Gone

The dismal days of 2009 are behind the chemical industry, and while the global recession isn’t completely gone, there are brighter times ahead. Much of that is because of the revolution in shale natural gas and oil, speakers at the IHS World Petrochemical Conference said Wednesday in Houston.

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.”

New Mexico Environmental Law Center attorneys have gone to the state’s appeals court seeking to overturn a decision by appointees of Gov. Susana Martinez to roll back a climate change law opposed by the oil/gas industry. The law was passed two years ago in a Democratic administration before Martinez, a Republican, took office.

Beleaguered Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), whose natural gas pipeline system and management have gone through regulatory hell since the fatal San Bruno transmission pipeline rupture and explosion in 2010, is in the early stages of a “long journey” to become the nation’s premier gas operator, and has some technology changes in the offing that could accelerate its transformation, according to executive vice president Nick Stavropoulos.

Added gas processing capacity bringing the state’s total to 1 Bcf/d is expected to cut volumes being flared significantly. Currently 34% of North Dakota’s average daily gas production is being flared, but that is slated to change a lot over the course of 2012, according to Industrial Commission spokesperson Alison Ritter.

Encana Corp. has gone on the offense against Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) findings regarding its Pavillion, WY wells, claiming that many of the EPA’s findings from its recent deep monitoring wells, including those related to any potential connection between fracking and Pavillion groundwater quality, “are conjecture, not factual, and only serve to trigger undue alarm.”

Range Resources Corp. has gone on the offensive in its battle with a North Texas landowner and a controversial environmental consultant widely believed to have an anti-gas industry agenda. In its response to a lawsuit over alleged water well contamination, the company said it wants to be compensated for millions of dollars in damages caused by false allegations.

Range Resources Corp. has gone on the offensive in its battle with a North Texas landowner and a controversial environmental consultant widely believed to have an anti-gas industry agenda. In its response to a lawsuit over alleged water well contamination, the company said it wants to be compensated for millions of dollars in damages caused by false allegations.

While the majority of U.S. primary energy production comes from fossil fuel resources, the bulk of the energy tax breaks have gone to support renewable fuels in the past two years, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).