Growing

Temperatures over the next three months should average above normal across most of the eastern two-thirds of the United States, a weather pattern that would keep a lid on natural gas consumption in population centers in the Northeast, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI).

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has filed an application at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission seeking to boost the compression capacity along its 300 Line to meet the growing demand for interstate natural gas transportation service in the northeastern United States and Canada.

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. and S.H. Bell Co. are planning a new silica sand storage facility in East Liverpool, OH, to support growing demand from oil and natural gas customers in the Marcellus and Utica shales, the companies said.

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.”

Making the most of America’s recently realized and growing natural gas endowment dictates the use of gas for more than the traditional commercial and industrial applications. Many people are working to promote LNG as an alternative to fuels such as diesel and propane. One of them is Peter Tumminello, AGL Resources Co. executive vice president of wholesale services.

Making the most of America’s recently realized and growing natural gas endowment dictates the use of gas for more than the traditional commercial and industrial applications. Many people are working to promote liquefied natural gas (LNG) as an alternative to fuels such as diesel and propane. One of them is Peter Tumminello, AGL Resources Co. executive vice president of wholesale services.

Given the growing uncertainty concerning an idle nuclear power plant in Southern California, state energy officials Wednesday emphasized the quick response to power load spikes of a new natural gas-fired peaking plant that they approved unanimously.

With the backdrop of high and growing reliance on natural gas for power generation driven by the continuing shale gas expansion and resulting low prices, a conference room filled with gas industry representatives Tuesday discussed ways to better coordinate regional and national gas and power grids during a daylong FERC conference in Portland, OR.

Houston midstream operator Eagle Rock Energy Partners LP on Friday agreed to pay BP America Production Co. $227.5 million in cash for the BP Panhandle System, which includes two natural gas processing plants and a 2,500-mile gas gathering pipeline system. Eagle Rock also would take over BP’s gas processing in the area under a 20-year agreement.