Strategy

The head of General Electric’s (GE) energy business unit touted natural gas during a GE-sponsored business strategy review last Tuesday, following an announcement that GE has signed $3 billion worth of new energy agreements with customers.

Recently announced plans to build a plant in Louisiana to produce gas-to-liquids (GTL) transportation fuels and other products confirm that a GTL strategy “is the country’s best approach for energy independence,” according to Santa Barbara, CA-based Carbon Sciences Inc., the developer of a technology used to make gasoline and other transportation fuels from natural gas and carbon dioxide (CO2).

The head of General Electric’s (GE) energy business unit touted natural gas during a GE-sponsored business strategy review Tuesday, following an announcement that GE has signed $3 billion worth of new energy agreements with customers.

Natural gas is mostly methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas, especially in the short term, with 105 times more warming impact pound for pound than CO2, said Cornell ecologist Robert Howarth. He added that “even small leaks make a big difference” and estimated that as much as 8% of the methane in shale gas leaks into the air during the lifetime of a hydraulically fractured shale gas well, which is up to twice what escapes from conventional gas production.

In the midst of a global climate change strategy among policymakers, the demand for fossil fuels is surging, which in turn is impacting the deployment of clean energy technologies, according to a report released Wednesday at the second Clean Energy Ministerial in Abu Dhabi.

The Colorado Petroleum Association (CPA) is changing its strategy to seek permission for operators to bury plastic liners used in wastewater pits at drilling sites.

Natural gas-fired generation and storage in Wyoming and California could play a key role if Wyoming is to fulfill a long-term strategy of making itself a major exporter of wind-generated electricity, according to a second phase study released Monday by the state Energy Office and Wyoming Infrastructure Authority (WIA). The cost of a 12 GW wind collector system and integration system for wind and natural gas would total tens of billions of dollars, the report said.

Offering high hopes but no consensus on a strategy, the latest report from the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA) calls natural gas a potential U.S. energy solution, although it hastened to point out that opinions still vary widely on how to make that happen.

Triana Energy LLC and a unit of Marathon Oil Corp. will develop 82,000 acres of Marcellus Shale prospects in Fayette County, PA, and several counties in northern West Virginia, Triana said Thursday.