Infrastructure

Will the natural gas industry have excess supply and delivery infrastructure frantically searching for demand in the next decade or is the oversupply not what it seems? The competing views came from two industry experts at the LDC Gas Forum: Rockies & West meeting in Los Angeles last Tuesday.

Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. pushed ahead in three states with new natural gas fueling infrastructure. As part of an ongoing partnership, Clean Energy is spreading the use of compressed natural gas (CNG), operating and maintaining 14 fueling stations in upstate New York to support the 450-vehicle fleet of utility operator National Grid. In Connecticut, Clean Energy opened a station in West Haven at the headquarters of Metro Taxi, Connecticut’s largest full-service taxicab company. By the end of this year the taxi operator expects to have 110 CNG cabs in its fleet. And in Illinois, Clean Energy is working with Peoria Disposal Co., the city’s residential waste and recycling hauler, to build another CNG commercial fueling station in the city of Peoria. The station will serve as headquarters for 12 new CNG-powered trucks operated by the waste hauling firm.

Looking ahead over the next decade the natural gas industry can be characterized as having excess supplies of the commodity and infrastructure that will be searching frantically for added demand, an industry strategist told the LDC Gas Forum: Rockies & West meeting in Los Angeles Tuesday.

GE Energy Financial Services has taken a stake in Summit Midstream Partners LLC, a developer of midstream energy infrastructure in unconventional North American basins. Financial details were not disclosed. GE Energy Financial Services’ current midstream equity and debt portfolio totals $2.4 billion. It has invested in a midstream master limited partnership, gas storage assets, a liquefied natural gas regasification terminal and 40,000 miles of gas pipelines. Summit Midstream’s assets include gathering, compression and dehydration facilities in the core of the Barnett Shale. It recently acquired South Piceance Basin assets in the Rockies from an Encana Corp. subsidiary (see Daily GPI, Oct. 12).

Looking ahead over the next decade the natural gas industry can be characterized as having excess supplies of the commodity and infrastructure that will be searching frantically for added demand, an industry strategist told the LDC Gas Forum: Rockies & West meeting in Los Angeles Tuesday.

GE Energy Financial Services has taken a stake in Summit Midstream Partners LLC, a developer of midstream energy infrastructure in unconventional North American basins. Financial details were not disclosed. GE Energy Financial Services’ current midstream equity and debt portfolio totals $2.4 billion. It has invested in a midstream master limited partnership, gas storage assets, a liquefied natural gas regasification terminal and 40,000 miles of gas pipelines. Summit Midstream’s assets include gathering, compression and dehydration facilities in the core of the Barnett Shale. It recently acquired South Piceance Basin assets in the Rockies from an Encana Corp. subsidiary (see Daily GPI, Oct. 12).

Decidedly low-tech compared to the real-time electric grid system, natural gas nevertheless is due for a smartness upgrade in its usually mechanically based infrastructure. From increased uses as a transportation fuel to higher-tech approaches to exploration and production (E&P) in the oil/gas patch, the latest natural gas technological push has been boosted by the burgeoning shale gas sector.

Decidedly low-tech compared to the real-time electric grid system, natural gas nevertheless is due for a smartness upgrade in its usually mechanically based infrastructure. From increased uses as a transportation fuel to higher-tech approaches to exploration and production (E&P) in the oil/gas patch, the latest natural gas technological push has been boosted by the burgeoning shale gas sector.

Decidedly low-tech compared to the real-time electric grid system, natural gas nevertheless is due for a smartness upgrade in its usually mechanically based infrastructure. From increased uses as a transportation fuel to higher-tech approaches to exploration and production (E&P) in the oil/gas patch, the latest natural gas technological push has been boosted by the burgeoning shale gas sector.