Energy / Natural Gas

• Waste Management to Convert Entire Fleet to Run on Compressed Natural Gas

  Natural gas is inexpensive, seemingly plentiful and much cleaner-burning when used as an alternative to diesel fuel in transportation fleets, so it makes sense that Waste Management is converting its entire North American fleet to run on compressed natural gas. The company announced this week it has added 25 new CNG waste collection trucks to its fleet in Ottawa. About 80 per cent of all new trucks purchased by the company now run on compressed natural gas. To accommodate this fleet conversion, Waste Management has been increasing the number of fuelling stations it has to support the fleet. Currently it…

• Bulgarian Assembly Votes to Ban Hydraulic Fracturing - For Now

  Next to nuclear power, the hydraulic fracturing natural gas extraction technique, more familiarly known as “fracking,” is perhaps the world’s most contentious energy production method. Bulgaria, a former Soviet satellite state, joined the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance in 2004 and the European Union in 2007. Despite a 2010 World Bank report noting that Bulgaria imports 43.79 percent of its energy needs, the country has decided to give the controversial “fracking” procedure a pass. The Bulgarska Telegrafna Agentsiia news agency reported that after a fractious debate lasting more than four hours, 166 members of the National Assembly 240 parliamentarians voted to impose an indefinite…

• Natural Gas Goes Down in Flames

  I received a scratchy and barely audible call from my buddy out in the Barnet natural gas fields just outside of Fort Worth, Texas the other day. With the price for CH4 decisively breaking through $3/MBTU yesterday, traders were now resigned to seeing a new ten year low in the near future, possibly as low as $2. The men on the rigs were getting restless, fearing layoffs in their future. Did I have any insights? Natural gas has been your worst nightmare of a commodity since its peak at $14 in 2008, then riding on crude’s coattails in its infamous…

• New Fracking Technology to Bring Huge Supplies of Oil and Gas to the Market

  Petroleum reservoir fracturing is set for a major improvement with new technologies going to work miles down from the surface and then out horizontally. Called fracking, the process uses pressure to break into oil and natural gas rocks and prop channels for the petroleum products to flow back out.  Thus huge new supplies of oil and gas are coming to market. It’s no surprise that the technology is already international, starting in the U.S. it’s already going to work in Canada, Argentina, Russia, Mexico, Poland, the Middle East and more. The leaders of the new boom that can be expected…

• What is Clean, Abundant, Affordable and the Best Alternative Energy Source We Have?

  If you answered cold fusion, eeehhhhh! Your time's run out!   If you answered natural gas, have a cigar. Natural gas, for the simple reason that it is one of the quickest ways to achieve a future in which an oil importing nation is no longer held hostage by foreign oil and carbon and other harmful emissions are sharply curtailed. Seems like a heretical statement coming from someone who spent the last 15 years helping to develop an installed base of renewable energy projects. With 2010 Total Energy Production of 1.2% and 0.1% of wind and solar, respectively, the impact of renewable…

• Should the US Export LNG at the Risk of Increased Domestic Gas Prices?

  Capitalism is a wonderful thing. It can create so much wealth, spur so much research and progress that we sometimes take on blind faith that unrestrained pursuit of profit is a good thing. But large energy consumers in the US are asking the question: what is more beneficial — profit for the few or wider employment for the many? It’s not a new question and it is a balance on which societies are constantly having judgments on; but the recent fall in natural gas prices due to the development of shale gas has caused issues of this nature to be…

• Natural Gas Giants Forced to GTL Production Following Shale Gas Revolution

  Gas to liquids (GTL) is a capital intensive process of converting natural gas to either diesel (FT) or gasoline (MTG). The countries of the world with the largest reserves of conventional natural gas are Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkmenistan. These countries prospered from selling their gas resource to global markets, but something big is happening to change that -- the shale gas revolution! Some of their biggest customers have discovered abundant reserves of shale gas within their own borders. Once these resources are developed, global prices for natural gas are likely to take a nosedive. Conventional gas suppliers…

• Natural Gas Analysis for the Week of January 9, 2012

  February natural gas continued its descent along a pair of downtrending Gann angles at 2.958 and 2.850 this week. By the end of the week, however, the market had reversed course, forming a closing price reversal bottom and setting up the possibility of a near-term short-covering rally. Typically, a closing price reversal occurs when there is a dramatic shift in investor sentiment caused by an important change in the fundamentals. In this case, oversold trading conditions were solely responsible for the turnaround. Traders should keep in mind that a closing price reversal only signals a temporary bottom and not a…

• Spain's Controversial Natural Gas Undersea Storage Site Nears Completion

  In May Spain’s Castor undersea storage site in the Ebro river delta will come online. The massive facility, Spain’s largest, is capable of storing 50 days’ worth of Spain’s natural gas needs. Castor is located off the coast near the towns of Vinaros in northern Valencia and Alcanar in southern Catalonia. More than 1,000 workers have been involved in constructing the project. When Castor becomes operational, it will have 100 employees. But not all in the area of the facility are happy, particularly fishermen and local mayors of municipalities in the Ebro River delta, who look with disfavor on such a large infrastructure…

• Natural Gas Analysis for the Week of January 2, 2012

  Another round of selling pressure drove the February Natural Gas futures contract to a new low last week. The market also closed under the psychological $3.00 level, indicating that further downside pressure is likely. Since the long-term decline has been consistent and orderly, one has to wonder when the final liquidation phase of this bear market is going to begin. The first sign of a final bottom is usually increased volatility, followed by a sharp acceleration to the downside and then a higher close. Until this chart pattern takes place, one has to conclude that the down trend is going…