raise the specter of supply constraints. AccuWeather Inc. and Commodity Weather Group LLC predict below-normal temperatures for much of the U.S. this winter. The price difference between gas for delivery in October and January is the narrowest for this time of year since 2000, a sign that the market views stockpiles as adequate to meet peak heating demand. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its forecast for average gas prices in the fourth quarter of this year and throughout 2015 to $4 per million British thermal units from $4.25, citing a mild summer and rising production. Last winter, a polar vortex left gas supply at an 11-year low and sent futures to a five-year high. Gas inventories will enter the heating season at the lowest level for […]

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Chinese shale gas growth slow but steady

BEIJING, Sept. 18 (UPI) — Beijing said it expected to get at least 60 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from shale deposits by 2020. Production this year will be around 1.5 bcf, but could increase tenfold within the next two years. "If measures are appropriate, there is hope that production can reach 40 bcm – 60 bcm, accounting for roughly a fifth of total gas output," Peng Qiming, director of exploration of the Ministry of Land Resources, said Wednesday. The Chinese government said its consumption of natural gas should increase as it embraces a low-carbon economy. By 2020, Beijing expects the share of natural gas in the energy mix should be about 10 percent, about double the current footprint. An August briefing from the U.S. Energy Information Administration says China may hold the largest reserves of technically recoverable shale natural gas in the world. Technical and […]

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The Next Logical Step For Natural Gas Supplies?

A California-based company claims that it has found a commercially viable technique to directly convert natural gas into liquid fuels or petrochemical building blocks. "Natural gas is the next logical step for the energy and chemistry industry," said Rahul Iyer, vice president of corporate development with Siluria Technologies, which is partnering with world-class refining and petrochemical companies to roll out its catalytic processes for producing ethylene and liquid hydrocarbon fuels or fuel blend stocks. Last month, Siluria announced that it raised nearly more than $30 million in a financing led by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV) – the venture investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s national oil company – in its fourth stage of financing, also known as a Series D financing round. In addition to SAEV, Siluria has partnered with Brazil-based petchem manufacturer Braskem and the German-headquartered gases and engineering firm The Linde Group to commercialize its oxidative coupling […]

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Bakken Natural Gas – Too Much of a Good Thing?

Bakken Oil Well Bakken Oil Well | Click to Enlarge The oil & gas renaissance in the U.S. has nearly catapulted the country to the top spot for oil production in the world, and most experts believe the U.S. will hit this target by next year. But is it possible that the country and the Bakken has too much of a good thing? When it comes to natural gas that may be the case. According to the BP 2014 statistical world energy review, the U.S. is currently the top natural gas producing country in the world at 328 Bcf/d. Over the past five years, natural gas production has grown over 20% in the U.S., thanks in large part to the shale revolution. But the price of natural gas has struggled to break $4/mmbtu, and oil companies in North Dakota’s and Montana’s Bakken Shale and the Eagle Ford Shale in […]

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Study: Leaky Wells, Not Fracking, Taint Water

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study says that the drilling procedure called fracking didn’t cause much-publicized cases of tainted water, blaming contamination on leaky natural gas wells instead. The study finds that eight hydraulically fractured wells in the states of Pennsylvania and Texas leaked gas because the piping and cement seals in the wells themselves weren’t working properly. The process of pumping highly pressurized chemicals and water underground to get valuable natural gas trapped in shale has become highly charged as contamination complaints initially surged. Ohio State University geochemist Thomas Darrah and colleagues used certain elements to trace where the leaks came from. He said finding them in the wells rather than the fracking process, means contamination is more preventable and fixable. The study is published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences. Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

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Uneven effects seen from new Appalachian pipelines

HOUSTON, Sept. 15 09/15/2014 Producers in the Appalachian basin will benefit unevenly from markets opening for natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales , according to a Canaccord Genuity analyst. Pipeline projects due on stream soon will alleviate a surplus in the southwestern part of the basin, wrote Karl Chalabala in a mid-September report on an updated supply-demand model. But the gas price will remain weak in the northeastern Appalachian basin until markets begin opening for supply there in 2016—unless operators ease drilling or curtail production. Chalabala said pipeline capacity will begin to exceed need in the southwestern Appalachian basin at the end of this year. Overall system expansions beneficial to northeastern operators won’t occur until the second half of 2016, according to an analysis that focuses on takeaway capacity by omitting projects that will move gas largely within the region. Most capacity expansions directly benefiting producers in […]

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Homes Near Gas Wells in Texas Face Worsening Water Issues

Homes in a Texas community face worsening water contamination caused by nearby gas production, according to a study released today. The findings from an analysis by independent academics counter statements by driller Range Resources Corp. (RRC) and state regulators, who have said their evidence shows gas drilling wasn’t responsible for the presence of explosive methane in the homeowners’ water wells. Separate testing that found evidence of contamination from drilling at seven areas in Pennsylvania also was included in the study. “People’s water has been harmed by drilling,” Rob Jackson, professor of environmental and earth sciences at Stanford University and Duke University , said in a statement. “In Texas, we even saw two homes go from clean to contaminated after our sampling began.” The case in Weatherford, Texas, has drawn international media scrutiny, intervention by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that was later shelved and lawmakers’ scrutiny of the EPA’s […]

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EU Postpones Decision on Granting Russia Gas-Pipeline Access

BRUSSELS-The European Union Monday again postponed a decision on whether to grant Russia full access to its OPAL natural-gas pipeline, frustrating Moscow’s efforts to boost energy exports to the 28-country bloc. The European Commission cited technical reasons for the delay, which coincided with its announcement that planned talks between Russia, Ukraine and the EU to resolve a gas feud were also postponed. The commission had hoped to hold the three-way gas talks in Berlin on Saturday in a bid to break the long-running deadlock between Kiev and Moscow, but said an agenda clash on the Russian side meant the negotiations would have to be held at a later date. Russia suspended gas deliveries to Ukraine in June over a pricing dispute that the EU has been hoping to resolve ahead of winter, fearing energy shortages in several European countries that are heavily dependent on Russian gas imports. No fresh […]

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