Implications

The country is in the midst of an “unconventional revolution in oil and gas” whose implications reach well beyond the energy industry, IHS Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin, tells the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Power in pre-filed testimony to be given Tuesday.

The seemingly unrelenting growth in natural gas use in Asia-Pacific nations could have global implications for gas pricing that heretofore has varied greatly between the East and the West, two Singapore-based energy attorneys said during an energy conference Tuesday.

Princeton, NJ-based NRG Energy Inc. and Houston-based GenOn Energy Inc. said Friday that their respective shareholders have approved a proposed merger that has implications for the nation’s mix of natural gas- and coal-fired generation plants (see Daily GPI, Aug. 10). When completed, the NRG-GenOn combination would create the nation’s largest competitive electric generator with nearly 47,000 MW of capacity, spanning gas, coal, solar, nuclear and wind facilities. The merger still needs approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the New York Public Service Commission, among others. “An overwhelming shareholder vote” for the combination reflects the fact that the merger is a “win-win for everyone,” according to NRG CEO David Crane. GenOn CEO Edward Muller pointed to “substantial cost savings and efficiency benefits” from the merger.

As it weighs the implications of allowing liquefaction and export of domestic natural gas, the U.S. Department of Energy should consider “benefits from trade that are difficult to quantify or not evident at first sight,” a researcher said in a recent white paper.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu should cooperate with other federal agencies to address key issues confronting energy and water, such as hydraulic fracturing processes, according to a new government report.

Drilling technologies have transformed the competitive landscape within the oil and gas industry and altered the traditional pricing relationship between crude oil and natural gas, but there’s still plenty of room for horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) services to grow, according to Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P).

It’s no exaggeration that the shale gas boom has “momentous” implications and it is “revolutionary” in an historic perspective, according to ExxonMobil Corp.’s Paul Greenwood, who spoke last Tuesday at the LDC Gas Forum meeting in Chicago.

It’s no exaggeration that the shale gas boom has “momentous” implications and it is “revolutionary” in an historic perspective, according to ExxonMobil Corp.’s Paul Greenwood, who spoke Tuesday at the LDC Gas Forum Midcontinent meeting in Chicago.

It’s no exaggeration that the shale gas boom has “momentous” implications and it is “revolutionary” in an historic perspective, according to ExxonMobil Corp.’s Paul Greenwood, who spoke Tuesday at the LDC Gas Forum Midcontinent meeting in Chicago.