States

Spending to create new natural gas liquefaction capacity in the United States may get Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) more bang for the buck than developing additional liquefaction projects at home, according to Wood Mackenzie.

In another plan for getting shale-driven domestic crude oil supplies in the central United States to the West Coast, Tesoro Corp. and Savage Companies on Monday formed a joint venture to develop and operate a new rail shipment-linked 120,000 b/d unloading and marine loading facility at Port of Vancouver, WA, across the Columbia River from Portland, OR.

Spending to create new natural gas liquefaction capacity in the United States may get Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) more bang for the buck than developing additional liquefaction projects at home, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Colorado legislators and Wyoming regulators are looking at different ways to tighten oversight of their states’ oil and natural gas drilling.

Natural gas liquids (NGL) account for a significant portion of what many international organizations refer to as “oil production” from the United States, according to analysts from the Brookings Institution.

Energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions last year were the lowest in the United States since 1994 at 5.3 billion metric tons due to the increasing reliance on lower-priced natural gas to fuel power generation, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). With the exception of 2010, carbon emissions have declined every year since 2007.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is looking for a new secretary to lead the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), but in a strange twist the outgoing secretary, Michael Krancer, is reportedly on a short list of names to replace a state Supreme Court justice who resigned Monday after being convicted on corruption charges.

Midstream and downstream energy giant Phillips 66 is positioning itself to take full advantage of the ongoing North American shale oil boom by inking a number of deals to increase supplies of cost-advantaged North American crude oil to its U.S. refineries.

If/when the United States begins exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG), it could take decades for the number of outbound cargoes to equal the number of press releases, studies and policy briefs generated by either side of the export debate. Besides powering a manufacturing/petrochemical renaissance, North American shale gas is fueling a bonfire of inanities, at least some would say.