Calgary Herald by Dan Healing.   It’s a classic case of too much of a good thing.  Burgeoning liquids-rich gas production in west central Alberta has overwhelmed the ability of gas plants to process the growing stream, Calgary producers warn, leading to lower production forecasts.  

Brief Commentary, "Public – Private Gas Pipelines": We contrast three public-private gas pipeline projects, two of which are linked below, from weekend news reports/commentary.  As time goes on, we'll hear much more about these and other projects.  They cannot be precisely compared, in part because they serve different markets with different sources of gas designed for different purposes, using different rights of way.  Ownership, however, can be compared as readers will glean from the stories below.  Time will tell whether both ownership models and projects will work, neither will work, or one will work.  Your archive on the history, politics, policy, plans and people associated with Northern Gas Pipelines and activities impacted by them continues to grow — for your future reference — right here.   -dh

1.  ADN by Tim Bradner re: Alaska North Slope Gas.  Last week, Gov. Sean Parnell approved the bill authorizing state financial participation in the proposed large North Slope gas pipeline and liquefied natural gas project. The first contracts with our soon-to-be partners, the North Slope gas producers and TransCanada, a pipeline company, will be signed in June.  This is a really big deal. As much as we want a gas pipeline, and we're told state participation is critical, I must admit to trepidations. We'll have to foot our share of the bill on a project that could cost more than $60 billion, and there are many risks.

2.  ADN by Dermot Cole.  Construction on the natural gas pipeline is expected to start in 2016, with the goal of delivering fuel by the middle of 2019.  No, not that gas pipeline.  Developers of the Donlin Gold project have applied for a right of way in Southcentral Alaska for a 315-mile pipeline to transmit Cook Inlet natural gas to their proposed gold mine near Crooked Creek, about 280 miles west of Anchorage.

Today's Energy In Depth Headlines:

NATIONAL

Longmont, Broomfield, Lafayette spend $100K defending HF bans. Daily Camera. Randy Hildreth of Energy in Depth said “the local ban-fracking campaigns were actually run by Food and Water Watch and other national activist groups with millions of dollars at their disposal. They used these cities and towns to score some quick political points, but they've already moved on to their real goal — banning oil and gas development across the state of Colorado." NOTE: This article was included in the Times Call, Fort Morgan Times, Colorado Hometown Weekly, and Insurance News.
 
The weekly oil and gas follies. Forbes, EID’s David Blackmon. U.S. crude production climbed to a 28-year high last week as the shale boom moved the world’s biggest oil-consuming country closer to energy independence. Output rose 78,000 barrels a day to 8.428 million, the most since October 1986, according to Energy Information Administration data.    (Many More Follow; click below)

N.D. political leadership on hand today to celebrate expanded Hess gas processing facility. Politico. North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple, Sens. John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp and Rep. Kevin Cramer will be on hand today to commemorate the completed expansion of a Hess gas facility in Tioga. The facility is online and processes about 120 million standard cubic feet of gas daily, and could eventually handle more than 300 MMSCFD. “It’s an example of what we need to see, which is more capturing of natural gas and more added value to the product,” Dalrymple said.
 
New technologies continue to advance on HF. Wall Street Journal. To reduce leaks, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Encana Corp., and Noble Energy Inc. worked with the Environmental Defense Fund on regulations the state of Colorado adopted earlier this year. The measures will require companies in Colorado to capture 95% of emissions from storage tanks, compressors and new wells. Encana says it already has reduced such emissions in a Wyoming oil field by about 80% in the past four years using equipment like vapor-recovery units and infrared monitors that spot methane seeping out from valves and other connections.
 
10 Steps to Safe Development of Shale Gas. Wall Street Journal, Op-Ed. As more countries take advantage of the substantial shale reserves they possess within their own borders, they will face a number of challenges. Here are ten actions policy makers in various countries can take to move ahead with a comprehensive plan for the safe and successful development of shale gas.  
 
Oil Nations Put Out Welcome Mat for Western Companies. Wall Street Journal. Now, facing a range of problems, these nations are looking to tap more of their reserves—and they're offering Western companies generous deals to win their help. What could it all mean? Plenty.
 
Obama's bet on gas. Financial Times, Column. Hydraulic fracturing has opened up a supply of cheap and relatively clean gas for decades to come. At a time when the US is facing a set of otherwise bleak trends, it is as close as you get to a godsend. That, at least, is the assumption.
 
Q&A: Psychology had a role in smaller companies' shale edge. Houston Chronicle, Q&A. The monetary rewards of success are often greater for small business owners and employees, while the risks of failure are greater for those climbing the corporate ladder at a big oil company. Those bigger financial rewards, Tricoli said, motivated energy entrepreneurs like the late George Mitchell, who led a small gas producer to unlock shale resources for the first time, and Harold Hamm, the billionaire head of Continental Resources who focused his company’s energies on deep-seated oil in the North Dakota’s Bakken Shale when others were searching for natural gas.
 
Natural gas bets drop to five-month low on US supply. Bloomberg. Faster-than-expected gains in U.S. natural-gas inventories are easing concern that a shortage is looming next winter, spurring speculators to cut bullish bets.
 
HF in Texas Sparks Industrial Activity. National Journal. None of that fracking is happening in this industrial port city down the Gulf Coast from Houston. Instead, Corpus Christi is the waypoint for the sand that's trucked inland to the surging Eagle Ford Shale formation.
 
INTERNATIONAL

Cuadrilla to Seek 'Milestone' UK Shale-Gas Approval This Month. Bloomberg. Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. will seek planning approval this month for a shale-gas exploration well in northern England, a “milestone” in its efforts to bring the technology to the U.K. NOTE: BBC News also reports.
 
Putin courts China as west turns away. Financial Times. High quality global journalism requires investment. Discussions between Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled gas company, and the Chinese government have dragged on for a decade, but are finally nearing completion amid the deterioration of Russia’s relations with the west over Ukraine.
 
British HF support falls below 50%, poll shows. The Guardian. The University of Nottingham poll shows Labour voters have gone from a high of 52% in favour to 41% now. Tory voters have been consistently high in their support for exploiting shale gas, with 67% in favour, which is broadly similar to Ukip voters.
 
GDF Suez to sell 270,000 mt/year from US Cameron LNG to Japan's Tohoku Electric. Platts. GDF Suez has signed a sales and purchase heads of agreement with Japanese utility Tohoku Electric Power to deliver 270,000 mt/year of LNG over a 20-year period starting in 2018 from the planned Cameron LNG plant in the US, the French company said Monday.

CALIFORNIA

Santa Barbara County pondering HF  ban. Associated Press. A proposal by an environmental group to ban fracking in Santa Barbara County is headed to the board of supervisors on Tuesday.
 
Election 2014: Jerry Brown contemplates a fourth term. Sacramento Bee, Editorial. We have the most intelligent regulation on the drilling of oil in the country. We’re spending millions of dollars on a scientific study that relates to the effect on water and a full bore environmental impact report. … We do import two-thirds of our oil, and our cars do drive 332.2 billion miles a year. I haven’t heard anyone call for a moratorium on that. … You can’t get to 333 billion miles without a lot of oil.
 
Gov. Jerry Brown presses message on climate change. Los Angeles Times. Brown also defended the use of water for shale-oil hydraulic fracturing wells, warned that California should not "open the floodgates" to recreational use of marijuana, and declared Hillary Clinton the "overwhelming favorite" among potential Democratic candidates for president. Brown on Monday is scheduled to speak at a climate-change conference in Sacramento hosted by the University of California.

COLORADO

Drilling for natural gas and oil in Northwest Colorado. Craig Daily Press. Hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking — is a familiar method in Colorado, said Jeff Comstock, director of the Moffat County Natural Resource Department. “It’s a safe, proven technology. It has opened the doors that weren’t open before. It’s one of the reasons that the Niobrara is economical to develop,” Comstock said.
 
The Colorado way. The Pueblo Chieftain, LTE. We believe in protecting Colorado-made jobs, and maintaining funding for critical services. And on top of all of this, we believe in balancing these things against one another, which is why we support hydraulic fracturing while simultaneously requiring operators to adhere to stringent regulations. Hydraulic fracturing has been going on in Colorado for more than 60 years and the technology is becoming better and better.
 
No special session on hydraulic fracturing. Auroa Sentinel, Editorial. New drilling technology and a refined hydraulic fracturing process have made it easier and cheaper than ever to coax natural gas and oil from places in the state where it wasn’t previously practical. In an effort to provide for growth and exploration, the state essentially rolled over local counties and municipalities with a blanket, one-size-fits-all cadre of rules, regulations and setbacks that could never have really worked or be trusted. 

LOUISIANA

Hydraulic fracturing has successful history in Louisiana. Daily Advertises, LOGA’s Don Briggs. Whether in the northern part of the state where the Sparta Aquifer is the chief water source, or in the southern part of our state where the Abita Aquifer is the prominent source, protection of this ground water is a chief concern to the industry. Protection not only occurs in the drilling process but also by the industry utilizing surface water. Therefore, the aquifers longevity and current day levels are kept secure.
 
Opposition builds to hydraulic fracturing well proposed in St. Tammany. The Tribune. St. Tammany Parish residents packed a public meeting this past week to oppose a proposed oil well near Lakeshore High School in Mandeville.
 
Haynesville Shale activity poised to make a local comeback. KTBS News. Bossier City is betting on the future of natural gas, having opened its first compressed natural gas (CNG) station on East Texas Street back in 2010.

NEVADA

Conservation group protests HF in Nevada. Elko Daily Free Press. A conservation group against fracking filed a formal protest on an upcoming oil and gas lease sale in north-central Nevada. The Center for Biological Diversity is against the proposed July 17 sale, of about 174,000 acres around the areas of Tonopah and Austin.
 
Water use in HF is a concern. Reno Gazette, LTE. Of course, the oil and gas industry has agreed to the regulations for governing fracking in the state of Nevada. These regulations were written by people with strong ties to the industry. 

NORTH CAROLINA

Lee County at epicenter of NC's gas drilling. Fayetteville Observer. No one knows for sure how much natural gas and other minerals lie hidden in the 150-mile Deep River shale basin of central North Carolina. But what is certain is that Lee County will be at the center of this new industry, which has transformed other rural communities across the U.S. with sudden wealth from landowner royalties, new jobs and millions in new revenue for local governments.
 
NC struggles to balance cost, promise of hydraulic fracturing. WRAL. North Carolina lawmakers intend to allow hydraulic fracturing, and they are expected to move swiftly this year to enact proposed rules for how the industry will operate. Republican leaders, who have campaigned on domestic energy drilling, are touting natural gas production as the next new industry to sustain an economy that once relied on tobacco, textiles and furniture. 

NORTH DAKOTA

Take a cue from Baker Hughes on HF fluid disclosure. Rapid City Journal, Editorial. Wyoming led the way, requiring disclosure of fracking fluid ingredients to state regulators. Some of the ingredients in various companies' fracking fluid cocktails are already known because they are listed at FracFocus.org.

NORTHEAST
 
Pennsylvania is reaping the benefits of hydraulic fracturing. Buffalo News, LTE. I have been driving through the “fracked counties” of Pennsylvania every few months for more than a decade to see family. I generally tend more toward the environmentalists’ line of thinking, but seeing the growth in these areas with my own eyes has made it difficult for me not to support hydraulic fracturing in New York.
 
Environmental debate continues over hydraulic fracturing. Buffalo News. In the absence of definitive research, anecdotes tend to dominate the hydraulic fracturing debate – whether or not they tell a larger story. 
 
OHIO

Gas Infrastructure Investment Signals Industry’s Growth. Ideastream. Last week a processor called Access Midstream announced plans for a major expansion of its facility in Harrison County. And experts say investments in that midstream chunk of the business are a key sign of the long-term health of a region’s gas industry. “They sort of signal the next big step,” said Jim Samuel, a consultant in the oil and gas business based in Columbus.
 
HF tax plan a sellout. Columbus Dispatch, Editorial. The refusal of Ohio House Republicans to consider a reasonable severance tax on oil and gas drilling is another failure by lawmakers who continue to put the interests of big donors and special interests before those of the people of Ohio.
 
State rep says no to proposed gas tax. Salem News. Not enough of the revenue generated by a proposed state tax on oil and gas production would go to impacted counties that need it the most, which is why state Rep. Nick Barborak said he voted against the measure.
 
Suit over gas wells heads to appeals court. Athens News. A bitter lawsuit over oil-and-gas wells on the land of an Amesville couple is heading for the Fourth District Court of Appeals, with defendants Paul and Kerensa Kilzer filing an appeal of a contempt judgment. The original lawsuit was filed in July 2011 against the Kilzers by Jamie Metcalf, a Glouster woman who owns nine oil-and-gas wells at the center of the suit.
 
Ohio spills increasing. Columbus Dispatch. When thousands of gallons of gas, crude oil and benzene, a cancer-causing agent, spilled from a shale well in Morgan County this month, the state called the incident rare. But there were at least 40 crude-oil spills, blowouts and leaks related to oil and gas drilling last year in Ohio — the most since at least 2009, according to data kept by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
 
TEXAS

Oil production faces HF opponents . Tyler Morning Telegraph. Hydraulic fracturing has become a focal point of attack for many environmental groups that seek to change laws regarding oil and natural gas production. If they are successful, crude oil and natural gas production will decline dramatically because virtually every new well drilled in the United States today is fraced in some way.
 
New HCC chancellor to boost workforce development. Houston Chronicle. The rocks from the Eagle Ford Shale that Cesar Maldonado grasped one day last week provided a useful example of the commitment to meeting industry needs that will be Maldonado's focus as the new chancellor of Houston Community College. Maldonado, a chemical engineer and longtime businessman, remarked that soils engineering had been a lost discipline until hydraulic fracturing recently brought it back to the forefront.
 
Water disagreements. Odessa American. “Why are these long-term changes important? What happens is climate change interacts with or exacerbates the vulnerabilities of where we live,” Katharine Hayhoe, a Texas Tech University climate scientist said. “West Texas is no exception. Our Achilles heel is water. We need water to irrigate our crops. We need it for hydraulic fracturing. We need water to flush our toilets and water our lawns.”