Growing

As another sign that the railroad sector is a growing potential transportation market for natural gas, Canadian National Railway (CN) has ordered four liquefied natural gas (LNG) tenders from Vancouver, BC-based Westport Innovations Inc., the first of which are to be delivered later this year. A tender is a car behind the locomotive that carries the fuel.

Spring has brought out the Colorado frack fanatics on both sides of the growing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) debate as evidenced by the “Showdown of the Century” scheduled Wednesday in Boulder, CO, when pro- and anti-fracking documentaries and their writer/directors meet head-to-head (almost).

To give the growing Permian Basin its full focus, Laredo Petroleum Holdings Inc. has agreed to sell all of its Granite Wash properties in the Anadarko Basin to affiliates of EnerVest Ltd. for $438 million in cash.

The appetite for natural gas has extended into areas without extensive pipeline networks through trucking the fuel in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG). It is becoming a growing business, particularly for large industrial businesses.

National Property Holdings LP plans to develop the Alamo Junction Rail Park and serve the Eagle Ford Shale region’s growing demand for rail-based logistics and warehousing. The project joins another recently announced park targeting oil/gas patch-related industrial development in the region.

Building midstream infrastructure in the Marcellus Shale to keep up with growing natural gas volumes was a challenge in the first quarter, MarkWest Energy Partners LP CEO Frank Semple said last week.

BP plc’s decision to rethink one of its long-planned mega-projects in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is one of a growing list of big industry projects that today are being reconfigured because of cost overruns and changing market conditions.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Monday concluded a 16-month investigation by announcing that high levels of methane found in three water wells in Franklin Township in Susquehanna County “cannot be attributed to natural gas drilling activity in that geographical area.”

BP plc’s decision to rethink one of its long-planned mega-projects in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is one of a growing list of big industry projects that today are being reconfigured because of cost overruns and changing market conditions.