Difficult

National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) CEO Pete Miller believes a slump in North American onshore drilling will continue through this year, but the international energy equipment business is high on his radar, particularly in China.

Canada’s natural gas industry will see a difficult market over the next several years, marked by lower prices, falling production and a decline in exports to the United States, but unconventionals will turn around the economy once new export terminals are completed in British Columbia (BC), the Conference Board of Canada said Monday.

An environmental group focused on recreation says industrial-scale development of oil shale is harmful to rivers and could require billions gallons of water annually, significantly more than what would be needed for hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) Northeast Supply Link project to provide additional firm transportation service from the Marcellus Shale. The project would provide 250,000 Dth/d of incremental firm transportation capacity from supply interconnections on Transco’s Leidy Line in Pennsylvania to its 210 Market Pool in New Jersey and the Manhattan, Central Manhattan and Narrows delivery points in New York City. Thirteen miles of additional 42-inch diameter pipe segments, called loops, are to be built in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, along with more compression and modifications. The project, which received a favorable environmental assessment in August, is slated to be completed and in operation by November 2013 (see NGI, March 8, 2010). In addition to the loop segments, the Williams’ pipeline plans to install a 25,000 hp electric motor-driven compressor station and substation in Essex County, NJ, (Station 303); and install a 16,000 hp natural gas turbine-driven compressor unit at its existing Compressor Station No. 515 in Luzerne County, PA. Four shippers have subscribed for all of the capacity including affiliate Williams Gas Marketing Inc. (135,000 Dth/d); Anadarko Energy Services Co. (67,500 Dth/d); MMGS Inc. (32,500 Dth/d and Hess Corp. (15,000 Dth/d).

As it weighs the implications of allowing liquefaction and export of domestic natural gas, the U.S. Department of Energy should consider “benefits from trade that are difficult to quantify or not evident at first sight,” a researcher said in a recent white paper.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has begun working with the state’s Attorney General’s Office to review allegations that Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Encana Corp. worked together to avoid competing in state lease auctions two years ago.

If natural gas prices were to fall to $1, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, according to EnerVest Ltd. CEO John Walker. In fact, low prices may be the industry’s “greatest savior,” he said Wednesday at Bentek Energy’s Benposium in Houston.

If it’s difficult to remember the last time Devon Energy Corp. made a big acquisition in North America, most energy know-it-alls would be forgiven. The Oklahoma City-based super independent, then living high off the hog from its Barnett Shale winnings, in early 2003 paid $5.3 billion to buy Houston’s Ocean Energy Inc. (see NGI, March 3, 2003).

If it’s difficult to remember the last time Devon Energy Corp. made a big acquisition in North America, most energy know-it-alls would be forgiven. The Oklahoma City-based super independent, then living high off the hog from its Barnett Shale winnings, in early 2003 paid $5.3 billion to buy Houston’s Ocean Energy Inc. (see Daily GPI, Feb. 25, 2003).