When supplies of dry US natural gas swelled several years ago as companies honed their shale resource development skills, gas prices dramatically declined hitting a low of about $2 per million BTU. This caused natural gas producers to shift drilling operations into more liquids-rich areas and adjust their production more toward oil, which fetched higher… Keep reading →
Plans to turn Philadelphia city into an “energy hub” where natural gas from the Marcellus Shale would be pumped, processed, exported and used as fuel by manufacturers, were given a high-profile sales pitch at a one-day conference in the city last Friday. The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and Philadelphia Energy Solutions, a local refiner,… Keep reading →
The US Gulf Coast is becoming the country’s preeminent petroleum storage hub as shale oil and natural gas liquids flow south to the massive refining and export center. In a move designed to capitalize on that trend, Enterprise Product Partners yesterday announced the $4.4 billion acquisition of storage company Oiltanking. And according to The American… Keep reading →
A female Suncor Energy employee was attacked and killed by a black bear at the company’s oil sands production facility in Northern Alberta, Canada yesterday. “An extensive investigation is now underway at a Suncor worksite in northern Alberta after a large male black bear attacked and killed a female employee. At about 2 p.m. at… Keep reading →
Shell made big news when it announced plans to construct an ethane cracker in 2011 and subsequently chose to site the plant in Pennsylvania. Recently-announced capital expenditure cutbacks could impact plans to move forward with the project, but nothing has been officially announced. With Marcellus shale gas production surging, the plant would crack ethane produced… Keep reading →
The idea that global oil production was nearing its peak, only to plateau and then decline was a common view in the energy world for many years. The geophysicist M. King Hubbert predicted in the 1950’s that US oil production would peak in the 1970’s, a forecast that held true until technology allowed companies to… Keep reading →
United States law prohibits exports of crude oil and condensate except under certain conditions, while exports of refined products and natural gas are far less restricted. While these laws had little impact when the country was in a position of oil and gas scarcity, the country’s newfound energy abundance has rendered some of them obsolete,… Keep reading →
Siemens’ financing arm is seeing a shift in project finance from a focus on renewables to a more even mix of renewable and fossil fuel generation, according to US chief executive Kirk Edelman. “What we’re seeing now is a little bit of a shift away from a lot of focus on renewables to a more… Keep reading →
A new estimate of marketable resources in Canada’s Montney Shale spanning Alberta and British Columbia suggests that the play holds enough gas to meet the entire country’s 2012 demand for well over a century. “Total Canadian natural gas demand in 2012 was 88 billion m3 (3.1 Tcf), making the Montney gas resource equivalent to 145… Keep reading →
A disrupted planting schedule and unusually wet weather has increased demand for propane used to dry corn, creating shortages exacerbated by transportation bottlnecks. “A lot of guys are being rationed at 300 to 500 gallons a day, and it’s just not enough,” said John Plathe, 49, a corn farmer in west-central Minnesota. “If this were… Keep reading →
