Better

Wisconsin seems caught right in the middle of current economic woes — not as well off as some Upper Midwest states, but decidedly better off than Michigan, its neighbor across the Great Lakes — and Wisconsin Energy Corp. (WEC) sees continuing signs of slow recovery of the industrial sector, according to CEO Gale Klappa.

Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KMI) acquisition of El Paso Corp. is taking place in a world of growing gas supply from nonhistoric basins, which is driving the need for new and different infrastructure: gas and liquids pipelines, processing, fractionation, etc. It’s too soon to say how a combined KMI-El Paso will play the infrastructure game, but consolidation among others shouldn’t be a surprise, energy analysts told NGI.

In what’s become a larger-than-life drama, natural gas is the energy growth engine for the next 20 years, and hydraulic fracturing in North America is the driver, according to ExxonMobil’s Paul Greenwood, vice president for Americas gas marketing, in keynote remarks at a gas industry meeting in Los Angeles Tuesday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is heeding the advice of his Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission (MSAC) by proposing an impact fee, enhanced safety provisions and incentives to increase natural gas consumption.

As the natural gas landscape continues to be transformed by booming shale production and renewables emerge on a parallel path, gas industry stakeholders are increasingly focused on the concept of a “smarter,” more flexible gas delivery system along the lines of the electric industry smart grid. Eventually the two need to coalesce, according to a Gas Technology Institute (GTI) technical expert focused on the subject.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that it is reorganizing to better manage a burgeoning workload from the state’s booming oil and gas industry in the Marcellus Shale.

If it’s wet, it’s hot; if it’s dry, it’s not; $4/MMBtu is the “new normal,” and bigger is still better when it comes to production. That’s the crux of the industry wisdom collected by Barclays Capital analyst Michael Zenker and his team at the firm’s recent CEO Energy-Power Conference.

The Marcellus Shale is not only the most economic natural gas basin in the country, it is producing better returns than many oil plays, an energy industry analyst told an audience in Philadelphia recently.

Two technology firms on Thursday partnered to create an engineering and geoscience “solution” to allow unconventional oil and gas operators to incorporate microseismic data and hydraulic fracturing designs to help them model their well fractures.