Domestic drilling activity in the second quarter was twice the level of second quarter drilling recorded during the 1990s, with natural gas leading the way at a record-setting pace, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported in its well completion report for the period. Second-quarter activity, which was at a 21-year high, saw a total of 13,009 oil wells, natural gas wells and dry holes completed, up 3% from the comparable period in 2006. It was preceded by strong drilling activity in the first quarter during which 11,771 wells and dry holes were completed. Natural gas continues to be the primary target for domestic drilling, the oil and gas producer group said. It estimated that 7,209 natural gas wells were completed in the second quarter, setting a record for gas activity for the period. It comes on the heels of record gas activity in the first quarter during which 7,085 gas wells were completed. Total estimated exploratory completions, accounting for almost 11% of total estimated completions, increased 39% in the second quarter compared to the same period a year ago, the API said. It noted that total development completions remained unchanged.

Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC broke ground last week on its Ramapo Expansion, which includes a new compressor station in Oxford, CT; replacement of approximately five miles of natural gas pipeline in Ramapo, NY; new turbine compressor units at three existing stations in New York and New Jersey; and upgrades to other existing facilities. The $200 million project will transport significant new volumes of natural gas to two major distribution companies serving the Northeast. When placed into service in November of 2008, the Ramapo Expansion will deliver 325,000 Dth/d to KeySpan Energy and Con Edison of New York via the Millennium Pipeline, currently under construction (see NGI, Dec. 25, 2006). Ground was broken on Millennium in June (see NGI, June 25). The pipeline will transport up to 525,400 Dth/d when it goes in service in November 2008. The project will be constructed over the next two years, with some restoration work extending into 2009. Construction costs have been pegged at $664 million. Portions will be installed across federal jurisdictional wetlands and waterways and beneath navigable waters.

Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) last Wednesday unveiled plans to build a 600 MW natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Charles County, MD, less than 20 miles south of Washington, DC — the cleanest generation facilities ever built in the region, the company said. The facility, dubbed CPV St. Charles, will use state-of-the-art technology to produce electricity efficiently and cleanly, the Silver Spring, MD-based company said. “CPV St. Charles will be our flagship facility and will employ the most advanced and environmentally conscious power generation technologies available today,” said CPV CEO Doug Egan. According to the company, CPV St. Charles will help reduce the dependency on older coal-burning power plants, which currently supply a majority of the region’s power. The plant’s innovative design will prevent it from being a strain on local water resources by employing a cooling system requiring only minimal groundwater. CPV plans to build and operate the new facility through its subsidiary, CPV Maryland, LLC, on a 77-acre site in an industrial zone adjacent to an existing asphalt plant, the Charles County landfill and an existing power line, eliminating the need to construct new transmission towers or power lines. The company recently obtained priority rights to tie the plant directly into the region’s power grid, giving the project a time and cost advantage over other proposed new power plants in the metropolitan Washington area.Through its Virginia subsidiary, CPV Warren LLC, CPV is also developing a natural gas-fired power plant in Front Royal, VA. That plant, which is in the final stages of the permitting process, will be the cleanest fossil fuel plant ever permitted in Virginia and one of the cleanest in the United States, CPV said.

GE AES Greenhouse Gas Services, a joint venture between GE Energy Financial Services and AES Corp., has launched a program to sell greenhouse gas (GHG) credits in the United States. The program, which will be marketed to companies that want to limit GHG emissions, expects to generate an annual production volume of 10 million metric tons of credits by 2010. The standard and criteria to measure, monitor and verify emission credits generated by coalbed methane and landfill methane are completed, and additional methodologies will be published by GE AES over the next six months for wastewater treatment, agricultural waste management, energy efficiency, renewable energy and reforestation. According to GE AES, the standard meets or exceeds the rules for all “widely recognized international standards.” To review the standard or criteria for GHG emissions, visit www.ge-aes.com.

El Paso Corp. has successfully certified its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory with the California Climate Action Registry, becoming the first company to earn the distinction of “Climate Action Leader” for 2007. The natural gas pipeline company, which joined the registry last August, was the first organization in the registry’s history to submit data without a single error. The registry, created by the California Legislature in 2000, is a nonprofit public/private partnership that helps companies and organizations throughout the United States to track, publicly report and reduce their GHG emissions. El Paso’s certified GHG emission report for 2006 is available through the registry’s website at www.climateregistry.org/CARROT/Public/.

Reno, NV-based Ormat Technologies Inc. signed a 20-year deal with cooperative utility Highline Electric Association to provide it with 4 MW of power produced from recovered heat from a natural gas pipeline, the company said last week. Highline serves customers in Colorado and Nebraska. The supplies will come from Ormat’s recovered heat generation (RHG) power plant, which it plans to build alongside a compression station near Denver on the Trailblazer Pipeline owned by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners. The power generation unit will convert waste heat from the exhaust of the existing gas turbines to “clean energy” starting in mid-2009. Ormat has a waste heat host agreement with Trailblazer, the owner/operator of the compression station where the alternative power supplier will build its new facility. Trailblazer Pipeline Co. owns 436 miles of gas pipelines traversing part of Colorado, southeastern Wyoming and into Nebraska. <>Ormat said this latest agreement is the seventh one it has signed for supplies from RHG units. “The Ormat line of RHG systems responds to two objectives that are high on the energy policy agenda — energy efficiency and emission reduction,” said Chairman Lucien Bronicki.

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