megawatt

It will be up to risk-taking entrepreneurs –and not Congress– who will lead the way for the oil and natural gas industry, a former U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) official said Wednesday in Denver.

Private equity (PE) continues to put a bead on funding U.S. exploration and production (E&P) companies, and there appears to be a lot more money available than ever before, unconventional operators said at the Colorado Oil & Gas Association’s Rocky Mountain Energy Summit in Denver.

Natural gas and oil companies concerned that fringe protesters will succeed in delaying or canceling projects shouldn’t be, said the chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy. New technology eventually will be embraced, he said, but it will take time.

FERC last Monday ordered BP America Inc. and affiliates to show cause in a long-running case [IN13-15] involving the alleged gaming of the physical and financial markets at the Houston Ship Channel (HSC). The Commission proposed a near-$29 million penalty for transactions taking place from mid-September 2008 through Nov. 30, 2008.

State regulators and alternative fuel advocates are increasingly finding that the roads are getting crowded with natural gas vehicle (NGV) proposals as the transportation sector tries to make more use of abundant U.S. supplies. Oregon, Texas and Utah are the latest to extend their push to expand the market for NGVs.

A veteran researcher at the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) is urging state regulators and utility managers to pay more attention to “lost” natural gas, both from a safety standpoint and because of costs.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and MarkWest Utica EMG LLC (MarkWest Utica) are putting up a $2 billion y-grade natural gas liquids (NGL) processing and transportation combo project that competes with the Bluegrass Pipeline, which has been proposed by Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP and Williams.

A FERC administrative law judge’s (ALJ) initial decision ordering refunds of pipeline charges wrongfully collected by Rockies Express LLC (REX) pipeline for lost and unaccounted for gas, if endorsed by the full Commission, could disrupt the entire pipeline industry, according to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA).

Natural gas production from the Marcellus and Utica shales should double over the next five years, surpassing Rockies output levels from 2012 and accounting for “over a quarter of U.S. Lower 48 gas production,” Wood Mackenzie upstream analysts are forecasting.