An article on the CNN Money website gives an update on construction of the first liquefied natural gas export facility to be built in the lower 48 states.
More at CNN Money.Who Owns the Groundwater Below Your Farm?
While the ownership of oil and natural gas beneath a property has been rather well defined there are still significant uncertainties about who owns the ground water.
More at Statesman.com.
Natural Gas Parallel Universe
An article titled “Marcellus Shale Parallel Universe” explores the impact of different approaches to natural gas development experienced in Pennsylvania and New York.
More at NorthcentralPA.com.
Coal Generation Falls from 46% to 39%
Coal’s share of monthly power generation in the United States dropped significantly between 2010 and 2011.
A warm winter and very competitive natural gas prices enabled power generators to produce more of their electricity from coal.
More at Energy Information Administration.
Carbon Emissions and the Price of Natural Gas
“Researchers at the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have shown that the primary explanation for the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from power generation in 2009 was that a decrease in the price of natural gas [1] reduced the industry’s reliance on coal.” Quoted from the Harvard University press release.
[1] http://geology.com/articles/natural-gas-prices/
More at Harvard University.
Haynesville Deceleration
Four years ago the Haynesville Shale began generating lots of jobs and income for northern Louisiana. Now many companies are redirecting their activities from dry gas to areas where natural gas liquids and oil can be produced from shale – walking away from the boom areas that previously experienced rapid growth.
More at Shreveport Times.
Betting on Oil Wells in Iowa?
Iowa does not have any current oil or gas production, however, it is underlain by rock units that some believe have an outside chance of yielding oil or natural gas through horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. This article in the Des Moines R…
More at DesMoinesRegister.com.
The USA as a Net Energy Exporter
U.S. petroleum product exports exceeded imports in 2011 for first time in over six decades. [...] The increase in foreign purchases of distillate fuel contributed the most to the United States becoming a net exporter of petroleum products. Quoted from…
More at Energy Information Administration.
Natural Gas Futures at $2.30
Natural gas hit a ten-year low yesterday with futures hitting a price of $2.30 per 1000 cubic feet in New York.
More at AP @ Google.
Increasing the Demand for Natural Gas
The Financial Times has an article that describes the joint efforts of General Electric and Chesapeake Energy to increase the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel.
More at Financial Times.
Natural Gas in China’s Coal Measures
“The U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 448 billion cubic feet of potential technically recoverable unconventional natural gas in Carboniferous and Permian coal-bearing strata in the eastern uplift of the Liaohe Basin, Liaoning Province, China.” Quoted from the USGS press release.
More at USGS.
CNG / Gasoline Pickup Trucks
General Motors plans to produce a new line of pickup trucks that can be fueled by compressed natural gas or standard gasoline. This will allow owners to take advantage of the low price of natural gas and help the United States consume an oversupply.
More at Star-Telegram.
Oil and Gas: South Siberian Craton
“Using a geology-based assessment methodology, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated volumes of undiscovered, technically recoverable, conventional petroleum resources for the southern Siberian craton provinces of Russia.” Quoted from the USGS publication release.
More at USGS.
Permian Basin Oil Boom
An article on the FuelFix.com website looks at how growing production from shale in the Permian Basin of West Texas has surprised even the most experienced drillers.
More at FuelFix.com.
Boone Pickens: The Price of Energy
T. Boone Pickens says that he is for American energy and makes a pitch for energy independence.
More at CNN.
This Marcellus Pipeline Goes South
A $1 billion pipeline has been proposed that will deliver Marcellus Shale gas from northern Pennsylvania to markets in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC.
More at Philly.com.
Equatorial Guinea Energy Report
“Equatorial Guinea became a significant oil and natural gas exporter with the discovery and development of large offshore oil reserves in the 1990s. As production increased, the country grew by an average real annual growth rate of 26.2 percent from 2001 to 2005, according to the World Bank. Hydrocarbon production is the basis of the country’s economy and consists of crude oil, condensate, natural gas plant liquids, and dry natural gas.
More at Energy Information Administration.
Oil and Natural Gas from Shale in Alaska
The United States Geological Survey determined that shales in the North Slope region of Alaska hold an enormous technically-recoverable shale oil and shale gas resource. These rock units could contain as much as 80 trillion cubic feet of technically re…
More at USGS / Geology.com.
The Range Resources “Super-Rich Area”
Range Resources is starting to focus its Marcellus Shale drilling in a portion of southwestern Pennsylvania known as the “Super-Rich Area”.
Information for this story is in a .pdf document here (click the 2/21/2012 company presentation link) [1]
[1] http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=101196&p=irol-presentations
More at Range Resources.
Chevron Looking for Shale Gas in China and Argentina
Chevron announced that they are exploring for shale gas in China’s Qiannan Basin and Argentina’s Vaca Muerta Formation.
More at Bloomberg.com.
Municipal Ban on Drilling Upheld in New York
A New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of a municipal zoning regulation that banned natural gas drilling within a community. Previously jurisdiction on natural gas drilling has belonged to state governments.
More at Washington Post.
Chesapeake Energy Cuts Natural Gas Production
Fox Business reports that Chesapeake Energy is cutting natural gas production by 1 billion cubic feet per day to support prices.
More at Fox Business News.
The East African Natural Gas Hub
Numerous new natural gas discoveries on the east coast of Africa are making that area a potential hub for supplying natural gas to India.
More at Reuters.com.
Hydraulic Fracturing Isn’t the Problem
“Hydraulic fracturing of shale formations to extract natural gas has no direct connection to reports of groundwater contamination [...] many problems ascribed to hydraulic fracturing are related to processes common to all oil and gas drilling operations, such as casing failures or poor cement jobs.” Quoted from the University of Texas at Austin press release.
More at University of Texas at Austin.
DOI Plans to Raise Oil and Gas Royalty Rates
The Department of the Interior plans to raise royalty rates on oil and gas produced from federal land from 12.5% to 18.75%. Since oil and natural gas investments flow to where the most money can be made, the increased royalty could reduce domestic prod…
More at FuelFix.com.
Demand for Power-Generation Coal is Falling
The demand for coal for use in the generation of electricity has fallen to its lowest level since 1992. Natural gas is stealing marketshare.
More at Bloomberg.com.
Challenges Faced by LNG Export
An article on the Bloomberg.com website explores how political pressures and uncertainty about the long-term availability of inexpensive shale gas may hinder the development of a liquefied natural gas export industry in the United States.
More at Bloomberg.com.
North Dakota Sets Records for Oil and Natural Gas in 2011
Oil and natural gas production in North Dakota is at all-time highs, fueled by intense drilling activity in the Bakken Formation, Three Forks Formations and other rock units.
More at Grand Forks Herald.
United States Energy Self-Sufficiency
An article on the Bloomberg.com website explores how the United States is starting to approach energy self-sufficiency with rising oil output, developing shale gas fields and growth in renewable sources.
More at Bloomberg.com.
Methane Hydrate Production Using CO2 / CH4 Exchange
“The goal of this project is to define, plan, and conduct a field trial of a methane hydrate production methodology whereby carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules are exchanged in situ for the methane (CH4) molecules within a hydrate structure, releasing the methane for production.” Quote from the DOE press release.
More at United States Department of Energy.
NGWA Position on Hydraulic Fracturing
The National Ground Water Association has published a position paper titled: “Hydraulic Fracturing: Meeting the Nation’s Energy Needs While Protecting Groundwater Resources.”
More at National Ground Water Association.
How Some Drillers Are Responding to Low Natural Gas Prices
An article in The Advocate explores who Encana Corporation and other natural gas drillers are responding to natural gas falling nearly $10 per thousand cubic feet since 2008.
More at The Advocate.
Dry Shale Gas Production Trends
The EIA Natural Gas Weekly Update has an interesting graph that tracks the month-by-month dry gas production growth from various shale gas fields in the United States. For example, it shows that production from the Haynesville Shale started to increas…
More at Energy Information Administration.
Natural Gas Graphing Program
The Energy Information Administration has a beta program that produces on-demand graphs of natural gas production, price, storage, import and export data. Make a few graphs – its free.
More at Energy Information Administration.
Impact of Natural Gas Drilling on Washington County PA
This video and article feature some of the positive impacts that natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale has brought to the economy of Washington County, Pennsylvania and neighboring areas.
More at WTOV9.com.
Lower Natural Gas Prices Expected
Analysts are expecting natural gas prices [1] to continue falling during 2012 as overproduction and slow adoption of the fuel in the transportation and electricity generation industries continues.
[1] http://geology.com/articles/natural-gas-prices/
More at Calgary Hearld.
Turkmenistan Oil and Natural Gas Report
“Turkmenistan has some of the largest natural gas reserves in the world, yet the country faces a myriad of challenges in bringing those reserves to world markets.” Quoted from the Energy Information Administration report.
More at Energy Information Administration.
Natural Gas Funding for the Sierra Club
Between 2007 and 2010 the Sierra Club accepted over $25 million in donations from the gas industry but declined recent offers of $30 million.
More at Time.com.
Oil Shale: The Next Fossil Energy Boom?
The current fossil energy boom in the United States is natural gas from shale. The next one could be oil shales [1].
[1] http://geology.com/usgs/oil-shale/
More at TheHill.com.
Fracking = Profanity?
Some people don’t like the word “fracking” and want the term hydraulic fracturing to always be used in its place.
More at FuelFix.com.
