Efficiency

A “supply shock” to the global energy markets being created by North American oil production will be as transformative to the market over the next five years as was the rise of Chinese demand in the last 15, forcing operators to overhaul global investment strategies and reshape the way oil is transported, stored and refined, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday.

California energy utilities can spend nearly $2 billion over the next two years on energy efficiency programs, following authorization Thursday from the state regulatory commission. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said the action for 2013-2014 programs will deliver overall savings that prevent the need for two new natural gas-fired power plants and will save “significant” amounts of gas. In addition to approving individual plans for the state’s four major investor-owned utilities and community choice aggregators, the CPUC created two regional energy networks for the San Francisco Bay area and Southern California to complement the utility efforts. CPUC members said the latest plans, budgeted at $1.9 billion, will refocus on “deeper, longer-lasting” results.

Natural gas groups last week touted the Obama administration’s new standards that would require automakers to increase the average fuel efficiency of new cars and light-duty trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2025, nearly double that of cars currently on the road.

Natural gas groups Tuesday expressed their support for the Obama administration’s new standards requiring automakers to increase the average fuel efficiency of new cars and light-duty trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2025, nearly double that of cars currently on the road.

Hydrocarbon resources — oil, natural gas and coal — in North America are more than four times the resources existing in the Middle East, and the United States is now the fastest-growing producer of oil and natural gas in the world, according to a new report from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Recent technology advances in efficiency management, unconventional fossil fuels and clean energy “have fundamentally changed the energy game and redrawn the global energy map,” according to a white paper issued by Joseph A. Stanislaw, an independent adviser to Deloitte LLP.

With the aim of reducing truck travel and pollution, while increasing efficiency for Marcellus and Utica shale oil and natural gas producers, Eureka Resources LLC said Thursday it plans to construct a centralized wastewater treatment facility in Standing Stone Township in Bradford County, PA, the epicenter of Marcellus development.

Royal Dutch Shell said it expects to decide by the end of the year where it will build a “world-scale” ethylene cracker in the Marcellus Shale region, and it said the three states where it is considering construction of the facility are Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Expanded use of combined heat and power (CHP) systems, which recover and make use of waste heat from power generation, could be a means of growing demand for Marcellus Shale natural gas, according to the Commonwealth Recycled Energy Economic Development Alliance (CREEDA).