Traffic

Cargoes from and to the U.S. oil and gas patch are filling up a lot more rail cars than they were one year ago, according to data from the Association of American Railroads (AAR), continuing a trend of increasing rail crude oil movement that began in 2009.

Incremental Northeast gas production during September will be driven by gathering system tie-ins, Bentek Energy LLC said in a Natural Gas Production Monitor market note. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. (Transco) is expected to add connections to two Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP gathering systems and additional compression on Williams’ Springville system is to come online this month, Bentek said. “Combined delivery capacity to Transco from the new tie-ins and compression upgrades will amount to more than 1 Bcf/d; however, Transco will likely not be able to accept more than 0.4 Bcf/d with a substantial portion of the Leidy Line capacity reserved for no-notice service,” the firm said. It expects Northeast production to add 0.2 Bcf/d during September, with the remainder of the Transco capacity filling through October. In November, the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Northeast Supply Diversification and the National FuelGas Co. Northern Access expansions are expected to support a winter production growth rate of about 0.2 Bcf/d each month through January (see Shale Daily, July 18), Bentek said.

Controversial former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz left his job at the end of April, but his fingerprints are on an agency rule calling for stricter ozone standards that would affect Barnett Shale natural gas interests in Wise County, TX, energy companies and industry groups said.

In all the hoopla surrounding the Marcellus Shale’s natural gas resources and its access to East Coast markets, it may be easy to forget that the Haynesville Shale was once the toast of the gas world. To Encana Corp., it still is.

Canadian producers are braced for severe summer price lows — possibly below C$2.00/MMBtu (US$1.80) — as international traffic in natural gas continues to slow down on oversupplied markets.

Canadian producers are braced for severe summer price lows — possibly below C$2.00/MMBtu (US$1.80) — as international traffic in natural gas continues to slow down on oversupplied markets.

The recent Canadian government-commissioned study on the impacts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker traffic in the choppy waters of Passamaquoddy Bay does not provide any fodder for the opponents of the Downeast LNG project proposed for Maine, said the company’s president.

International traffic in Canadian natural gas held firm through spring, postponing a widely forecast time of reckoning when soft prices and weakened drilling are expected to erode the trade, National Energy Board records show.

International traffic in Canadian natural gas held firm through spring, postponing a widely forecast time of reckoning when soft prices and weakened drilling are expected to erode the trade, National Energy Board records show.