9-24-14

Petroleum News by Kristen Nelson.  

Three projects are under way to deliver North Slope natural gas to Alaskans – and on three different scales and timelines.

The 10th annual Alaska Oil & Gas Congress got an update on all three in Anchorage Sept. 16.

The smallest, and furthest along, would truck liquefied natural gas from the North Slope to Fairbanks, adding to the small amount of Cook Inlet LNG currently being trucked to Fairbanks.

The other projects….(More here….  We recommend our readers subscribe to PNA for in depth O&G reporting, Alaska and Canada.  -dh)

TODAY'S CONSUMER ENERGY ALLIANCE ENERGY LINKS:

Shale Reporter: Abundance of opportunities await schools in wake of energy revolution*Mike Butler Op-Ed
Schools saved more than $45.5 million in 2013, according to a recent study by IHS Global Insight, enough to employ more than 480 teachers. Pennsylvania public schools saved about 8.3% on electricity costs and 22.1% on natural gas. There’s more: The analysis said taxpayers saved another $19 million in government-related spending, or enough to employ 280 governmental workers. That’s tremendous news for communities and districts still tussling with the lingering effects of the Great Recession.
 
Downstream Today: OPINION: Railing Against Keystone XL, Willie and Neil Are Hurting Farmers *Michael Whatley Quoted

Two celebrity singers known for supporting America’s farmers will perform at a pipeline protest in Nebraska on Saturday despite the outcome of their advocacy damaging the livelihood of farmers throughout the Midwest.
 
Associated Press: US gas prices fall to lowest since February, Lundberg says.
Refiners are taking advantage of booming oil production from U.S. shale formations that’s expected to increase domestic crude output in 2015 to the most in 45 years. The surge in production has kept WTI prices below international benchmark North Sea Brent every day since August 2010.
 
The Hill: Report: Natural gas exports could hurt Russian state-owned company.
Increasing exports of liquefied natural gas from the United States could reduce revenue at Russia’s state-owned gas company by 18 percent, according to a new report. The report, released Monday by Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, found that increased competition from the United States could hurt Gazprom and lower European natural gas prices.
 
Washington Post: Shale in North Dakota: Women in the drilling boomtowns.
Fracking has brought in an influx of oil workers—many of them women—from across the country attracted to the high salaries and burgeoning housing market created to accommodate the surge in residents. The result is the town’s population has nearly doubled in the past 10 years.
 
Star Tribune: Keystone XL operator seeks South Dakota approval
The operator of the long-delayed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline on Monday formally asked South Dakota's utility regulators to recertify the portion of the project that runs through the state.
 
Townhall: A good way to play the Keystone Pipeline Debate
The Greenbrier Companies (GBX) manufactures rail cars. The company was founded back in 1974 and is headquartered in Lake Oswego, Oregon. It may not be Alibaba (BABA), but rail car makers are doing pretty well these days thanks to the strong demand driven by the domestic energy boom and an ever-improving economy.
 
Michigan Radio: Enbridge completes work on final stretch of replacement oil pipeline
 
The Coloradoan: Oil and gas task force plans first meeting
Gov. John Hickenlooper’s oil and gas commission will have its first meeting on Thursday, Sept. 25, when the 19-member task force will plan for the next six months and five more meetings. The 19 appointees have six hours for their agenda on Thursday, which will be followed by a two-hour window for public comment, said Sara Barwinski, one of the task force’s members. From September to February, the commission will host six public meetings throughout the state.
 
The Coloradoan: Council to vote on appealing HF ruling
One month after a Larimer County judge overturned Fort Collins’ five-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, the City Council is considering whether to appeal that decision. Fort Collins City Council will vote Tuesday, Sept. 23 on a resolution that would direct the interim city attorney to file an appeal of the decision, which overturned the citizen-initiated ordinance voters passed in November 2013.
 
Fayetteville Observer: HF is safe, but are well casings?
We need rigorous guidelines for those well casings and the joints that seal them. And we also will need to have enough well-trained inspectors in the field. Fracking may not pollute, but the wells can – and for a public or private water supply, the source of pollution isn't the issue. Preventing it is.
 
WRAL: Natural gas pipeline concerns some in Nashville
When it comes to a proposed natural gas pipeline through eastern North Carolina, Ronald Bunn sees its path as more than a line through a map. Bunn was at a public meeting in Nashville Monday night to question a plan by Duke Energy and Virginia-based Dominion Resources to build the $5 billion pipeline, which would run parallel to Interstate 95.
 
Newsmax: North Dakota Tops US Income Gains Thanks to Bakken
North Dakota leads the nation in personal income growth. No other state even comes close. From 2008 to 2012, North Dakotans' per-capita income jumped 31 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A day in the life of a longtime DEP inspector
Mr. Sengle, 56, has been working for the past four years in the Clearfield County area with the DEP’s oil and gas division working on natural gas sites, including Marcellus Shale well sites. “My experience for the most part is the companies have been pretty attentive,” he said of the natural gas companies he inspects now.
 
York Dispatch: Corbett, Wolf clash in Hershey debate
Wolf also said he'd like to see the gas industry drilling in the Marcellus Shale deposits in the state charged a 5 percent severance tax. That, he said, would generate an added $1 billion for the state, which could be used for education or other needs. "I'm not trying to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Let's share that gold with the people of Pennsylvania," Wolf said.
 
Columbus Business First: Production outpacing pipeline regulation, GAO says
Oil and gas production is outpacing both pipeline construction and regulation, and the U.S. Department of Transportation needs to consider making new rules, a federal agency saidMonday. “While the Department of Transportation has worked to identify and address risks, its regulation has not kept pace with the changing oil and gas transportation environment,” the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in its report on oil and gas infrastructure, including pipelines, rail and trucks.
 
State Impact Texas: Oil & Gas Trouble In Texas Ranchland: Whose Road Is It?
The Railroad Commission of Texas will meet Monday morning to consider an issue of huge importance to landowners across Texas. It has to do with how the state oversees energy companies that need access to private land. At issue at the hearing will be pipelines for oil & gas.
 
Chico Enterprise News: State Assembly, Senate candidates face off at Chico forum
While Jawahar was opposed to fracking, calling it a "dirty technology" that uses too much of the state's limited water resource, Nielsen said it is a safe method to develop needed energy resources and that it would be "foolhardy" not to use it. They also conflicted on climate change, with Jawahar saying it's real and that it needs to be addressed and Nielsen saying global warming is a natural process of the planet.