Global

The kind of pipeline corrosion caused by microbes in the soil is a serious threat to onshore oil and natural gas systems and needs to be addressed by a global joint industry project, according to DNV GL, a global maritime and oil/gas safety consulting and accreditation organization.

Chemicals producer Stepan Co. is beginning engineering and design work for a potential $60-70 million chemical production facility to be built in Ascension Parish, LA, to take advantage of the Gulf Coast region’s abundance of natural gas and burgeoning chemicals industry.

Waltham, MA-based Global Partners LP made public on Wednesday an agreement with a unit of Summit Midstream Partners LLC to expand its takeaway capacity for Bakken crude oil for marketing on the East and West Coasts. It is part of the $300 million in North Dakota investments planned by Summit (see Shale Daily, June 10).

Global energy markets are reaching a new equilibrium, offering little upside signals for oil or natural gas prices as strong demand is countered by an equally strong supply, according to Wood Mackenzie’s forecast to 2030.

Hold the applause on assurances that North America’s unconventional gas producers will see big returns through global exports, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday.

Global strategic positioning of the United States is going to be driven by the development of domestic shale plays, petroleum analyst/consultant Tom Petrie said Thursday at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in a talk centered on “The Geopolitics of Shale Oil.”

The United States needs to remove the existing ban on crude oil exports to lower domestic energy prices and boost jobs, Marathon Oil Corp. CEO Lee Tillman said Wednesday in keynote remarks to the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, ND.

With numerous U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects creeping toward first cargo and a posse of would-be exporters on the Canadian west coast, global buyers might be looking to North America as their future cheap gas breadbasket. They probably shouldn't, said analysts at BernsteinResearch in a note last week.

North America’s copious natural gas resources have led to a “competitive resurgence” driving low-cost ethylene production, but the growth has created challenges in the Middle East, where operators are facing the “opposite and unfamiliar challenge of ethane supply limitations,” according to IHS Chemical.