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First westbound natural gas flows begin on Rockies Express Pipeline

The Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) announced on Monday that it expects service to commence as soon as today for the first 0.25 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of capacity on its 0.60 Bcf/d Seneca Lateral pipeline in southeast Ohio. The 14.3-mile lateral will flow gas north from the MarkWest Seneca natural gas processing plant to the REX mainline, where a newly built compressor station will allow this gas to be delivered to points west in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois . No new pipelines will be added to the mainline; the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Williams Strikes Nearly $6 Billion Deal to Expand Shale Oil, Gas Holdings

Williams Cos. agreed to pay nearly $6 billion to expand its ownership of Access Midstream Partners LP, a move aimed at increasing the natural-gas pipeline company’s presence in areas with growing energy output from shale formations. Under the deal, Williams would acquire from Global Infrastructure Partners II the remaining 50% of the privately held general-partner interests in Access Midstream that the Tulsa, Okla., company didn’t already own. Williams also would acquire 55.1 million of Access’s limited-partner units, bringing William’s stake in the limited partnership to 50%. At the close of trading Friday, the limited-partner units had a market value of $3.6 billion. Access gathers natural gas and natural-gas liquids pumped from wells in Texas, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, processes them and delivers them to larger pipelines, a business that Williams said it expected would grow rapidly. Access, which is based in Oklahoma City, was formed in 2009 as Chesapeake Midstream […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Projected growth in natural gas-fired generation is influenced by resource availability

Graph of annual natural gas dry production and net generation by resource case, as explained in the article text Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2014 Note: All generation values are for net generation. Different scenarios of natural gas resource availability in the Annual Energy Outlook 2014 (AEO2014) Reference case, High Oil and Gas Resource case, and Low Oil and Gas Resource case affect the growth of natural gas-fired electric generation. As increasing amounts of natural gas become economically available to power sector and onsite generators, gas-fired electric generation increases in all three cases. However, the cases differ in terms of whether growth in gas-fired generation is sufficient to overtake coal-fired generation by 2040. Growth in natural gas-fired generation comes from two sources: the power sector and the end-use sector. Growth in natural gas-fired generation in the power sector accounts for 78% of the overall increase in […]

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North American LNG output to grow, IEA says

The United States and Canada will account for about 8 percent of the global liquefied natural gas market by 2019, the International Energy Agency said. "While demand growth is driven by the Asia-Pacific region, and especially China, supply growth for the international gas trade is dominated by private investments in LNG in Australia and North America," IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said Tuesday. Global demand for natural gas is expected to increase by more than 2 percent by the end of this year. By 2019, LNG, a super-cooled form of gas, will meet about 40 percent of world’s demand. Australia , van der Hoeven said, is expected to account for half of the new LNG exports expected on the international market by 2019, with the United States and Canada combining to represent 8 percent of the market. LNG is less constricted by the geopolitical […]

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Cuadrilla Drilling Application Accepted by Lancashire Council

UK-focused shale gas firm Cuadrilla Resources is a step closer to beginning fracking operations in the northwest of England after Lancashire County Council formerly validated and accepted an application to drill in the county, the firm announced Wednesday. The planning application, to drill up to four shale gas exploration wells at Preston New Road, and its accompanying environmental statement is now accessible to the public. Cuadrilla said the environmental statement details the findings of an "extensive" environmental impact assessment of the sites, which was carried out by experts at independent consultant Arup. Arup Project Director Des Correia commented in a statement: "The work we’ve undertaken for both the environmental impact and environmental risk assessments has been tremendously comprehensive. We’ve been using best practice standards throughout our work and we’ve covered a full exploration life-cycle as well as considering cumulative impacts in both our scope and analysis work. “Our approach […]

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IEA outlook: ‘Golden Age’ of gas to extend to China

The “Golden Age” of natural gas that has taken such a strong foothold in North America will extend to China over the next 5 years, driven by booming demand, according to the latest 5-year gas market outlook from the Paris-based International Energy Agency . In its Medium-Term Gas Market Report 2014, IEA noted that a near-doubling of Chinese gas demand by 2019 will offset a slowdown in demand in other regions. The annual report sees global demand rising 2.2%/year by the end of the forecast period compared with the 2.4%/year rate projected in last year’s outlook. Much of this demand, IEA says, will be met by LNG as well as new pipelines. “In a shift away from the traditional dominance of state-owned suppliers, private-sector operators in Australia, Canada, and the US are taking the lead in the expansion of the LNG trade, which is expected to grow by […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Tennessee Gas expands planned pipeline serving US Northeast

Tennessee Gas has modified its proposed Northeast Expansion Project to include a 117-mile-long supply link and additional infrastructure and renamed the proposal the Northeast Energy Direct Project, Tennessee Gas spokesman Richard Wheatley said Monday. The greenfield natural gas link will extend from the existing TGP pipeline in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, to the existing TGP pipeline in Schoharie County, New York, he said. There it will connect to the Iroquois Gas Transmission System and potentially connect with the planned Constitution Pipeline. The project also involves the construction of about 51 miles of looping along the existing TGP line in Bradford and Susquehanna counties in Pennsylvania, he said. Article continues below… Gas Daily Gas Daily offers the most detailed coverage of natural gas prices at interstate and intrastate pipeline and pooling points in major U.S. markets. Gas Daily keeps you informed about complex state and federal […]

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McClendon's Firm To Buy $4.25B Of US Shale Assets

American Energy Partners LLP, the company started by Aubrey McClendon after he was pushed out as CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp, said it would acquire shale oil and gas assets in Texas, Ohio and West Virginia for $4.25 billion. American Energy said it would enter Texas’s Permian Basin by acquiring about 63,000 net acres of production leases from Enduring Resources LLC for $2.5 billion. The deals in Ohio and West Virginia are worth $1.75 billion. McClendon, who co-founded Chesapeake in 1989, left the company in April last year after clashes with the board over spending and a series of Reuters investigations that led to civil and criminal probes on the company. Since leaving Chesapeake, McClendon has raised more than $4 billion in cash and financing to invest in North American shale formations, mainly in Ohio’s Utica region. Oklahoma City-based American Energy struck deals […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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McClendon’s Firm To Buy $4.25B Of US Shale Assets

American Energy Partners LLP, the company started by Aubrey McClendon after he was pushed out as CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp, said it would acquire shale oil and gas assets in Texas, Ohio and West Virginia for $4.25 billion. American Energy said it would enter Texas’s Permian Basin by acquiring about 63,000 net acres of production leases from Enduring Resources LLC for $2.5 billion. The deals in Ohio and West Virginia are worth $1.75 billion. McClendon, who co-founded Chesapeake in 1989, left the company in April last year after clashes with the board over spending and a series of Reuters investigations that led to civil and criminal probes on the company. Since leaving Chesapeake, McClendon has raised more than $4 billion in cash and financing to invest in North American shale formations, mainly in Ohio’s Utica region. Oklahoma City-based American Energy struck deals […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Change in US LNG permit process to streamline approvals: DOE official

A proposed change in way the US Department of Energy approves application for permission to export LNG will streamline the process by focusing on the projects that have the greatest chance of being built, a DOE official said in Houston Monday. "We need to be cognizant of market forces," Christopher Smith, principal deputy assistant secretary for Fossil Energy, said in a presentation on the proposed changes at Rice University. DOE announced a proposal last month "to review applications and make final public interest determinations only after completion of the review required by environmental laws and regulations," scrapping its previous practice of issuing conditional approvals at the outset of the approval process. Under the Natural Gas Act, the department is required to swiftly approve proposals to export LNG to countries with which the US has free trade agreements, but must determine if proposals to ship LNG to non-FTA countries are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple