Calls

Extracting natural gas from shale formations using hydraulic fracturing (fracking) “has no direct connection” to groundwater contamination reports, based on a study of three big shale gas plays in the United States, the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) said in a new report.

UGI Energy Services Inc., a subsidiary of UGI Corp., said it plans to spend $150 million to build a 30-mile extension of its Auburn Gathering System. The project calls for extending Auburn from its terminus in Wyoming County, PA, to Luzerne County, PA, and for building a connection to the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line. The extension is expected to be in service in the second or third quarter of 2013.

Southwestern Resources Canada, a Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN) subsidiary, has decided to halt seismic testing in New Brunswick earlier than expected to protect its workers after a wave of thefts, vandalism and protests in the province by opponents of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

New Brunswick officials are standing firm in their opposition to a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the province, even as protesters against the practice in the emerging Frederick Brook Shale stage bold acts of civil disobedience.

Dominion Cove Point LNG LP (DCP) and its firm import shippers asked FERC to approve by Wednesday an interim partial settlement that calls for Shell NA LNG LLC to deliver a tanker of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Cove Point’s import terminal on the Maryland coast next month to keep the cryogenic portion of the facility cooled.

The House should take a cue from the Senate’s much stricter pipeline safety reauthorization legislation, which calls for meticulous record-keeping, review and rulemakings with respect to expanding integrity management and potentially eliminating class locations for natural gas pipelines, an official with a a pipeline safety advocacy group said Thursday.

The House should take a cue from the Senate’s much stricter pipeline safety reauthorization legislation which calls for meticulous record-keeping, and review and rulemakings with respect to expanding integrity management and potentially eliminating class locations for natural gas pipelines, an official with a pipeline safety advocacy group said Thursday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) proposed 142,000 Dth/d expansion, the Mid-Atlantic Connector (MAC), which calls for the construction of 42-inch diameter pipeline extending from Transco’s Compressor Station 185 in Prince William County, VA, to Fairfax County, VA; the abandonment and replacement of pipeline in Fairfax County; and the construction of a 3,550-hp internal combustion-driven compressor unit at Transco’s existing Compressor Station 165 in Pittsylvania County, VA [CP11-31]. Transco, a subsidiary of Williams Partners LP, also plans to install one 33,000-hp electric motor-driven compressor unit at its Compressor Station 175 in Fluvanna County, VA, and to abandon four 4,400-hp internal combustion-driven compressor units, leaving it with a net addition of 15,400 hp at Compressor Station 175. The pipeline estimates that the expansion, to be completed in late 2012, will cost $55 million (see NGI, July 20, 2009). When completed, the MAC expansion will provide Virginia Power Services Energy Corp. Inc. and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. with incremental firm transportation capacity from a Transco interconnection with East Tennessee Natural Gas pipeline in Rockingham County, NC, to delivery points as far north as Maryland. Other supply points in the path of the project include interconnects with Columbia Gas Transmission, Dominion Transmission and Dominion Cove Point.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday unveiled the state’s draft 2011 energy master plan (EMP), which among other things calls for coal-fired generation to be phased out in favor of natural gas.