As energy prices rise on a daily basis, anything becomes possible. First unconventional heavy oils from tar sands to oil shales have become economical, now it’s the turn of “unconventional gas”. Just as we blogged that natural gas supplies are beginning to dry up, so energy companies are starting to exploit this new resource.
Gas
Now the Gas Dries up…
Two different stories from separate parts of the world, but one underlying trend that signals just how bad the energy crunch has become. It may be the price of oil that is grabbing the headlines but you should also keep an eye on what is happening to gas. The Emirates may have been built on … Read More
EnCana to Split
EnCana Corp, Canada’s biggest energy company, is going to buck the trend in the oil industry of mergers, and split into two separate oil and natural gas firms in an effort to wring out more value with crude prices at record highs. The new oil firm, worth about a third of the enterprise value, will … Read More
Alaska Threatens Companies Over Gas Pipeline
Alaska could revoke leases for oil fields like Prudhoe Bay if top energy companies refuse to participate in a government natural gas pipeline plan, the Governor Sarah Palin has said. Exxon Mobil Corp, BP and ConocoPhillips together control more than 35 trillion cubic feet of known gas reserves on the Alaska North Slope. But the … Read More
‘Huge’ Gas Field Found off Brazil
Brazil says it has found another “elephant.” This time it is a huge natural gas field called, Jupiter, which could match the recently discovered Tupi oil field in size. The field has been found a short distance off Rio de Janeiro’s coastline. While not providing any specific details on the size of the new reserve, … Read More
6 Bid for Alaska Gas Line
The US state of Alaska has received five natural gas pipeline applications, including one unexpected bid from a Chinese energy titan. The state also received an alternative proposal from Conoco Phillips that didn’t meet the state’s application criteria. The other two oil giants operating on the North Slope, BP and Exxon Mobil, submitted nothing. Gov. … Read More
BP Pay $300m for Fixing Market
BP agreed last night to pay $303m to settle charges that it had manipulated the propane gas market in the United States. BP was charged last year with price-rigging by cornering the propane market during illegal energy trading in 2004. A Department of Justice lawsuit alleged that one trader told another: “Dude, you’re the entire … Read More
Iran Warns Total Over Oil Project
Iran has warned France it is prepared to go ahead with a major gas project with Total using Iranian firms alone if the French oil giant gives in to political pressure and does not swiftly implement the deal. ‘I have a message for French President (Nicolas) Sarkozy,’ Caretaker Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters … Read More
Mackenzie Pipeline Costs Rise
Costs for the troubled Mackenzie gas pipeline could top the last estimate of C$16.2 billion, “T-Rex” Tillerson, Exxon’s CEO has warned. “It could be C$16 billion or C$14 billion or C$20 billion,” Tillerson reports the Dow Jones newswire. “All we can say is that it’s large, it’s larger than we previously thought.”
Gazprom Wants to Buy British Power Plants
Gazprom, the Kremlin-backed Russian gas group, is negotiating a deal under which it could take a stake in up to five British gas-fired power stations. The move would be Gazprom’s biggest step in the UK market so far and would fuel fears about the security of future energy supplies. Gazprom is hoping to seal an … Read More