a real solution to our Oil issue?

[tokengator]

Experts divided on natural gas supply

Mon, May 21st 2012 12:00 am
By DAVID BERTOLA
dbertola@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1621

The abundance of natural gas in U.S. shale formations has many in natural gas and related industries thinking about a scenario where more vehicles, power plants, homes and other buildings should run on it.

But John Martin said that before everything in America gets retrofitted to run on natural gas, an important question must be answered.

"That question is: Are these natural gas resources large enough to continue at a high rate of production to sustain that fuel-switching behavior?"

And the answer?

"Some say yes, but others don't think it's quite where people think it is," said Martin, an economist and director of the new Shale Resources and Society Institute.

It's based at the University at Buffalo College of the Arts and Sciences, Department of Geology.

"We're quite early in the process, but it looks like yes," he said.

At a glance, the numbers would seem to back him up. According to the Natural Gas Supply Association (www.naturalgas.org), the United States has enough natural gas to meet more than 75 years of domestic production.

But not everyone is convinced that would be long enough to meet long-term demand.

David Colligan is a partner in the Buffalo-based law firm Watson Bennett Colligan Johnson & Schecter LLP, which negotiates and drafts land leases for oil and gas drilling. He said when he hears that there's enough gas for the next century, he thinks that may be too long of a time period.

According to Colligan, for so much to convert over to natural gas, there won't be enough of it to last 100 years. The figures are based on current consumption, he said.

If larger infrastructures were built to support more use - such as fueling stations along interstate highways and trucking operations that convert to it - Colligan said the demand would likely increase.

"But there's a long way to go until you get to the point where you are on par with consumption," he said.

To his point, the Natural Gas Supply Association said on its website that the estimate does not account for expected increasing production levels, or potential opening of access to currently restricted land.

But it offers a good idea of how much domestic natural gas to which the United States currently has access.

Greater use driving long-term demand

Martin said short-term demand for natural gas will be driven by the economy picking up. And long-term demand will increase with more cars switching to using it as a fuel, more power plants running on it, and chemical feed stocks that use natural gas products.

"But for those things to occur - for example, compressed natural gas fuel stations for fleets - you need to develop a lot of the resource," he said.

In the Northeast, infrastructure exists to deliver an abundant natural gas supply to wherever it needs to go, said attorney Marc Romanowski.

"Certainly the supply is there," said Romanowski, partner and head of the energy practice group at Harter Secrest & Emery LLP. The Buffalo law firm represents gas companies and industrial users that use natural gas as a fuel source.

"The other issue is demand. We know technologically how to do it," he said. "There are heavy and passenger vehicles that run on compressed natural gas. Demand will drive the supply."

Trash haulers made switch to CNG

Moving the needle in the demand direction would be larger truck fleets, which could afford to invest in a sophisticated compressed natural gas system, and which return dozens of giant trucks to their yards at night for re-fueling.

In a March 30 article in Business First, officials of Modern Corp. showed off its new $1.3 million natural gas filling station in Lewiston.

The company also bought 15 compressed natural gas-powered garbage trucks at about $303,000 each.

Likewise, garbage hauler Waste Management Inc. in West Seneca is spending $15 million on a fleet conversion and filling station initiative, which also began last year.

Buffalo-based Cobey Inc., meanwhile, makes giant reciprocating compressors to be used on offshore drilling platforms. The company is scaling them down to use for storage and refueling vehicles with compressed natural gas.

While Cobey ships equipment all over the world, it wants to be a major regional player - within 500 miles of Buffalo - and build compressed natural gas stations for private fleets.

As for townships, businesses and others who want to understand more about natural gas as a viable resource, according to Martin.

He said research from the institute can help. The goal is to provide accurate, research-based information on the development of shale and other energy resources.

"Society benefits from good research, and beneficiaries of it will be policymakers, communities at large who can learn through scientific-based research and companies that will have a better understanding of societal issues," he

[tokengator]

Atlanta Gas Light considers proposals for nine new CNG fueling stations

Wed May 30, 2012 4:28pm EDT

Georgia Public Service Commission-approved program could more than double the public's access to natural gas for vehicle fueling
ATLANTA, May 30, 2012 - Atlanta Gas Light Company announced today that it has received qualified proposals from the City of Atlanta and seven commercial operators to open as many as nine new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations throughout Georgia. The first stations could be open by mid-2013.
"The response we received indicates strong support for natural gas to fuel vehicles in Georgia and has the potential to make CNG much easier for many Georgians to access," said Steve Lindsey, President, Atlanta Gas Light. "The domestically abundant supply of natural gas makes it a great time to invest in CNG vehicles to save money, decrease dependence on foreign oil and reduce emissions."
Over the next 90 days, each potential station owner must finalize contracts with fleet customers to meet minimum annual CNG purchase requirements at each station. Retailers that are successful in fulfilling the post-award requirements are eligible to sign a service agreement with Atlanta Gas Light and obtain CNG service from the utility under a rate approved by the Commission.
"We are very pleased by the response to our request for CNG fueling station proposals," said Ian Skelton, Director of Atlanta Gas Light's natural gas vehicle program. "While additional work remains for the station owners before these proposals can be turned into service contracts, fleet customers now have more certainty regarding the location of new CNG stations in order to make plans to invest in more natural gas-fueled vehicles."
The nine proposed CNG fueling stations are to be located in Metro Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Valdosta. The list of the proposed locations and station owners is provided below:

http://www.*******.com/article/2012/...12+HUG20120530

[tokengator]

City of Thomasville, Ga., to Build CNG Fueling Station

THOMASVILLE, GA – The City of Thomasville’s city council recently approved construction of a compressed natural gas (CNG) time-fill fueling station. The City said this new station is part of its plan to convert its fleet vehicles to run on CNG, where appropriate. The planned station will be able to accommodate six vehicles at one time, but future plans include scaling the station’s capacity up, allowing it to fuel 12 vehicles.

The City approved the purchase of four CNG-fueled refuse trucks earlier this year, and it plans to convert all 12 of its refuse trucks to CNG during the next three years. The City said this will save $200,000 annually in fuel costs. Other benefits include reduced emissions and dependence on foreign oil, according to City Manager/Utilities Superintendent Steve Sykes.

“With diesel costs on the rise, the savings that we will see from switching to a CNG-fueled garbage fleet make the decision to pursue this initiative an easy one,” said Thomasville’s Mayor Max Beverly. “We expect that the savings from this project will fully pay for itself within five years.”

Related to the new station, the city council also approved extending a CNG line. This line will be the main link to the station and will allow the City to better serve its commercial natural gas customers

http://www.government-fleet.com/Chan...g-Station.aspx

[Flagg]

Natural gas is in a funny spot right now.

MASSIVE STAGGERING levels of investment......not much different from the alt energy bubble into solar and ethanol we already forgot about from a few years ago....that bubble rose, popped, and crashed.

The same sort of thing is happening with NG.

And the price of NG is far below what many producers can survive on.....all those old futures contracts NG producers are living on(where they forward sold their production at higher set prices 1+ years ago) are expiring.

Which means their cashflow is going to crash.....some suppliers will go out of business...and prices will eventually have to climb above their cost of production.

I reckon NG is going to be one hell of an investment opportunity soon......but they questions are WHEN.....and WHERE(invest in NG with/thru who).

I expect to hear about NG related business bankruptcies by Xmas.

NG isn't going to save the US...that's Wall Street talking...the same group that profited from the boom/bubble/pop/crash in the alt energy sector just a few years ago.

It is highly questionable if the US can grow AND sustain MG production long-term.....there's considerable evidence to suggest that NG depletion rates with newer(fracking) tech result in steep ramp up in production and equally volatile and steep decline.....like racehorses injected with crack cocaine.....instead of work horses treated well for long term effort.

[tokengator]

it clearly is not a long term solution. It does seem that it could be a viable supplement.

based on our current usage it seems we enough NG to last us ~85 years. If some of this is shifted to car industry it obviously would reduce that outlook substantially.

[tokengator]

anyhow, with the economy softening as it is and with what is going on in europe, all this might be moot for the short term anyway. I'm in the petrochemical industry and the softening I am seeing in the market is quite scary.....and we are seeing it at the pump right now as well.

[Mein Teil]

As long as the current ideology remains in Washington and the same fucktards are running/ruining the EPA, anything that fuels the internal combustion will be killed.

[Chiptox]

anyhow, with the economy softening as it is and with what is going on in europe, all this might be moot for the short term anyway. I'm in the petrochemical industry and the softening I am seeing in the market is quite scary.....and we are seeing it at the pump right now as well.

?

I'm able to grab ULSD for under $4/gal unless I'm in one of those prick states that have really high fuel taxes.

http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/

Seems like the normal ramp up to summer to me. The nice gentle increase as demand peaks for the year (which is important for me as someone dependent on fuel surcharges bid weeks/months ago). It happens every year like clockwork. This years cycle, so far, seems a little bit cheaper than last year.

[Mein Teil]

?

I'm able to grab ULSD for under $4/gal unless I'm in one of those prick states that have really high fuel taxes.

http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/

Seems like the normal ramp up to summer to me. The nice gentle increase as demand peaks for the year (which is important for me as someone dependent on fuel surcharges bid weeks/months ago). It happens every year like clockwork. This years cycle, so far, seems a little bit cheaper than last year.

I think was he was talking about was the typical people cutting back on driving when the fuel prices were climbing a couple of months ago. That's what brought them down to where they are right now.

[tokengator]

?

I'm able to grab ULSD for under $4/gal unless I'm in one of those prick states that have really high fuel taxes.

http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/

Seems like the normal ramp up to summer to me. The nice gentle increase as demand peaks for the year (which is important for me as someone dependent on fuel surcharges bid weeks/months ago). It happens every year like clockwork. This years cycle, so far, seems a little bit cheaper than last year.

there is a softening in the entire petro market, including gas

CRUDE OIL

Crude fell to the lowest level in almost eight months as employment reports in the U.S. and the euro area signaled fuel demand may tumble.
Crude futures for July delivery declined $3.30, or 3.8 percent, to $83.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since Oct. 7. Prices are down 24 percent from this year’s closing high of $109.77 on Feb. 24. Futures decreased 8.4 percent this week, the most since the week ended Sept. 23.
Brent for July settlement tumbled $3.44, or 3.4 percent, to $98.43 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London, the lowest close since Jan. 27, 2011. The European benchmark fell 7.9 percent this week and 8.3 percent this year.

OIL PRODUCTS

Gasoline slid to a five-month low, erasing a yearly gain, as the U.S. and European labor markets weakened and factory output slowed in China and Europe, threatening demand for fuel. Heating oil slid to a 16-month low.
Gasoline for July delivery tumbled 6.59 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $2.6568 a gallon on the Nymex, the lowest settlement since Dec. 28.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...ities-at-close

[Roebuck]

No body wants a solution.