Free Republic

Oil isn't Russia's only problem. The energy exporter is losing its dominance over the European gas market. In the past there were two factors that kept Russia as the major gas powerhouse: European policies and cold winters. But both of those things have changed — and Russia is starting to explore non-Western countries.

ALBANY — The Cuomo administration announced Wednesday that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State, ending years of uncertainty by concluding that the controversial method of extracting gas from deep underground could contaminate the state’s air and water and pose inestimable public-health risks... That conclusion was delivered publicly during a year-end cabinet meeting called by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany. It came amid increased calls by environmentalists to ban fracking, which uses water and chemicals to release natural gas trapped in deeply buried shale deposits.

Even as it fills the railroads of the Upper Midwest with oil tank cars, the Bakken has allowed its natural gas riches to languish. Less profitable than oil and more difficult to transport, natural gas has been so secondary in North Dakota that drillers still burn off more than a fourth of what rises from the ground. In satellite pictures, the flames sprawl across the Williston basin, lighting it up like a giant suburb. A quiet transformation is underway, however, as the state bids to turn natural gas into a native business and drive down flaring. A growing network of...

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Turn natural gas into gasoline for $1 per gallon The clear liquid flowing from a collection of pipes and wires in a Hayward industrial park smells just like gasoline, and for all practical purposes, it is.But it wasn’t made from crude oil. Instead, it came from natural gas, the fuel whose sudden abundance in America is reshaping the country’s energy landscape.Siluria Technologies says it can produce large quantities of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and chemicals at a lower cost than traditional refineries and chemical plants. At today’s natural gas prices, Siluria’s technology could make gasoline at roughly $1 per gallon, according to...

The world’s leading oil and gas companies are taking on debt and selling assets on an unprecedented scale to cover a shortfall in cash, calling into question the long-term viability of large parts of the industry. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said a review of 127 companies across the globe found that they had increased net debt by $106bn in the year to March, in order to cover the surging costs of machinery and exploration, while still paying generous dividends at the same time. They also sold off a net $73bn of assets. This is a major departure from...

Ukraine doesn’t need Russia to take it down—Kiev is doing fine destroying itself, most recently with a new tax code that doubles taxes for private gas producers and promises to irreparably cripple new investment in the energy sector at a time when reform and outside investment were the country’s only hope. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on August 1 signed off on a new tax code that effectively doubles the tax private gas producers in Ukraine will have to pay, calling into question any new investment, as well as commitment from key producers already operating in the country. The stated goal...

HOUSTON — Natural gas production in the Marcellus Region exceeded 15 billion cubic feet per day in July, the most productive period ever recorded there, according to a government analysis. The Marcellus Region, located largely in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, now accounts for almost 40 percent of U.S. shale gas production. The field’s rapid growth has had a major effect on the surrounding markets for gas and isn’t expected to ebb soon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Marcellus Region’s natural gas productivity has surged since 2010, when production totaled 2 billion cubic feet per day. New wells...

On the one hand, many environmental and conservation groups are bitterly opposed to shale development. Ranged against them are those within and beyond the energy industry who believe that the exploitation of shale gas can prove not only vital but hugely positive for the British economy. Rather oddly, hardly anyone seems to have asked the one question which is surely fundamental: does shale development make economic sense? My conclusion is that it does not. That Britain needs new energy sources is surely beyond dispute. Between 2003 and 2013, domestic production of oil and gas slumped by 62pc and 65pc respectively,...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — PPL Corp. said Thursday it wants to spend billions of dollars to build a 725-mile system of electric transmission lines that will bring energy from the booming Marcellus Shale natural gas fields to customers on the heavily populated Eastern Seaboard. The Allentown-based utility said the 500-kilovolt line would span much of Pennsylvania and reach into New York, New Jersey and Maryland, although the route has not been determined. The cost was expected to exceed $4 billion, and it could take more than a decade to build....

The South Stream gas pipeline, which bypasses Ukraine, may halve the value of Ukraine’s gas transportation system (GTS), according to Andrey Kobolev, head of Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz. After the Russian–led South Stream project is complete and working at full capacity, the value of Ukraine’s GTS may fall as much 50 percent from the present estimate of $25-$35 billion, RIA Novosti quotes the head of the company. “We have no wish to lose it, and it’s unreasonable," Kobolev said on a Ukrainian local TV channel. Construction of the South Stream pipeline in Bulgaria and Serbia was suspended...

Royal Dutch Shell is ending investments in a gas development project in Saudi Arabia. The emergence of the shale gas industry has opened up more lucrative opportunities for energy companies elsewhere. Shell has decided to end further investment in the Kidan area of the Empty Quarter, the sea of sand dunes that cover south-east Saudi Arabia. Italy's ENI, Spain's Repsol and France's Total - have already abandoned the search for commercially viable gas deposits in that part of Saudi Arabia. Kidan, rich in sour gas...

BERLIN—Germany plans to halt shale-gas drilling for the next seven years over concerns that exploration techniques could pollute groundwater. "There won't be [shale-gas] fracking in Germany for the foreseeable future," Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said Friday. The planned regulations come amid a political standoff with Russia, Germany's main natural gas supplier, and following intensive lobbying from environmentalists and brewers concerned about possible drinking-water contamination. The production of shale gas requires the application of the hydraulic fracturing technology known as fracking, which involves using a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to break apart rocks to release the gas. The...

German and US companies want to start using Ukraine as a gas hub, according to Aleksandr Todiychuk, Deputy Chairman of the country’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz. “For them [Germany and the US] it’s an opportunity to gain a foothold in the region. Our underground gas storage is interesting for both sellers and buyers of gas. This is why potentially everybody who’s interested in creating a hub, are talking about our high potential in this field,” Todiychuk said in an interview with the Russian daily Kommersant. Gazprom, the world’s largest producer of natural gas, has stopped using Ukraine as...

Utilization of natural gas as a motor fuel has been steadily increasing since new domestic production of this natural resource began in the mid-2000s. It has provided businesses with a cheaper and cleaner way to operate their vehicle fleets. Additionally, elected policymakers have supported adoption of natural gas motor fuel as a strategy to achieve energy independence. Unfortunately, just as natural gas is starting to penetrate the commuter vehicle market, regulators are making a hard push to force consumers to purchase natural gas motor fuel in kilograms. The National Conference of Weights and Measures (NCWM), which is comprised of state...

WASHINGTON — A decades-old decision by the Commerce Department to abandon congressionally mandated restrictions on natural gas exports could jeopardize current plans to sell the fossil fuel overseas, Sen. Ed Markey charged Monday. Although Congress passed a law in 1975 directing the government to bar exports of U.S. oil and natural gas, the Commerce Department never got further than crude. And when Commerce formally delegated gas export issues to the then one-year-old Energy Department in 1978, it did so citing a much older 1938 law and the regulations born under it — without any mention of the newer 1975 mandate....

China and Russia evidently have concluded a 30-year gas deal which shifts the balance of Russian hydrocarbon exports eastwards, but that’s not the thing to focus on. Pravda reports: The central themes of the talks between the two leaders will be two projects in the field of aviation – the creation of a joint wide-body long-haul aircraft and the production of Mi-26 heavy helicopter in China, the Kommersant reports.Russia, entering into such cooperation with China, indicates that it is ready to open access to Russian aircraft technologies, despite the fact that China previously resorted to building unlicensed copies of...

China signed a landmark deal Wednesday to buy Russian natural gas worth about $400 billion, giving a boost to diplomatically isolated President Vladimir Putin and expanding Moscow's ties with Asia. Price negotiations on the 30-year deal continued into the final hours of a two-day visit by Putin to China, during which both sides had said they hoped to sign an agreement. Putin was in Shanghai for an Asian security conference where China's president called for a new model of Asian security cooperation based on a regional group that includes Russia and Iran and excludes the United States. The gas deal...

Summary Supply-demand balance in the global LNG market remained tight in 2014, thanks to China's rapidly growing demand for this commodity and limited capacity additions on the supply side. Tightness should continue through the end of 2016, with the next slug of export projects in Australia bringing a degree of price relief and potentially redirecting some cargos back to Asia. The global LNG market should loosen toward the end of the decade as additional supplies come onstream and some contract rotation occurs. Against this backdrop, the Asian market's premium to North American natural gas (after liquefaction and transportation costs) could...

The boom in American natural-gas production during the past several years, and the consequent crash of domestic natural-gas prices, has caused many to call for the liberation of U.S. natural-gas exports. The ongoing Russian invasion of the Crimea and threat to the rest of Ukraine has added still greater urgency to these calls, as the need take action to weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin’s natural-gas stranglehold over Europe has become vital. Despite these economic and national security imperatives, there are still those who maintain that allowing American natural-gas producers to export their product would damage the national interest. According to...