America

Advanced Power North America, a subsidiary of Switzerland’s Advanced Power AG, said it plans to build a 700 MW power plant fueled by natural gas in Carroll County, OH, an $800 million project in the heart of the Utica Shale.

Century Midstream LLC, whose focus primarily will be to develop and expand emerging liquids plays across North America, was launched Wednesday by private equity energy firm First Reserve Corp. and a team of seasoned midstream veterans.

TravelCenters of America (TA) CEO Tom O’Brien is to deliver the opening keynote address June 25 at the 2013 Alternative Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in the Washington, DC, convention center June 24-27. TA is making what the ACT sponsors called significant investments to provide its customers with alternative fuel options, including natural gas. TA and Royal Dutch Shell plc in April announced plans to build a network of liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling lanes at existing TA locations nationwide (see Daily GPI, April 22). Shell has committed to creating a “U.S. network of LNG fueling centers for heavy duty road transport customers” stretching from coast to coast. O’Brien is expected to add more color to the ongoing push of commercial trucking fleets to use alternative fuels.

For North America’s trucking and municipal bus fleets, it seems that they just can’t get enough compressed natural gas (CNG).

America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) is launching a nationwide advertising campaign designed to get people thinking and talking about their energy choices, and to see natural gas as a “foundational fuel.” The ad campaign will be “very visible,” with television and online components, as well as personal outreach through ANGA customer groups, said spokesman Dan Whitten. It would be the first major public outreach since Martin J. Durbin was named president and CEO (see NGI, April 1). Durbin had been executive vice president of government affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, where he led advocacy efforts on behalf of the oil and gas industry. Former president and CEO Regina Hopper resigned in February under pressure from the board (see NGI, Feb. 11).

America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) plans to begin a nationwide advertising campaign Monday designed to get people thinking and talking about their energy choices, and to see natural gas as a “foundational fuel.”

Energy industry efforts to reduce the amount of water used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) through recycling and other means have to be stepped up if unconventional resources are to grow as projected, according to Ceres, which runs an influential institutional investor coalition.

The torrent of natural gas production coming out of North America’s shale plays reminds Jim Duncan, chief analyst and commodity market strategist at ConocoPhillips Gas & Power, of the opening lines of “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens’ epic novel of the French Revolution.

The torrent of natural gas production coming out of North America’s shale plays reminds Jim Duncan, chief analyst and commodity market strategist at ConocoPhillips Gas & Power, of the opening lines of “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens’ epic novel of the French Revolution.