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President Obama has a huge gas problem

Ahead of the People’s Climate March, activists say Obama must address fracking if he wants to leave a meaningful legacy Later this month, hundreds of delegates will gather inside the U.N. to talk about climate change. President Barack Obama plans to attend the climate summit, and reportedly wants work on a deal with other world leaders to “name and shame” countries that aren’t actively pursuing serious climate action. But outside the U.N., thousands of activists will be protesting with one message: whatever Obama accomplishes at the U.N., it won’t be enough to save his climate legacy. The Obama Administration has been tough on coal, directing the Environmental Protection Agency to severely limit the amount of CO2 power plants are allowed to produce. But at the same time the administration has embraced natural gas with open arms. Environmentalists say that embrace has created a chasm between Obama’s rhetoric and his […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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API: Recent LNG nods not enough

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (UPI) — Despite a nod for southern U.S. LNG exports, the application backlog needs clearing to strengthen U.S. leverage, the American Petroleum Institute said. API Upstream Director Erik Milito welcomed a decision from the U.S. Energy Department to allow for exports of liquefied natural gas from projects in Cameron Parish, La., and Marion County, Fla. "But dozens of other permits still face lengthy delays," he said in a statement Wednesday. "We urge the administration to accelerate this process and work with leaders in Congress who have shown they are ready to strengthen America’s position as an energy superpower." Bills that have passed through the U.S. House of Representatives tied LNG exports to overseas leverage in the foreign policy and economic arenas , a sentiment backed by API. The Cameron LNG project and the Carib Energy project in Florida were cleared for LNG exports to countries like […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Utica Shale Q2 gas production up fivefold from year ago: state data

Natural gas production from Ohio’s Utica Shale rose fivefold in the past year, according to data form the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Based on reports from gas drillers, the Utica was producing close to 1 Bcf/d at the end of the second quarter, up from 165,550 Mcf/d at the same point in 2013. Gas output from the play in Q2 also was up 32% from Q1. The number of Utica wells drilled at the end of the second quarter doubled year on year to 562, 90% of which were hooked up to sales, with 58 wells awaiting pipelines or processing capacity, DNR reported. Chesapeake Energy, which pioneered the play, was the top gas producers with 109,500 Mcf/d, or 11% of the statewide total. Chesapeake also reported oil production of 3,760 b/d from its Utica wells in the second quarter. Because Ohio doesn’t require reporting of natural gas liquids […]

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Punitive regulations would harm Pennsylvania, PIOGA president says

WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 8 09/08/2014 A severance tax and other election-year proposals potentially could dismantle Pennsylvania’s unprecedented natural gas production growth, the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association’s president warned. “From severance tax proposals of 5-10% to legislation to retroactively impose a $3 million/well ‘fee’ for every well that has been drilled on state forest land, it appears that some elected officials want to scrap the effective policies and regulations that have allowed Pennsylvania to become the second-largest natural gas producer in the US in 5 short years,” PIOGA Pres. Louis D. D’Amico said on Sept. 4. The proposals have come from Keystone State politicians from 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tom Wolf to members of the state’s General Assembly from both parties, he said. “With natural gas production at an all-time high, a reasonable 5% severance tax would generate over $1 billion in 2015,” Wolf said in a Sept. […]

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Israel Steals Gaza’s Offshore Natural Gas

While Gazans suffer from daily power shutdowns, Israel is signing an important deal to sell gas to Jordan, gas which, researchers say, was stolen from Palestinians. In addition to confiscating Palestine’s energy resources, Israel has destroyed Gaza’s only power station in its latest military offensive. Photo: “Gaza electricity; ‘enemy of the (Jewish) state’” wrote the Middle East Online during the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead. While Gazans suffer from daily power shutdowns, Israel is signing an important deal to sell gas to Jordan, gas which, researchers say, was stolen from Palestinians. In addition to confiscating Palestine’s energy resources, Israel has destroyed Gaza’s only power station in its latest military offensive. On July 29, 2014, RT reported: Over a million people in Gaza could be without electricity after Israeli tank shells hit the fuel depot of the enclave’s only power station, causing it to shut down. Its director, Mohammed al-Sharif, said, […]

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A Stress Test for E.U. Energy Supplies

Political Economy Europe is conducting two stress tests. One is on its energy suppliers, to see how badly they would fare if flows of Russian natural gas were disrupted. The other is on eurozone banks to ensure they are strong enough to finance economic recovery. It is hard to know which of the two stress tests is more important. But it is clear that an effective system of energy security requires many of the same elements as financial stability. One is the need for credible stress tests. Europe flunked its original bank tests by modeling conditions that were not sufficiently stressful. The new test being conducted by the European Central Bank looks more credible. The European Union is only now conducting its first gas test. Member states submitted their results last month to the European Commission , which is now reviewing them before coming up with recommendations next month. […]

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Nova Scotia may ban fracking

Dave Collyer, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the provincial government’s decision could leave Nova Scotia on the sidelines of the emerging shale gas boom . "The government’s decision appears to be largely based on considerations other than the technical knowledge and experience of industry regulators and experts in Canadian jurisdictions where hydraulic fracturing has been used safely for many decades to develop natural gas," he said in a statement Wednesday. Shale is in the pioneer stage in the province. CAAP said hydraulic fracturing has been used safely for more than 60 years in Western Canada with few incidents. Nova Scotia Energy Minister Andrew Younger said he had legislation prepared to prohibit hydraulic fracturing at inland shale basins. "Nova Scotians have overwhelmingly expressed concern about allowing high volume hydraulic fracturing to be a part of onshore shale development in this province at this time," he said […]

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Shell makes Utica gas discovery in Pennsylvania

Royal Dutch Shell PLC has made a natural gas discovery within the Utica shale in Tioga County, Pa. The Neal and Gee wells were respectively drilled to total measured depths of 14,500 and 15,500 ft with respective lateral lengths of 4,200 ft and 3,100 ft. Shell says the results are comparable to the best publically announced thus far in the emerging southeast Ohio Utica dry gas play. The Gee and Neal discovery wells extend the “sweet spot” of the Utica formation beyond southeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania, where previous discoveries have been located, and into an area where Shell holds a major leasehold position of 430,000 acres, the company said. Shell expanded its Utica acreage in Pennsylvania last month ( OGJ Online, Aug. 14, 2014 ). Producing for almost a year, Gee was drilled more than 100 miles northeast of the nearest horizontal Utica producer, and had an initial […]

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Shell Finds Stretch Utica Shale Boundary Many Miles East

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) ’s natural gas discoveries near the Pennsylvania-New York border indicate that the Utica shale formation extends hundreds of miles farther east than originally thought. Two gas finds in Tioga County, Pennsylvania , announced today by Europe’s largest oil company are more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) away from the epicenter of Utica shale drilling in Monroe County, Ohio . Shell, which has been selling gas assets in other parts of the U.S. to focus on its highest-profit prospects, said it owns drilling rights across about 430,000 acres in the discovery zone, an area five times the size of Philadelphia. Since the discovery of Utica four years ago, exploration has been dominated by a handful of domestic wildcatters such as Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) and Gulfport Energy Corp. Oil majors including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) were late to the race after initially assuming the formations […]

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Dominion heads 1.5-bcfd Atlantic Coast gas pipeline joint venture

Dominion , Duke Energy , Piedmont Natural Gas , and AGL Resources have formed a joint venture to build and own the proposed 1.5-bcfd Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The 550-mile natural gas pipeline would move Marcellus and Utica shale gas from Harrison County, W.Va., southeast through Virginia, with an extension to Chesapeake, Va., and then south through central North Carolina to Robeson County. The main pipeline would have a 42-in. OD in West Virginia and Virginia, and 36-in. OD in North Carolina. The lateral to Chesapeake-Hampton Roads, Va., would measure 20-in. in diameter. Dominion plans three compressor stations for the pipeline, one at its West Virginia starting point, one in Buckingham County, Va., and one near the Virginia-North Carolina border. The partnership, called Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, will own the pipeline initially proposed by Dominion as the Southeast Reliability Project. It is designed in part to meet demand identified in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple