Boom

ESAI Energy’s five-year “Global Industrial Fuels Outlook” concludes that the natural gas liquids (NGL) boom from shale gas development will spur export-oriented investment in petrochemical facilities. Higher petrochemical exports from the United States will target the Latin American market, deterring petrochemical investment in that region.

Laying out a blueprint for how small- and medium-sized businesses can take advantage of the opportunities provided within the current U.S. natural gas development boom, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) has released the second in a series of recommended practices aimed at bolstering the Marcellus Shale region’s supply chain.

The drilling boom in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas has increased instances of illegal drilling waste hauling in the region, while some South Texas counties have seen highway fatalities skyrocket, blamed largely on increased commercial truck traffic.

While the potential is widely recognized, a shale boom in Mexico akin to the rest of North America is unlikely any time soon, an analyst with the Houston office of Wood Mackenzie told NGI.

Six former presidents will be appearing in commercials supporting natural gas that will air in theaters before motion pictures this summer, thanks to a new advertising campaign by the American Clean Skies Foundation (ACSF), a nonprofit natural gas advocacy group.

The U.S. shale gas boom has put pressure on the natural gas industry nationally to upgrade and build new pipeline capacity to service what are anticipated to be growing markets for gas-fired electric generation and use of gas as a transportation fuel, the CEO at Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) Tony Earley said Monday in advance of the PG&E annual shareholders meeting in San Francisco.

Amid forecasts that see no end to low gas prices across North America, overseas exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are being rated as a must for development of the Canadian version of shale supplies in northern British Columbia (BC).

Shale talk and action are both picking up in Illinois as oil/gas exploration and production (E&P) companies and state officials are getting more involved in the fields and in the state capital in Springfield. As the energy companies seek more leases from farmers, the lawmakers have a proposed state law (SB 3280) covering hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

North Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale boom has been a starring player in the country’s natural gas renaissance. However, conventional drilling in the southern part of the state has been stymied by the threat of litigation over things that occurred decades ago, producers have argued and a new study asserts.