natural gas

The natural gas trading market has been getting a lot of attention lately and not in a good way. A couple of weeks ago the Wall Street Journal published two articles describing the fact that traders have started to reduce their presence in natural gas storage.  At about the same time, Oneok, once a big player in energy services shut down its operation that had used natural gas storage and pipeline transportation capacity to provide those services to the industry.   With gas production still coming on strong, more gas being used for power generation and the possibility of serious LNG exports on the way, what’s the problem?  Today we look deeper into turmoil in the natural gas markets.

By: Eric Penner

A lot of natural gas storage follows a time honored pattern – put gas in during the summer and take it out during the winter.  But it is getting much more complicated than that.  Developments in natural gas production – particularly in the Appalachian (Marcellus) region will be driving big changes through the gas storage business.   Today we pick up on a blog series we started last month to examine the two fundamental value generating gas storage mechanisms, and how they match up with the physical characteristics of storage facilities.

The Energy East pipeline project proposes to convert part of the TransCanada Mainline natural gas system and add new pipeline in eastern Canada to connect oil receipts in Alberta with refineries in Ontario, Quebec and on the Atlantic seaboard. The proposal competes with existing plans by Enbridge to feed eastern Canadian refineries with light crude but does offer the prospect of supplying heavy crude for export from Canada’s East Coast. Today in Part 2 of a series on the project we review destination markets.

The TransCanada Energy East project proposes converting 1865 miles of the natural gas Mainline system and constructing 870 miles of new pipeline to deliver at least 500 Mb/d of crude oil to eastern Canada from Alberta. The pipeline conversion could solve two problems. It would bump up tariff revenues on the huge 7 Bcf/d Mainline that has been sucking air for years (it only moved 2.4 Bcf/d in 2012). And it would provide a route to Eastern markets for rising production volumes of landlocked Canadian crude. Today in the first of a two part series we examine prospects for this project.

Production forecasts for natural gas in the Appalachian Marcellus shale have doubled from 7 bcf/d to 14 bcf/d in less than two years. As a result northeast demand for natural gas will be almost entirely met from local production in coming years. Significant re-plumbing of the US natural gas pipeline distribution system will be needed and in many cases has already commenced. Today we review accelerating changes to US gas flows.

Last Thursday (May 16, 2013) the Ohio Department of Natural Resources offered a rare glimpse into 2012 production in the Utica shale. In a long awaited report, the State said that 87 wells drilled by 11 companies produced about 1750 b/d of oil and 35 MMcf/d of gas. Those numbers disappointed investors hoping for evidence of another Bakken or Eagle Ford. But the State data does not tell the whole story. There should be a surge in production now that infrastructure is coming online. And significant condensate production will present new challenges for midstreamers. Today we take a closer look at Utica production.

Bakken gas flaring is still close to 30 percent of production. At the end of April the North Dakota State Assembly passed legislation providing tax incentives for producers to reduce flaring by finding alternative uses for gas that would otherwise be flared. Analysis by the North Dakota Pipeline Authority shows that 45 percent of flaring occurs from wells that are already connected to gas processing plants. Today we describe efforts to reduce gas flaring in the Bakken.