Natural Gas

What the Frack Is Happening With Natural Gas?

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What the Frack Is Happening With Natural Gas?

10/23/21

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/130253979
Episode: https://rss.art19.com/episodes/ee39aaf6-8e67-46b7-9a28-06200998c31e.mp3

At the beginning of the pandemic, energy prices crashed. We did an episode of this show trying to figure out how oil prices fell to negative $40 per barrel. Times have changed. Oil is up over $100/barrel. But far more acute is what’s happening with natural gas, particularly in Europe and Asia. In the US, natural gas prices have doubled in the last year. But in parts of Europe, the price has risen more than 5 times. The disruptions are clear. We’re seeing stories of power shortages in China, fertilizer plants being shut down in the UK, and fears about home heating costs in the Northeast US as winter approaches. So what the heck is going on? How long might it last? And what does it tell us about the future? To answer those questions Shayle turns to Leslie Palti-Guzman. the President of Gas Vista and a non-resident fellow at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy. Shayle and Leslie cover the many demand-side and supply-side issues. Then they talk about what comes next: What does this crisis reveal about the vulnerability of the energy system? And will countries double down on renewables, gas, or both to shore up their resiliency? The Interchange is brought to you by Schneider Electric. Are you building a microgrid? With a microgrid you can store electricity and sell it back during peak times. Keep your power on during an outage. Integrate with renewables. Control energy on your own terms. Having built more microgrids in than anyone else, Schneider Electric has the expertise to help. The Interchange is brought to you by Bloom Energy. Bloom’s onsite energy platform provides unparalleled control for those looking to secure clean, reliable 24/7 power that scales to meet critical business needs. It eliminates outage and price risk while accelerating us towards a zero carbon future.

Short Wave : NPR

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The Fight Over The Future Of Natural Gas : Short Wave : NPR

A growing number of cities are looking at restricting the use of gas in new buildings to reduce climate emissions. But some states are considering laws to block those efforts, with backing from the natural gas industry. Today, NPR science correspondent Dan Charles takes us on a tour of three cities where this is playing out. 

Cold Deepens Natural Gas Shortage – The New York Times

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Cold Deepens Natural Gas Shortage – The New York Times

The extreme shortage of natural gas that has idled thousands of workers across the eastern United States worsened yesterday, although some factories reopened by switching to alternative fuels.

The National Fuel Gas Corporation in Buffalo, which had previously escaped cutbacks, announced that following new curtailments by its suppliers it was eliminating service to, schools and industrial customers. HoweVer, the company said later that it would permit industrial customers to resume use of natural gas today, but at reduced volume.

The nation's four major automobile manufacturers, which had furloughed 56,000 employees on Monday, reduced the cuts to 20,000 by late yesterday afternoon.

And as the record cold of Monday eased, electric companies in Ohio and Michigan as well as across the Southeast were able to restart frozen generators and end rotating blackouts.

A lot of people are talking about the power shortage down south. But in January 1977, Buffalo through Detroit had a shortage of both electricity and natural gas due an extended period of cold that shuttered factories and lead to mandated cuts to building heat to 55 degrees.

Oil-and-Gas Industry’s Toxic Waste Is Radioactive – Rolling Stone

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Beyond Fracking: Oil-and-Gas Industry’s Toxic Waste Is Radioactive – Rolling Stone

In a squat rig fitted with a 5,000-gallon tank, Peter crisscrosses the expanse of farms and woods near the Ohio/West Virginia/Pennsylvania border, the heart of a region that produces close to one-third of America’s natural gas. He hauls a salty substance called “brine,” a naturally occurring waste product that gushes out of America’s oil-and-gas wells to the tune of nearly 1 trillion gallons a year, enough to flood Manhattan, almost shin-high, every single day. At most wells, far more brine is produced than oil or gas, as much as 10 times more. It collects in tanks, and like an oil-and-gas garbage man, Peter picks it up and hauls it off to treatment plants or injection wells, where it’s disposed of by being shot back into the earth.

One day in 2017, Peter pulled up to an injection well in Cambridge, Ohio. A worker walked around his truck with a hand-held radiation detector, he says, and told him he was carrying one of the “hottest loads” he’d ever seen. It was the first time Peter had heard any mention of the brine being radioactive.

The Earth’s crust is in fact peppered with radioactive elements that concentrate deep underground in oil-and-gas-bearing layers. This radioactivity is often pulled to the surface when oil and gas is extracted — carried largely in the brine.

In the popular imagination, radioactivity conjures images of nuclear meltdowns, but radiation is emitted from many common natural substances, usually presenting a fairly minor risk. Many industry representatives like to say the radioactivity in brine is so insignificant as to be on par with what would be found in a banana or a granite countertop, so when Peter demanded his supervisor tell him what he was being exposed to, his concerns were brushed off; the liquid in his truck was no more radioactive than “any room of your home,” he was told. But Peter wasn’t so sure.

 

LNG #BombTrucks 101 – Google Docs

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LNG #BombTrucks 101 – Google Docs

You often see these trucks with highly compressed natural gas on the roads, which help natural gas companies overcome pipeline limitations which put cost constraints on the movement of gas. They're has been a number of these trucks that have been in crashes in recent years, although so far there has not been a major explosion or release of gas from the trucks.

Trump looks to open up railroads for LNG shipments – HoustonChronicle.com

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Trump looks to open up railroads for LNG shipments – HoustonChronicle.com

More ways for Albany to go bang. And don't think they aren't coming to Albany. At least if they burn up half of the city, it will be a clean burning fuel, with less benzene to clean up once the fire burns out.

The railroad could offer an enticing alternative to natural gas customers when pipeline projects are under increasing scrutiny over natural gas’s contribution to climate change, with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blocking construction of new pipelines running through his state and into New England. At the same time the rush to develop oil fields in West Texas - far from the nation’s pipeline network - has resulted in many drillers flaring the natural gas that is a byproduct of crude production.

“Pipelines are still the most optimal way to transport gas, but LNG by rail can be a great way to move gas into places with pipeline constraints, like the Northeast and potentially out of the Permian Basin,” said Katie Ehly, senior policy adviser at the trade group Natural Gas Supply Association. “It just makes sense.”

But tanker cars full of flammable natural gas traveling through American cities and towns represents a significant safety risk, the scale of which was evidenced six years ago when an oil train derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, setting off a massive explosion that killed more than 40 people.