Elsewhere

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is deferring 20,000 acres in Colorado’s North Fork Valley from an lease sale set for Thursday (Feb. 14). Another 88,000 acres elsewhere in the state will be part of the sale.

The proliferation of rail-based crude oil transport in the Bakken Shale and elsewhere has not gone unnoticed by pipeliner Enbridge Inc. “It’s an agile…way of getting to market,” Enbridge’s Stephen John Wuori, president of the liquids pipeline business, said. However, “…rail movements can and will get turned off in a day if differentials collapse.”

The Eagle Ford Shale will drive a 15% increase in onshore gas production from the Texas Gulf Coast by November, offsetting declines elsewhere in Texas, according to Bentek Energy LLC. The firm said it expects Texas to be “increasingly long gas in the near term as Eagle Ford production growth continues to outpace demand,” putting downward pressure on regional prices. According to Bentek’s Texas Observer, the state’s supply is up by 1 Bcf/d, or 5%, from a year ago, with the increase driven by growth in onshore production. Demand is up only 0.6 Bcf/d over the same period, according to Bentek. “Due to the combination of Marcellus [Shale] pushback and milder winter weather, net Texas outflows have declined nearly 0.4 Bcf/d since this time last year. As a result, Texas is currently 0.8 Bcf/d longer supply than year-to-date 2011,” Bentek said.

The Appalachian Basin has ample amounts of undeveloped ethane and no nearby place to sell it, but the numerous proposals to ship it to move it elsewhere remain challenged by the marketplace, several project sponsors told an audience in Pittsburgh on Oct. 21.

Louisiana has joined other states in requiring the disclosure of the contents of fluids used for hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The rule was proposed earlier this year.

Houston-based JGC Energy Development (USA) Inc. (JEDI), a unit of Yokohama, Japan-based engineering firm JGC Corp. (JGC), has agreed to acquire a stake in Eagle Ford Shale oil assets from TriTech LLC, the company said.

The Horn River Basin of British Columbia (BC) holds an “ultimate potential” of marketable unconventional natural gas shale of 78 Tcf, which “ranks among the most prospective shale gas basins in North America,” according to a new government energy market assessment.

With a growing generation portfolio elsewhere in North America, Canada-based Fort Chicago, the backer of one of two remaining proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Oregon, is also looking longer term to develop gas-fired generation plants around the Pacific Northwest. The effort will go forward whether or not its Jordan Cove LNG project at Coos Bay, OR, ever gets built.

With a growing generation portfolio elsewhere in North America, Canada-based Fort Chicago, the backer of one of two remaining proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Oregon, is also looking longer term to develop gas-fired generation plants around the Pacific Northwest. The effort will go forward whether or not its Jordan Cove LNG project at Coos Bay, OR, ever gets built.