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Full Title Dow Chemical at OTC: New technology is helping oil companies recycle all of that fracking waste water HOUSTON — Facing environmental pressures and escalating costs, more oil companies are recycling and reusing the vast amounts of water used during hydraulic fracturing operations rather than hauling the liquid off to get injected underground. New technological advances have allowed oil companies to more easily convert drilling waste water to get reused in the oil patch, said Larry Ryan, president of Dow Chemical’s energy and water solutions business in an interview with Fuel Fix at the company’s booth at the Offshore...

Capitalism is a wonderful thing - except when it isn't. Several US businessmen - oil execs for instance - are eagerly waiting for the day when "normalizing" relations with Iran would lead to exploiting the business opportunities offered by the mullahs. The Hill: Leaders from the United States’ oil industry are traveling to Iran this week to discuss potential investment opportunities, Iran’s government said. The delegation of oil company leaders and investors are visiting Iran in anticipation of sanctions being loosened against Tehran, Iran’s state-owned Mehr News Agency reported Monday. “It is forecast that by the visit of [the] American delegation...

Ford Motor Co. says the 2016 F-150 pickup will be available with a 5.0-liter V8 engine that can run on compressed natural gas or propane, part of a growing lineup of CNG vehicles from the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker. Ford’s commercial vehicle customers, in particular, have been asking for more trucks and vans that can run on compressed natural gas because it lowers their fleet operating costs and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. CNG sells for an average of $2.11 per gallon of gasoline equivalent, as of April 30, 2015, and is as low as $1 in some parts of the country,...

The U.S. could export anywhere between 0.2 trillion cubic feet and 10.3 trillion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas annually by 2040, according to the latest government projection. Where along that spectrum the actual figure lands will be determined by global energy prices and the availability of U.S. natural gas, the agency said in a Tuesday rehashing of projections made in the Annual Energy Outlook for 2015. The wide range of outcomes hasn’t stopped U.S. companies from proposing dozens of new export facilities. While market watchers have said that it’s unlikely all of these facilities will come online, several are...

The United States is poised to flood world markets with once-unthinkable quantities of liquefied natural gas as soon as this year, profoundly changing the geo-politics of global energy and posing a major threat to Russian gas dominance in Europe. "We anticipate becoming big players, and I think we'll have a big impact," said the Ernest Moniz, the US Energy Secretary. "We're going to influence the whole global LNG market." Mr Moniz said four LNG export terminals are under construction and the first wave of shipments may begin before the end of this year or in early 2016 at the latest....

India has asked its largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier Qatar to cut gas prices to match the 60% slump in global rates in last one year. India buys 7.5 million tonnes a year of LNG on a long-term 25 year contract, indexed to a moving average of crude oil price. The price of LNG from Qatar comes close to $13 per million British thermal unit as compared to the $6-7 rate at which it is available in the spot or current market. The high price of LNG under the long-term contract has led to users in fertiliser and power...

The annexation of Crimea and the consequent threats of gas supply cuts by Russia have been a reminder of an inconvenient truth: when it comes to politics, Europe will always be influenced by its dependency on Russian gas. According to the European Parliament, in 2013 Russia provided 43.2% of the European Union’s gas imports, 31.38% of its oil imports, and 26.7% of its coal imports. But the dependency runs both ways.

Floating regasification is a flexible, cost-effective way to receive and process shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Floating regasification is increasingly being used to meet natural gas demand in smaller markets, or as a temporary solution until onshore regasification facilities are built. Of four countries planning to begin importing LNG in 2015, three of them—Pakistan, Jordan, and Egypt—have chosen to do so using floating regasification rather than building full-scale onshore regasification facilities. Floating regasification involves the use of a specialized vessel called a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), which is capable of transporting, storing, and regasifying LNG onboard. Floating...

The dam is about to burst in the Northeast. The question is who will drown in the coming flood of natural gas? BTU Analytics is currently tracking 42 Bcf/d of Northeast projects coming online through 2018. Of that capacity, 14.6 Bcf/d will help carry gas out of the region. Some of the most notable of these projects are Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline at 3.25 Bcf/d, Spectra’s Nexus Pipeline at 1.5 Bcf/d, and a series of REX Pipeline expansions bringing the pipe’s total east to west capacity to 2.6 Bcf/d. Infrastructure constraints in the Marcellus and Utica have been the norm...

A study released Tuesday by the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) concludes that more time is needed for utilities to develop new generation and transmission than is allowed by the timeline for carbon pollution reductions in the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP). The draft carbon regulations aim to cut carbon emissions 30% below 2005 levels by 2030, and require steep carbon cuts from many states by 2020. According to NERC, utilities take 4-5 years to build new generation plants and 6-15 years to construct new transmission lines to support them, meaning that both the interim 2020 compliance date...

Tough new environmental rules and cheap energy prices are heightening the battle between coal miners and natural-gas pumpers over which fuel will dominate the U.S. power market. At the IHS CERAWeek global energy conference here, there were some heated words on both sides of the debate. “Cleaner coal, there’s no such thing,” Eldar Saetre, chief executive of the Norwegian oil giant Statoil ASA, told an audience of hundreds of people, most of them employed in the fossil-fuel industry. He added climate-conscious electric companies should burn natural gas instead. “The only thing that gets tense is when somebody like the head...

Major improvements by natural gas exploration-and-production companies have allowed them to continue to drill profitably in a period of depressed prices, adding to the glut of gas and putting further pressure on prices, an E&P executive said Wednesday at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. "What's happening is that we continue to get better and get more production per rig," Kyle Mork, president of Energy Corporation of America, said in reference to the seeming paradox of growing US natural gas production despite a record low level of rigs. "We're the problem," he said. It is common knowledge in the industry...

Kinder Morgan said Thursday it was considering another expansion along a pipeline linking its natural gas system to Mexico. The expansion would add another 200 million cubic feet of capacity along the Mier-Monterrey pipeline, which runs 95 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border near Starr County, Texas to Monterrey, Mexico. If Kinder Morgan moves forward, the project would add a new compressor station and boost total capacity along the line to 840 million cubic feet per day. The Houston-based company said it would solicit commitments from shippers for new pipeline capacity between April 27 and May 11. Pipeline projects usually require...

European antitrust regulators on Wednesday charged the Russian energy giant Gazprom with abusing its dominance in natural gas markets, a move amounting to a direct challenge to the authorities in Moscow. The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, said that unfair pricing might have resulted in higher gas prices in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which have long been wholly or substantially dependent on Russian gas. In those countries, the commission said, Gazprom was suspected of charging wholesalers prices that were significantly higher compared with the company’s costs or to benchmark prices.

General Dynamics-NASSCO has launched Isla Bella, the first liquid natural gas-powered container ship that the Barrio Logan shipyard has built for the company TOTE. The 764-foot-long vessel slid down the launch ways Saturday at NASSCO, the last major shipyard on the West Coast. The company also is building a second vessel for TOTE under a contract that was signed in 2012. NASSCO said in a statement that the Marlin-class container ships “will be the largest dry-cargo ships of any kind in the world powered by LNG. The vessels ... will significantly decrease emissions while increasing fuel efficiency as compared to...

A bill being debated in the Texas Legislature that would severely limit local municipalities' power to regulate oil and natural gas drilling moved one step closer to becoming law Monday. In a 125-20 vote, the Republican-dominated Texas House of Representatives approved on third reading H.B. 40. The legislation would "expressly pre-empt local ordinances that ban or limit oil and gas operations," including hydraulic fracturing. The bill will now move to the state Senate, which, like the House, is Republican-controlled. If passed by both houses of the legislature it will move to the desk of Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who has...

Legislation to set standards for cities that wish to regulate the oil and gas drilling within their city limits passed the Texas House Friday with more than two-thirds approval. House Bill 40 heads to the Texas Senate Monday, where, if it can sustain the momentum that’s carried it this far, could soon become law. And that’s got some special interests groups in a tizzy. “If some Austin lawmakers are successful, oil and gas drilling could be coming to a school, playground of daycare center near you,” wrote Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas in an opinion piece published in the...

Siluria Technologies’ new ethylene plant is a 4-story-tall maze of pipes and valves and pressure vessels. If it were a standalone plant it might be impressive. But this one is tucked in among dozens of giant petrochemical complexes along the Houston Ship Channel and situated within a larger polypropylene site operated by Brazilian chemicals giant Braskem So how does this facility stand out? Because it’s unique. All the rest of the world’s ethylene is made the old-fashioned way: by breaking apart larger hydrocarbons such as naphtha (sourced from crude oil) or ethane (found in natural gas). In contrast, Siluria’s technology...

Celanese Corp. is considering expanding its South Texas chemical plant to produce methanol, the company has announced. Building a methanol unit at the plant in Bishop near Corpus Christi would be the latest move by the Dallas-based chemical company to capitalize on an abundance of cheap U.S. shale gas. Celanese has been building a new methanol unit in Clear Lake, southeast of Houston under a joint venture with Mitsui & Co., one of Japan’s largest generally traded companies. The project, which should be finished by October, will have the capacity to produce 1.3 million tons of methanol per year. Made...

At least five people were rushed to the hospital with burns after a “major gas line explosion” at the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office gun range, a department official said. The blast occurred about 2:30 p.m. behind the range in an area under construction, said Lt. John Zanoni. The injured did not include Sheriff’s Office employees, he said. No firearms were involved in the explosion. Fresno Fire Department spokesman Pete Martinez said witnesses reported a “ball of fire” that burned multiple people.