natural gas

The United States is squandering a rare opportunity to switch cars and light trucks to run on natural gas, and should back away from plans to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe and Asia, according to a senior adviser to the United States Energy Security Council.

Close to one-quarter of the jobs added to U.S. payrolls since the economic downturn began in 2008 is the result of the booming natural gas and oil industry, former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday.

Physical gas for Tuesday delivery fell sharply at many points in Monday’s trading. Particularly hard hit were locations in the Northeast, as moderating weather was seen sending Tuesday temperatures to above normal readings. Locations in and around New York and Philadelphia were softer as well, but Marcelllus points advanced. California points were steady to higher. At the close of futures trading April had advanced 3.3 cents to $4.651 and May was up 0.9 cent to $4.576. April crude oil slumped $1.46 to $101.12/bbl.

There was a time not that long ago when some in the oil and gas industry questioned whether midstream companies were overbuilding infrastructure in Ohio’s Utica Shale play.

The project manager of the Jordan Cove LNG project in Oregon indicated Friday that he expects to break through the federal permitting bottleneck by early May.

Oklahoma’s House of Representatives has passed a bill (HB 2954) that would use some existing state revenue sources to help counties switch their fleet vehicles to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) and add to the state’s fueling infrastructure for natural gas vehicles (NGV).

In the wake of the political crisis in Ukraine, the ambassadors of four central European countries to the United States are urging Congress to expedite liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to its allies on the continent, in hopes of reducing their dependence on Russia for natural gas.

TransCanada Corp.’s ANR Pipeline began a weeklong binding open season on Friday to support the reversal of its Southeast Main Line (SEML) from rate zone ML-3 to the ML-1 tariff rate zone near Eunice, LA. The SEML reversal project consists of up to 600,000 Dth/d of southbound firm capacity. The open season follows past successful ANR open seasons targeting the connection of burgeoning Utica/Marcellus shale supply to markets across ANR’s system. These include the pipeline’s Lebanon project (350,000 Dth/d); the fully subscribed Glen Karn project (133,673 Dth/d); and the open season for remaining SEML existing capacity, which closed on March 5 and will provide shippers with 646,000 Dth/d of capacity. ANR said it is in the process of refining its next wave of system expansions and market offerings, perhaps in combination of a new greenfield project out of the Utica Shale. Its intention is to have its next market offering shortly after the close of the SEML reversal open season.

Devon Energy Corp. and Crosstex Energy Inc. have completed the combination of their midstream assets to form EnLink Midstream LLC (ENLC) and EnLink Midstream Partners LP (ENLK), whose assets will be focused on unconventional plays.