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British official: Shale could reduce Europe's dependence on imports

British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey said shale natural gas may help reduce the European energy sector’s dependence on Russia. It’s unlikely European countries would duplicate the U.S. shale progress because the geology and regulatory regimes are more complex "but exploiting shale gas Europe-wide has the potential to contribute significantly to energy security whilst reducing dependence on imports from outside the European Union, most notably from Russia," Davey said Thursday at University College London. Shale natural gas won’t be a "silver bullet" for members of the European community but will add diversity to the base of energy resources, he said. European consumers get about 20 percent of their natural gas needs from Russia. The British government this week published policy guidelines meant to provide energy companies with the information they need to exploit the country’s fledgling shale natural gas […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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British official: Shale could reduce Europe’s dependence on imports

British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey said shale natural gas may help reduce the European energy sector’s dependence on Russia. It’s unlikely European countries would duplicate the U.S. shale progress because the geology and regulatory regimes are more complex "but exploiting shale gas Europe-wide has the potential to contribute significantly to energy security whilst reducing dependence on imports from outside the European Union, most notably from Russia," Davey said Thursday at University College London. Shale natural gas won’t be a "silver bullet" for members of the European community but will add diversity to the base of energy resources, he said. European consumers get about 20 percent of their natural gas needs from Russia. The British government this week published policy guidelines meant to provide energy companies with the information they need to exploit the country’s fledgling shale natural gas […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pa. gas drilling decision leaves future uncertain

The energy industry and policy makers in Pennsylvania, the heart of the nation’s gas drilling boom, are thinking about their next moves after the state’s highest court threw out significant portions of a law that limited the power of cities and counties to regulate the industry. The state Supreme Court voted 4-2 on Thursday to strike down portions of a 2012 law that had been crafted by Gov. Tom Corbett and his industry-friendly allies in the Legislature. Republican leaders in the General Assembly said the decision raised more questions than it answered and could damage the growing industry. They said they were not sure, for example, what the ruling would mean for the millions in impact fees being collected under the law. Pennsylvania has over the past five years seen a boom in drilling and related industries rushing to exploit the deposits in the rock […]

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EIA: Pennsylvania Fastest Growing Gas Producer Thanks to Marcellus

Pennsylvania Fastest Growing Gas Producer Thanks to Marcellus Marcellus shale gas production boosted Pennsylvania from the seventh-largest to third-largest marketed U.S. natural gas producing state from 2011 to 2012, and may lift the state to the rank of second-largest natural gas producer this year, according to a Dec. 17 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The state’s marketed natural gas production, which includes natural gas plant liquids, rose by 72 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to the EIA report Natural Gas Annual 2012. Earlier this month, EIA said that the Marcellus shale gas area in the eastern United States may account for 18 percent of total U.S. gas production, United Press International reported Dec. 10. Texas topped the list for marketed natural gas in the top 10 producing states from 2011 to 2012, followed by the Louisiana and Pennsylvania. Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado, federal offshore, […]

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The Natural Gas Glut Is, Like, So Over. Price Soars!

Someone must have known something. Natural gas jumped over 2% this morning before the Energy Information Administration released its Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report at 10:30 a.m. The report would show how much natural gas was in underground storage nationwide on December 13, and how much had been withdrawn from storage during that week. Every Thursday, the report sends gas futures gyrating up or down. But today, they gyrated up from the start of trading. "Unusually" cold weather had swept parts of the country. Natural gas consumption reacts sharply to cold temperatures. So analysts surveyed by Platts had jacked up their estimates for a withdrawal of 260 to 264 billion cubic feet, far above the 70 Bcf during the same week last year and above the five-year average of 133 Bcf for the week. Gas has been rising in anticipation for days. When the EIA report hit at 10:30 […]

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Natural gas saves water, even when factoring in water lost to hydraulic fracturing

Natural gas saves water, even when factoring in water lost to hydraulic fracturing Page added on December 20, 2013 For every gallon of water used to produce natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, Texas saved 33 gallons of water by generating electricity with that natural gas instead of coal (in 2011). Credit: University of Texas at Austin A new study finds that in Texas, the U.S. state that annually generates the most electricity, the transition from coal to natural gas for electricity generation is saving water and making the state less vulnerable to drought. Even though exploration for natural gas through hydraulic fracturing requires significant water consumption in Texas, the new consumption is easily offset by the overall water efficiencies of shifting electricity generation from coal to natural gas. The researchers estimate that water saved by shifting a power plant from coal to natural gas is 25 to 50 times […]

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Noble Energy to target Colorado basin in 2014

Noble Energy Chief Executive Officer Charles Davidson said the bulk of his company’s spending next year will target the Denver-Julesburg basin in Colorado. "For the third consecutive year, production is projected to grow at strong double-digit rates," he said in a statement Tuesday. "We continue to accelerate development in the Denver-Julesburg basin, which will receive the greatest portion of our capital program, as well as the drilling program in the … Marcellus shale." The Marcellus shale is spread over parts of Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Noble, which has headquarters in Houston, said $2 billion of its $3.2 billion designated for developments in the United States will target the Colorado reserve area. About $1.1 billion will target the Marcellus formation. Combined, the company said it plans to drill more than 450 wells in the shale areas next year. Noble in October said production from the […]

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Signs of Baby Steps on Stanching Wasteful Flaring of Natural Gas

Visible even from space, more than 1,500 natural gas flares illuminate the prairie in the Bakken oil field in North Dakota, for lack of gas pipelines. Jim Wilson/The New York Times Visible even from space, more than 1,500 natural gas flares illuminate the prairie in the Bakken oil field in North Dakota, for lack of gas pipelines. I hope you’ll read “ Applying Creativity to a Byproduct of Oil Drilling in North Dakota ,” a valuable Clifford Krauss feature on baby steps taken by the oil and gas industry to stanch the wasteful, polluting flaring of natural gas from the country’s booming Bakken oil fields in North Dakota. (There’s no infrastructure for storing or transporting the gas and the oil is the quarry, given its much higher price.) Gas pipelines are rapidly being built. Companies like Statoil and General Electric are teaming up to develop and deploy new modular […]

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Britain opens up much of countryside to fracking

An area more than two-thirds the size of England is to be opened up to shale gas drilling and other forms of exploration under plans set out on Tuesday that ministers said could produce thousands of jobs and other economic benefits. However, if fracking companies rush to exploit shale deposits, some areas may also experience “significant negative effects”, according to an environmental assessment of the move by the Amec consultancy, including a “substantial burden” on wastewater treatment plants. Depending on how many sites are eventually drilled, towns and villages could see lorries hauling water and other materials along their roads up to 51 times a day, the consultants said, adding that up to 150 shale gas licences could end up being awarded around the country. In addition, fracking companies could consume nearly a fifth of the water currently supplied to energy, water and waste industries each year. These impacts […]

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Is This the Next Major Shale Gas Producer?

I’m talking about Poland.  In an attempt to broaden its energy portfolio and wean itself off Russian natural gas, a renewed push for shale development is kicking off. As of last month, new Polish Environment Minister Maciej Grabowski has made it a personal mission to turn Poland around and remove the red tape that previously pushed out some of the biggest names in the industry.  The reversal of high coal consumption will also be at the top of the agenda. shale gas 19 In his first news conference early this month, he said, “If I decide that amendments are needed, I intend to present a final version within weeks, not months,” according to Bloomberg. He added, “Investors have been waiting for this for a very long time and they […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple