Point

Dominion Resources Inc. said last week interest is growing in the company’s proposal to turn the Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Lusby, MD, into an export terminal (see NGI, Oct. 17, 2011).

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is asking state lawmakers to hold firm on local zoning restrictions included in legislation to impose an impact fee on natural gas drillers.

Youngstown, OH, long a Rust Belt poster child, now is watching the phoenix-like revival of its flagship steel plant, Youngstown Iron Sheet & Tube, thanks to the Utica and Marcellus shales. The 100-year old plant, once one of largest in the world before it foundered in the 1970s collapse of the nation’s steel industry, will be making steel pipe to serve the state’s burgeoning shale gas and oil development.

Gulfstream ended Thursday morning the Operations Advisory it had issued on Dec. 2 due to high linepack.

Northwest is reducing the available capacity at the Spokane Mead throughput point to 130,000 Dth/d effective Friday, saying demand in the Spokane, WA, area is not sufficient for it to schedule full design capacity at Starr Road. “This reduction is necessary to ensure operational reliability on the Spokane Lateral,” the pipeline said. “If necessary, Northwest will also cut alternate gas at other points on the lateral to maintain operational integrity. As the weather turns colder and the Spokane area can effectively burn the gas being nominated at Starr Road, Northwest will return all points on the lateral to design capacity.”

Northwest said nominated northbound volumes through Kemmerer Compressor Station and the Plymouth South constraint point continue to substantially exceed design capacity, impacting the pipeline’s operational integrity. As a result, effective Wednesday until further notice Northwest is declaring OFOs at both points If scheduled quantities for Wednesday’s gas day exceed the design capacity of 655,000 Dth/d at Kemmerer or 536,300 Dth/d at Plymouth South, Northwest will provide shippers with their contract-specific, realignment or must-flow OFO obligations by 4 p.m. MST.

Despite the big players and big money pouring into the Utica and Point Pleasant Shales of Ohio over the past 90 days, don’t expect the play to boom next year, a diverse panel told attendees at Hart Energy’s 2011 DUG (Developing Unconventional Gas) East conference in Pittsburgh last Thursday.

Supporters and critics of natural gas development often point to Pennsylvania and New York as two different approaches to regulating shale, but that difference may have been more of an inevitability than a choice, according to a panel of experts speaking in Pittsburgh Wednesday.

Both supporters and critics of natural gas development often point to Pennsylvania and New York as two different approaches to regulating shale, but that difference may have been more of an inevitability than a choice, according to a panel of experts speaking in Pittsburgh Wednesday.