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Hess starting up North Dakota natgas plant, may boost Bakken output

Hess Corp will begin selling natural gas from its Tioga, North Dakota, plant this month, firing up the station weeks after severe weather delayed its expansion, the company said Friday. The plant’s start-up may help boost oil production from the prolific Bakken shale after about 100 producing wells had to be shut earlier this year to minimize flaring due to the delays, the state Industrial Commission said this week. "Due to the unusually harsh winter weather, we’re slightly behind our initial plans, but we expect to start selling residue gas this month," Hess spokesman John Roper said. The plant will be able to process 250 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) when it starts operating, nearly twice as much as its initial design. The station had been shut since late last year as Hess worked on the expansion. North Dakota flares nearly 36 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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EIA projects record US natural gas storage injection in 2014

The US Energy Information Administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) for March forecasts a robust natural gas injection season through April to October with nearly 2,500 bcf added to storage as operators seek to rebuild stocks. US gas inventories will end the current withdrawal season at the end of March below 1 tcf, hitting a 10-year low, after unusually cold weather sparked high demand and forced a record-breaking winter withdrawal. EIA expects relatively high gas production growth and moderate demand growth starting in April that will allow for a record storage build through October. The forecasted electric power consumption of gas from April to October is 23.9 bcfd, essentially flat compared with a year ago. Expected dry natural gas production during this period reaches 68.1 bcfd, up 2% from last year. “The forecasted April-to-October storage build of nearly 2,500 bcf would surpass the previous record injection season net inventory build […]

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Technology to Create New Water Source for Marcellus Operators

Oil and gas producers working in the Marcellus shale play near Pittsburgh now have a new option for water resources for hydraulic fracturing operations. Winner Water Services, a Pennsylvania-based joint venture between privately owned technology company Winner Global LLC and Columbus, Ohio-based Memorial Battelle Institute, a private, non-profit applied science and technology development company, was formed a year ago to provide water management services for oil and gas, including source water and water treatment. Initially focused on the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, Winner treats acid mine drainage water, which can be used in hydraulic fracturing in place of fresh water drawn of Pennsylvania’s lakes and streams. Using technology licensed from Battelle to the Winner family to treat acid mine drainage water, Sharon, Pennsylvania-based Winner has designed and is ready to install its first treatment system next month just outside of Pittsburgh, said John Ontiveros, Winner president and CEO, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Gazprom says South Stream making progress

The South Stream natural gas pipeline for Europe is making steady progress, Alexei Miller , chairman of Russian energy company Gazprom, said. Miller briefed members of the South Stream supervisory board in Zurich, Switzerland, to review the pipeline’s progress. "The South Stream project is steadily progressing," he said in a statement Tuesday. "Contracts for laying the first string as well as for procuring pipes for the second string will be signed before the end of this March." Gazprom said it plans to commission parts of South Stream before the end of 2015. The pipeline is designed to have an annual capacity of 2.2 trillion cubic feet. Gazprom envisions South Stream as a means to add diversity to an export market that depends on Soviet-era gas transit networks through Ukraine, where geopolitical tensions add a layer of risk to Russia’s export options. Ukraine descended into chaos when ousted President Viktor […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural gas output rising in five of six biggest US shale plays in April: EIA

Production in the Permian Basin is expected to increase by 39,000 Mcf/d to 5.369 Bcf/d in April from projected March output of 5.330 Bcf/d. Month-over-month gas output is projected to fall in one of the basins studied. In the Haynesville Shale play, gas production is expected to fall by 76 Mcf/d to 6.390 Bcf/d in April from 6.466 Bcf/d in March. The EIA report also shows that average per-rig gas production will increase in five of the six basins studied. The report projects that per-rig gas output in the Bakken Shale will increase by 9 Mcf/d to 497 Mcf/d in April from 488 Mcf/d in March. Per-rig production in the Eagle Ford Shale is expected to increase 8 Mcf/d to 1,280 Mcf/d in April from March gas output of 1,272 Mcf/d. In the Haynesville Shale, production from an average rig is expected to increase by 25 Mcf/d in April […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chesapeake Accused of Underpaying Gas Royalties

Pennsylvanians who embraced the natural-gas drilling boom that has swept the state are starting to sour on one of the biggest names in the business: Chesapeake Energy Corp. Some property owners are accusing Chesapeake of shortchanging them on royalty payments for pumping oil and gas from their land. The public outcry has grown so loud that Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, a longtime industry supporter who has received campaign contributions from the company, wrote an open letter last month asking the state attorney general to investigate. Chesapeake declined to comment on the royalty disputes, but said in a recent letter to the governor that it is abiding by the terms of its contracts with landowners. In Bradford County, a rural area in northern Pennsylvania where a lot of the drilling has taken place, anti-Chesapeake sentiment is running high, said Doug McLinko, a county commissioner. "Bradford County is a pro-gas part […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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ANR Pipeline joins other operators with plans to flow gas away from Marcellus, Utica

ANR Pipeline is taking bids through Friday on another binding open season to modify its Southeast Mainline System, this time specifically reversing flows on the line for up to 600,000 Dt/d of firm transportation capacity. In a open season notice issued March 7, ANR said it is seeking commitments for a more specific project: the reversal of 600,000 Dt/d from Zone ML3 to the ANR Southeast area Headstation Central Delivery Point, located in ML1 Tariff Rate Zone near Eunice, Louisiana. For the reversal, ANR expects to modify existing mainline facilities at compressor stations, including valves and yard piping, to enable bi-directional flow on ANR’s Southeast Mainline. The reversal project has an in-service date of March 1, 2015, earlier than the November 2015 service date for the pipeline’s prior binding open season, which was issued in late February. Article continues below… Request a free trial […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukraine, Russia and the nonexistent U.S. oil and natural gas "weapon"

Commentators were falling all over themselves last week to announce that far from being impotent in the Ukraine crisis, the United States had a very important weapon: growing oil and natural gas production which could compete on the world market and challenge Russian dominance over Ukrainian and European energy supplies–if only the U.S. government would change the laws and allow this bounty to be exported. But, there’s one very big problem with this view. The United States is still a net importer of both oil and natural gas. The economics of natural gas exports beyond Mexico and Canada–which are both integrated into a North American pipeline system–suggest that such exports will be very limited if they ever come at all. And, there is no reasonable prospect that the United States will ever become a net exporter of oil. Natural Gas Tank  (Image credit: Shutterstock ) U.S. net imports of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukraine, Russia and the nonexistent U.S. oil and natural gas “weapon”

Commentators were falling all over themselves last week to announce that far from being impotent in the Ukraine crisis, the United States had a very important weapon: growing oil and natural gas production which could compete on the world market and challenge Russian dominance over Ukrainian and European energy supplies–if only the U.S. government would change the laws and allow this bounty to be exported. But, there’s one very big problem with this view. The United States is still a net importer of both oil and natural gas. The economics of natural gas exports beyond Mexico and Canada–which are both integrated into a North American pipeline system–suggest that such exports will be very limited if they ever come at all. And, there is no reasonable prospect that the United States will ever become a net exporter of oil. Natural Gas Tank  (Image credit: Shutterstock ) U.S. net imports of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Will Not Save the US Economy

Economist Kenneth Boulding famously said, “Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” But it’s not just economists who believe that anymore. Such ideas are still widely accepted by thought leaders, journalists, and politicians who, together, form a strong consensus that the U.S. recovery should be bolstered by natural gas exploration and production. The McKinsey Global Institute claims in a recent report that a natural gas boom is one of the most important “game changer” ideas for U.S. economic growth, while The Economist writes , “Become a champion of a global fracking revolution, Mr. Obama, and the world could look on America very differently.” And in his recent State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said “I’ll cut red tape” for factories that use natural gas, and that “Congress can […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple