Energy Today - June 20, 2011
Rayola Dougher
Posted June 20, 2011
Northwest Indiana Times: Why Process Oil Sands?: The Energy Resources Conservation Board of Alberta, Canada, an independent government agency, estimates its oil sands are the second-largest source of the world's proven crude oil reserves -- 170 billion barrels -- next to Saudi Arabia. The oil is beneath an area one-and-a-half times the size of Indiana in the province's northeastern region...It is estimated there are at least 20 billion barrels of reserves commercially available from oil/tar-sands development, but up to 170 billion barrels may be had from the area. "When you look at the amount of oil, we could double what we are currently importing from Canada by 2035," said Cindy Schild, API refining-issues manager. Bloomberg: U.S. Shale Oil Output to Reduce Imports: Rising output from shale formations may reduce U.S. imports of low-sulfur crude oil by 500,000 barrels a day within five years as new pipelines carry the oil to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico, according to a study by analysts at Purvin & Gertz Inc. Shale production should rise to about 900,000 barrels a day by 2015 and to more than 1.3 million barrels daily by 2020, displacing imports, Geoff Houlton, a vice president at the Houston-based energy consultant, said in a telephone interview. The study includes output growth from the Bakken formation in North Dakota, Eagle Ford in Texas and Niobrara in Colorado and Wyoming...TransCanada Corp. (TRP)'s Keystone XL expansion, designed to transport as much as 700,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta's bitumen reserves through Cushing to refineries in Texas starting in 2013, awaits U.S. State Department approval. Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD) and Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) proposed the Double E pipeline to transport 450,000 barrels a day from Cushing to Houston by the fourth quarter of 2012. Magellan Midstream Partners LP (MMP) plans to reverse part of its Longhorn pipeline to carry 200,000 barrels a day of crude from West Texas to Houston. "That Enterprise line is the one to eliminate the pressure," Houlton said. "You really need something that adds to the takeaway capacity."
Cleveland Business News: Manufacturers Anticipate Boost From Natural Gas: If some experts are right, manufacturing in Northeast Ohio, and much of Ohio and Pennsylvania, is about to receive its biggest boost since the popularization of the automobile. "From a manufacturing perspective, the potential is huge," said Jim Samuel, a Columbus-based economic development consultant for utilities and others with a big stake in the natural gas business. Mr. Samuel, also a fellow at Cleveland State University, says the industry springing up in our midst might do for Cleveland what oil drilling did for Houston in the last century -- by serving as the chief driver of a burgeoning local economy. This industry is not medical devices, wind turbines, motion picture production or just about anything else you've heard economic development officials pitching in recent years. It's natural gas drilling, made possible by improved techniques to extract the stuff from beneath eastern Ohio and most of Pennsylvania. Analysts say about 3,000 natural gas wells will be drilled this year and in each of the coming years, until at least 2020. The activity already is creating a boom for area companies such as Fairmount Minerals, Chart Industries Inc. and Carlisle Brake and Friction, which sell materials and products used in the extraction and processing of natural gas and its byproducts. "By many accounts, you're looking at the largest shale gas play in the world," Mr. Samuel said.
Additional Resources:
Hot Air: Study Shows EPA Regs Will Cost, Not Create, Jobs