Another "golden egg" laying goose is dead?

 As we have seen, the Marcellus shale drilling success has lead to an over-supply of natural gas and a depressed price.

 The driller's answer was - go to the wet gas Utica areas to capitalize on the higher value of natural gas liquids mainly ethane. Now this success has lead to an over-supply of ethane and the price of ethane is now less than the equivalent methane. The ethane cannot be left in the gas going into the pipeline because it contains more BTUs than methane (1070 vs approx 1025) and that would raise the value too close to the limit pipelines allow - 1100 BTU.

  The answer may be to shut-in some Utica wells and return to the dry gas areas, but wait there is an over-supply of gas. What's needed is more useage, but that is going to take time and even then there's such an over-supply that prices are not going to change much for a long time.

 The drillers are between a rock and a hard place.

  Here are a couple of articles from Platts.

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Petrochemicals/60...

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/NaturalGas/6987988

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Permalink Reply by Area Man on January 22, 2013 at 4:16am

Can do.  In Bryce's book, Power Hungry he comes up with 'power density' or how much energy produced per unit area, or in this case watt/meter3.

He calculated wind farms have a power density of 1.2 w/m3 and a well producing 60 mcf/d of natural gas is 28 w/m3.

We can debate and holes can be poked in this book and his numbers, but its a starting point.

 

Cheers!

-AreaMan

Permalink Reply by Deborah Kittner Johnson on January 22, 2013 at 4:29am

Thank you for the numbers, AreaMan!

I own a copy of Power Hungry and follow Bryce on Twitter.

I just may cite this in my dissertation while in the refining stages.

And of course everything...EVERYTHING...is debatable - exhaustible debatable.

Page # ?

Ciao-

deb

Permalink Reply by Bluflame on January 22, 2013 at 4:51am

A. M. & Deb,

  As Jim succinctly notes below, since the wind doesn't blow all the time, wind turbines must be "backed up" with by NG-powered electricity that must almost instantaneously be capable of coming on line. And at this point, there is technologically no way to store excess electricity created by the wind turbines. (same logic applies to solar)

  So, we end up with "double environmental indemnity" with either wind or solar. Doesn't seem like a good deal to me! And NG provides a power density 21.54 times that of wind farms, per A.M.'s post.

BluFlame

Permalink Reply by Richard Droske on January 22, 2013 at 4:30am

I would say oil rig less attractive than turbines or gas wells. Have you ever seen the eyesore created by a coal strip mine? Would you like to see a giant nuclear plant in your county? A coal burning generation facility spewing sooty smoke 24 hours a day?

Permalink Reply by Ted Croft on January 22, 2013 at 4:37am

Once the rig is done doing what it does, it is folded up, packed up, and trucked out. Usually very quickly from start to finish of the drilling aspect. All that is left is the valve control, metering systems, and well head. Very clean pad after all is said and done.

 

Permalink Reply by Vera Scroggins on January 22, 2013 at 4:54am

you sound like you haven't seen a well site; what's left are several , large brine tanks for the liquid that gets separated out from the gas; and production units or separators that are big , square boxes that heat and separate the gas from the briny liquid it comes up with and then there's the well heads and metering stations, and some have a single compressor on site and dehydrators and water tanks can be stored on some .  It's like a small refinery and it emits gases and noise.  and it's on about 3 acres and scattered about our countryside, 1/4 to 1 mile apart.  Then the compressor stations about 2 to 4 miles apart throughout the county belching toxins and making noise and pipelines webbing around us with some sections with shut-off values above ground and our air is changing for the worst and the constant, industrial noises.  Come and see for yourself and experience it.  We have 650 gas wells in five years strewn about and more being drilled daily.  About Thirty Compressor stations with several compressors waiting to be built and still counting as they spread through the county. Come and visit and talk to the residents next to the stations and sites and see how they spoke to the Planning Commission in Montrose, Pa. on Jan. 8th and asked  that

the latest Compressor Station not be approved and it was approved.  you can see this on my youtube.com site where I have over 300 videos documenting the changes since 2009 and showing what we are dealing with.  Videos under my names of Vera Scroggins and veraduerga.... 

Permalink Reply by Jack Straw on January 22, 2013 at 5:56am

 

Vera, you are vastly exaggerating the impact.

RE: "About Thirty Compressor stations with several compressors waiting to be built"

The area of Bradford County is 1161 sq mi, that works out to about one Compressor station for every 40 square miles!

RE: "It's like a small refinery and it emits gases and noise. and it's on about 3 acres and scattered about our countryside, 1/4 to 1 mile apart."

And you are implying that there are thousands of "small refineries" in Bradford County, each emiting gases and noise.

 

Get real, get educated. Get in your gas guzzling car and go out and see what is really happening. The truth is out there, you just need to open your eyes to see it  .... Clean, Green Natural Gas.

 

JS

 

Permalink Reply by Vera Scroggins on January 22, 2013 at 9:38am

hi,

I am exaggerating?  you can call up our County Planning Commission and ask how many compressors being planned, being proposed, being built and already built for our county.  and you get the numbers, because you , of course, you know what is in our county.  their number is 570 278 4600 and ask for Planning Commission, Bob Templeton.  I don't know Bradford Co..  One compressor station every 40 miles is what I read in Industry literature but the reality can be different from industry information.  And walk on a gas pad , if you can, and hear the sounds and smell the odors from the site.  And the ones with loud sounds up to 80 some decibels is the compressor stations , which are separate from the gas pads or sites.  

Permalink Reply by Deborah Kittner Johnson on January 22, 2013 at 2:50pm

Goodness.

Permalink Reply by mark ayers on January 22, 2013 at 6:36am

A planning commission can only review plans, and long as it meets all the zoning regulations, they have no other choice  than to approve it. 

2z248p19vqnh9Permalink Reply by 2z248p19vqnh9 on May 18, 2013 at 12:49am

vera scroggins - YouTube  ...SEVEN (7) pages on documentation.

What do you all say to THAT? ... asonelightlightsanothernorgrowslesssonoblenessenkindlesnobleness

Permalink Reply by Kathleen on January 22, 2013 at 5:12am
I never knew how bad strip mining was until it was in my backyard and all around me. I think this is the most destructive way to get energy but I understand yrs ago it was our only real option, but not today. I never would have moved where I did if I knew what was coming. Thousands of acres of trees removed, than the earth moved, the endless noise for a decade plus, the shock waves (didn't know you could see them) and now yrs later and I'm told its all done and what's left is these horrible huge mounds of land without a trees.
I now have pads all around me and I feel this takes a much smaller footprint without changing the landscape around it like strip mining.

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