Biofuels

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week offered a sharp upgrade to renewable natural gas (RNG) in its proposed 2019 Renewable Fuel Volume Obligations (RVO).

A trio of companies has agreed to pursue a gas-to-liquids (GTL) demonstration project in Houston with the goal of bringing the technology to the gas patch, where stranded wells could be enlisted to produce synthetic crude oil.

Production from the nation’s shale plays will grow to 12.2 Tcf in 2035, when it will be 47% of total U.S. production, up from 16% in 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) “Annual Energy Outlook 2011” (AEO2011), which was released Tuesday.

ConocoPhillips has slashed its capital budget for 2007, and it warned that if service costs continue to escalate, its medium-term oil and natural gas production likely will be impacted.

Intrepid Technology and Resources Inc. (ITR), an Idaho-based biofuels company, signed a preliminary 15-year gas supply agreement with local utility Intermountain Gas, covering all of the expected methane supply delivered to the Intermountain distribution system from ITR’s anaerobic digester technology plants at participating dairies in southern Idaho.