News

State officials learn about shale gas, hydraulic fracturing
February 9, 2012
State regulators who watch over natural gas and electric utility rates and service packed a hotel ballroom to overflow in Washington, D.C., Feb. 6 to learn more about shale gas production, hydraulic fracturing, environmental regulations, gas prices - and the future. Where will all the natural gas come from if fracking is restricted and shale production cannot meet the growing demand for gas to fuel electrical generation, asked Barry Smitherman of the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates...
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Public meetings on gas pipeline project environmental issues start Jan. 30
January 30, 2012
The public can offer input on the environmental review of the proposed $32 billion to $41 billion Alaska natural gas pipeline project during seven meetings scheduled over the next three weeks. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff members are holding the public scoping meetings in Alaska. The first meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30, at the Fairbanks Carlson Center. A meeting in Delta Junction will occur the next night, with one in Tok the following evening. Meetings...
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Lower 48 LNG exports would raise natural gas prices, EIA says
January 19, 2012
Export of liquefied natural gas from Texas and Louisiana would raise Lower 48 gas prices by 52 cents to $1.34 per thousand cubic feet, a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration concludes. The degree of price increases would depend on how much LNG was exported and how quickly LNG plants ramped up, the EIA said. The Energy Department research arm estimated the Henry Hub natural gas benchmark price for the Lower 48 would range between $5.69 and $6.51 per thousand cubic...
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New report demystifies natural gas terminology
January 18, 2012
A new Congressional Research Service report cuts through the sometimes confusing language that describes the nation's endowment of oil and natural gas resources. For example, the report explains the distinction between the nation's estimated 272.5 trillion cubic feet of proved natural gas reserves – an 11-year supply at current consumption rates – and the estimated 1,500 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered technically recoverable natural gas resource – a 60-year supply. The...
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Project sponsor files detailed environmental reports
January 13, 2012
JANUARY 13 - A key milestone was reached today for the proposed Alaska natural gas pipeline to Alberta when the project sponsor filed 11 draft environmental reports with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The more than 4,500 pages of documents - called draft "resource reports" - detail and discuss the project's potential impact on soils, vegetation, streams, lakes, wetlands, water quality, wildlife, fish and other resources along the pipeline's 803-mile U.S. corridor from the Point...
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Analyst questions shale production claims
January 9, 2012
The rise of U.S. shale gas production has been tremendous but might not reach the pinnacle forecast by some in the industry, an energy consultant told an Anchorage audience Jan. 6. Art Berman, director at Texas-based Labyrinth Consulting Services Inc. and a 20-year veteran at Amoco, said forecasts of a 100-year supply, decades of low natural gas prices and a gusher of profits are not supported by the production history of wells in U.S. shale-gas plays. The data available so far show the...
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FERC schedules public meetings to define gas pipeline project’s environmental issues
December 9, 2011
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has scheduled seven meetings in Alaska between Jan. 18 and Feb. 8 at which the public can offer input on the environmental review of the proposed $34 billion to $41 billion Alaska natural gas pipeline project. The Alaska Pipeline Project, a joint venture of TransCanada Corp. and ExxonMobil, is proposing to build a gas pipeline that would start at Prudhoe Bay and span 745 miles of Alaska before entering Canada en route to a terminus at the British...
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Exxon sees power-sector demand growth for gas
November 28, 2011
Worldwide natural gas demand will grow from about 300 billion cubic feet per day last year to more than 450 bcf by 2030, with power generation burning up almost half of all gas consumed in 2030, an ExxonMobil executive told several hundred Alaskans. It was only a few years ago that U.S. gas buyers worried about security of supply and assumed the nation would import a growing volume of LNG, said Steve Kirchhoff, Americas vice president at ExxonMobil Gas and Power Marketing Co. in Houston. That...
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Report explores debate on proposed U.S. LNG exports
November 8, 2011
Moves to export some of the Lower 48's rising supply of natural gas have sparked debate about the wisdom of allowing that gas to leave the country, according to a new Congressional Research Service report. "With today's natural gas prices relatively low compared to global prices and historically low for the United States, producers are looking for new markets for their natural gas," says the report titled "U.S. Natural Gas Exports: New Opportunities, Uncertain Outcomes." "Producers contend...
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Gas demand rising; could drive up prices
October 24, 2011
ExxonMobil expects natural gas demand to grow faster than any other fuel over the next 20 years, with power generation's appetite almost doubling worldwide by 2030. ConocoPhillips sees more than 7 billion cubic feet a day of additional U.S. gas demand "on the bubble" as the oldest coal-fired power plants grow even older and are less able to meet new air quality standards. And even at the low side of its demand projections, Societe Generale, an international corporate and investment banking...
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