Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi has begun opening up a bit more about Opec and the kingdom’s decision to leave oil production quotas unchanged at the producer group’s meeting last month. Since that decision – and price cuts on behalf of individual Opec members – benchmark oil prices plummeted and are now down about… Keep reading →
On December 9, 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced that it had achieved $4.5 million dollars in settlements from private employers as a result of a two year investigation into contractors working in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The DOL press release can be found here.
This is the latest installment in our Energy Startup Series that gives executives at cutting-edge energy firms an opportunity to share insights and experiences about the energy industry, their careers and their companies. While working for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Olof Hansen was in charge of building public-private partnerships in waste minimization and pollution… Keep reading →
Renewable natural gas (RNG) is methane produced from biomass that is cleaned to pipeline quality standards and blended with fossil natural gas. RNG, also known as biomethane, is carbon-neutral and chemically identical to fossil natural gas allowing it to be blended without restriction. Renewable natural gas is produced from a variety of (mostly waste) resources… Keep reading →
Ed. note: This is a new weekly column by Elie Mystal, Managing Editor of Above the Law Redline. This space will focus on the laws that exist, should exist, and should be put out of their misery. UNDER-REGULATED Ancient Aliens: Here’s a dirty secret, I watch Ancient Aliens all the time. Yes, I know that… Keep reading →
Times are changing and Opec is not what it once was in terms of oil price influence, but it’s too soon to completely dismiss the producer group that collectively controls such a large share of the world’s oil production, reserves, exports and thus supply. In this article, a Saudi diplomat argues his country “gets… Keep reading →
ARPA-E Invests $60 Million to Detect and Measure Methane Emissions and Develop Local Thermal Management Systems WASHINGTON – The Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) today announced $60 million in funding for 22 innovative new projects aimed at detecting and measuring methane emissions and developing localized thermal management systems that reduce the energy needed… Keep reading →
Well, that’s actually a hybrid quote from opposite ends of the fracking spectrum that came alive today when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the state would move to ban hydraulic fracturing. “Today Governor Cuomo did the right thing for New Yorkers by listening to experts and issuing a ban on fracking. This victory for… Keep reading →
In a decision loaded with potential economic and political consequence, the Cuomo administration today ended years of tortured consideration and said New York state would move to ban hydraulic fracturing, the controversial technique that uses pressurized fluids and sand to extract gas and oil from shale rock formations. At an Albany cabinet meeting, Acting Health… Keep reading →
By 2017, natural gas pipelines are projected to convert up to 32% of their pipeline capacity into the Northeast to support the bi-directional flow of natural gas out of the region to the South and West, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) December 2, 2014 report. It is well known that the increased production of natural gas in the shale plays of the Northeast have had a marked impact on the energy industry in the U.S. This EIA data shows us in hard numbers how drastic of an impact the shale boom has had on pipelines that historically transported natural gas into the Northeast: six pipelines transported 60% of natural gas into the Northeast in 2013, and 2013 volumes of gas transported into the Northeast on these six pipelines were 21%-84% lower than the volumes of gas they transported into the region just five years earlier. Several of these pipelines initiated the transition to handle bi-directional flows in 2013 and earlier this year.
