The first natural gas-fired turbine for US power generation and one of today’s state-of-the-art designs currently live a couple hundred yards apart on GE’s massive 413-acre Greenville, South Carolina campus. The fact that both machines convert natural gas into electricity is pretty much where the similarities end. The first gas turbine used for electric utility… Keep reading →
Today GE announced its ‘predictive maintenance’ program driven by operational data from the company’s global fleet of more than 1,500 gas turbines helped decrease power plant downtime and saved customers an estimated $70 million in 2014. When a gas-fired power plant goes down due to a maintenance issue, that generation capacity must be replaced… Keep reading →
Natural gas organizations are starting to integrate cybersecurity with other programs or applications as opposed to ad hoc or bolt-on fixes, according to Black & Veatch’s 2014 Strategic Directions: U.S. Natural Gas Industry report. The renewed focus on both physical and cyber security can be understood, in part, as a function of the continued rise… Keep reading →
Natural Gas Inventory Exceeds Five-Year Average for First Time Since Nov. 2013 EIA Today in Energy: Working natural gas in storage has surpassed five-year average levels for the first time in more than a year. At 2,157 billion cubic feet (Bcf) as of February 13, stocks are 58 Bcf greater than the five-year average. Recent… Keep reading →
Efforts to streamline the regulatory process for natural gas utilities are enabling those organizations to more efficiently address distribution system needs, along with a lowering of administrative costs due, in large part, to a less litigious and time-consuming regulatory and ratemaking process. Together with the increased acceptance of revenue decoupling and other similar ratemaking mechanisms,… Keep reading →
With all eyes focused on falling oil prices for the past several months, the US natural gas market has often been overlooked. Not that it has done much from a price movement perspective in the past couple of years. Another cold blast of Arctic weather is headed for the Midwest and Northeast over the next… Keep reading →
As 2015 is ushered in, about 40 U.S. pipeline projects are in various stages of development for receiving natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales, including six that came on line in 2014. All together, the projects represent more than 33 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day of capacity and about $20 billion of… Keep reading →
The election of new governors in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island and an independent study commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources provides the impetus to resume discussions on much-needed pipeline infrastructure. Strengthening New England’s pipeline system will help ensure that clean, affordable abundant natural gas is reliably delivered to the region’s consumers.… Keep reading →
Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon are all looking at floating LNG export projects as potential ways to bring their natural gas reserves to market. “But the Cameroonian Floating LNG project, announced on Christmas Day 2014 as a three way Heads of Agreement (the HOA) between Golar LNG Ltd (Golar) Societe Nationale de Hydrocarbures (SNH) and… Keep reading →
The Israeli regulator’s decision to reopen a natural gas agreement because of a monopoly issue jeopardizes the country’s gas export potential and its ability to attract foreign capital, as well as threatening to complicate relations with Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt. Yesterday, Israel’s Antitrust Authority announced it was considering whether to cancel an agreement… Keep reading →
