USGS reports that big increase in seismic activity in Oklahoma is likely due to pumping waste water into wells.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/19/us/oklahoma-earthquakes-wastewater-wells/
It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.
- Josiah Stamp
Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
- H.G. Wells
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/10/energy-gas-lng-idINL6N0PJ32220140710
European and Asian gas prices have almost halved in 2014
EU price premium over North America down 77 pct this year
U.S. LNG export projects could struggle to sell overseas
Cold winters, unrest seen as possible upside price risks
By Henning Gloystein
LONDON, July 10 (Reuters) - A sharp fall in European and Asian gas prices this year will put liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects worldwide under heavy cost pressure, and even kill some off, as expected returns on investments have to be revised down along with prices.
Benchmark British gas prices for delivery next month have almost halved this year as healthy supplies have been met by low demand following a mild winter and because overall gas use is dropping due to improving energy efficiency, rising competing fuels like renewables and low population growth.
Asian spot prices have also come off sharply this year, shedding over 40 percent in value as demand growth slowed and new supplies in the Pacific region became available, although prices remain almost twice as high as in Britain and around three times as expensive as in North America.
These price drops came despite ongoing gas disruption from Russia, the world's biggest gas exporter, to Europe via Ukraine, and as Japan still has its nuclear power plant fleet switched off following the Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011.
If gas prices remain low, analysts say many of the large and costly planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects around the world, including in North America and East Africa, will face trouble as initially budgeted returns on investment have to be revised downward.
"Gas projects are extremely price-sensitive because the margins are so thin … and only a small fraction of them (large LNG export projects) will get built," Royal Dutch Shell's director of projects and technology, Matthias Bichsel, said in June.
The Asian and European price drops also mean their premium over U.S. gas prices has fallen sharply, and if the trend lasts, could spell difficulty for some U.S. LNG export projects in selling their gas to the world profitably.
An unconventional gas production boom, including from underground shale, has led to a sharp fall in U.S. gas prices since 2008 to $3 to $5 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), equivalent to 17.5 to 30 pence per therm in British market terms.
French Bank Societe Generale said this week in a research note that it expected U.S. gas prices to range between $4 and $4.50 per mmBtu between 2014 and 2016.
At such cost levels, industry data show that U.S. LNG exporters would need a European price of 53 pence per therm ($9/mmBtu) to sell there at profit, and $10.65/ mmBtu for Asia.
With British prices down from over 70 pence a therm in January to around 36.50 pence ($6.25/mmBtu) in early July, Europe is now well out of the money for U.S. supplies, and with Asian prices down to $11 per mmBtu, this region is also on the brink of looking uncompetitive.
Increasing the price pressure is that analysts say U.S. prices will rise while Asian and European ones will drop if the United States begins LNG exports from late next year as planned as gas sucked out of America is added to supplies overseas.
"We're reviewing our previous cost and return projections and will also have to reduce production costs in order to compete in a lower priced gas environment," one source with a planned U.S. LNG export project said.
If, as planned, Japan restarts some of its nuclear power plants and the Ukraine crisis fades in Europe, Asian and European prices could fall further still.
FALLING EUROPEAN DEMAND
Behind Europe's falling gas prices lies a slow but steady slide in overall demand.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that European gas demand dropped by over 10 percent between 2008 and 2013, a trend that further accelerated this year following an unusually mild winter and spring, improving energy efficiency, as well as rising renewable and coal capacities eating into the share of gas for power generation.
"Electricity generation from gas is declining as gas plants are being squeezed out of the mix. The power sector, the former key driver for additional demand, is the possible key driver for demand decline in the 2010s and beyond," the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said in a research report published in June.
The fall in gas use has so far outstripped dropping domestic North Sea production.
With pipeline and LNG imports also steady or ticking up in 2014, gas markets have become oversupplied, pulling down prices.
WILL CHEAP GAS LAST?
Although the overall price outlook for gas is bearish as the global market passes its peak tightness this year, there are still factors that could push prices up again.
Gas markets are highly weather sensitive, as seen in price spikes triggered by cold snaps in the United States last winter and in Britain the previous year. A long and cold European winter season 2014/2015 could push prices up over 50 percent and back towards levels seen last year, traders say.
Gas markets are also prone to political instability as seen in gas-rich North Africa since the outbreak of unrest there in 2011 or in the current Ukraine crisis that threatens to disrupt supplies to parts of Europe.
And, there is Europe's declining North Sea gas reserves.
Britain's gas production alone has fallen from 45.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2011 to 36.5 bcm last year, and the decline is expected to continue steadily even if the country starts producing gas from shale. (Additional reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic, editing by David
An interesting article, Flip. We got a new heating stystem installed last summer, wooden pellets, and I know of at least two schools (municipal buildings) that have done the same over the last few years - I think that it continues to change in so far as that the demand will continue to drop due to alternatives that are cheaper in the long run.
"You don't learn from experience. You learn from reflecting on the experience."
- Kristen Ulmer
http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/media/news-nouvelles/2013/20130312telkwa-eng.html
Telkwa, British Columbia, Tuesday March 12, 2013 - The Village of Telkwa will receive $680,230 from the Government of Canada through the Gas Tax Fund transfer to retrofit their municipal building and install an innovative biomass heating system, as well as to develop a sustainable subdivision plan.
It burns woodwaste, a dude from Yellow knife designed it
Is good funneh, non?
http://whatyescando.org/#can-we-use-more-water-while-saying-we-use-less
When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity.
When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called religion.
fracking doesn't contaminate drinking water?
http://www.adventure-journal.com/2014/10/fracking-toxins-worsen-california-water-woes/
What were the background levels in the area before any fracing took place? Did someone just drill their well on top of an area of bedrock mineralized with arsenopyrite?
We tested our water in camp, which was coming from a glacial fed lake sitting on top of a large undeveloped gold deposits. The whole area was extremely high in sulphide minerals. The water was high in metals. No surprise, just basic geochemistry.
That's the problem with cities, they're refuges for the weak, the fish that didn't evolve.
I don't want to google this - sounds like a thing that NSMB will be better at.
Freedom of contract. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.
I would have cut him off too. Yelling and calling people liars will get you nowhere.
It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.
- Josiah Stamp
Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
- H.G. Wells
Freedom of contract. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.
Freedom of contract. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.
Freedom of contract. We sell them guns that kill them; they sell us drugs that kill us.
Fight Back for Energy Independence Over Corporate Profits
MAY 26, 2017
Lois Gibbs
‘Homeland Security – No more wars over oil!’ That’s what families in communities across Pennsylvania were promised a decade ago.
‘We’ll extract natural gas from the ground, using an unconventional process called hydrofracturing, to acquire enough natural gas that the U.S. will no longer be dependent on foreign oil!’
At least that’s what we were told. No longer would we need to send our young men and women overseas to fight oil wars.
Today America is there, with over 100 years of natural gas reserves. Moreover, if our country was to also invest in energy conservation and renewables, our nation could have 200 years of reserves today.
So what happened to that promise of ‘Homeland Security’ and ‘Energy Independence’? And why aren’t we celebrating?
The Big Energy Lie
It was a lie. Not one corporate CEO or their friends in elected office ever intended to keep energy resources stockpiled for America’s future.
The evidence of this can be seen every day as the oil and gas industry pushes hard, stomps on people, intimidates and threatens landowners, steals the land and destroy our environment to build the pipelines, compressor stations and export terminals.
These pipelines crisscross our nation through old-growth forests, indigenous sacred lands and through rural communities that provide food for American families. The export terminals jeopardize Americans shorelines and marine life all just so they can sell gas overseas and make profits for a few.
Farmers, ranchers and rural families were lied to, and in some cases called traitors or terrorists when they fought against this destructive industry. Communities and innocent families were told if they did not sell the rights to their land, the government will take it through eminent domain.
‘Our country’s national security is a public benefit which allows us to use eminent domain,’ they said. All of this was corporate and government propaganda.
What Big Oil and Gas Really Want
Today, the price of natural gas has dropped over 42 percent because of our new energy stockpile. That translates into more affordable energy for American households, but also fewer profits for the large corporations.
So what oil and gas industries want now is to build pipelines and terminals to export as much of this energy as they possibly can, to once again make huge profits. Asia has already contracted to purchase gas from the new export terminal in Cove Point, Maryland.
While industry is building export infrastructure to start selling natural gas overseas, in the U.S., families who sacrificed their land, drinking water, health and the ability to make a living off their farms and ranches are in crisis.
People can set the water from their kitchen faucets on fire because it’s polluted underground. Asthma and other childhood diseases are increasing. It’s like the nineteenth century; mothers must go outdoors with buckets to get clean water, then heat it on the stove to bathe their young children, make dinner, or brush their teeth. This is not progress.
The True Terrorists
Energy Independence? Homeland Security? I don’t think so. It is the oil and gas industry and their allies in government who are the true terrorists. Their children or grandchildren will likely never fight a war over oil, but who knows what’s in store for the rest of us.
It is time for America to stop this madness. The first step is to stop the pipelines, compressor stations and export terminals. Stand up against greedy corporations and take a risk. It’s a war on the home front against average Americans which we didn’t start, but we can win.
It is our patriotic duty to stop the corporate greed and support and defend our neighbors.
https://ourfuture.org/20170526/fight-back-for-energy-independence-over-corporate-profits
And how exactly do the "good patriots" defend and support their neighbours? How do the consumers/people living in the areas fight back?
Edit:
Of course they were lied to, did these people really believe all the statements mentioned? Telling stories is what CEOs and politicians do to stay in power or earn more money. So..no surprise here.
Posted by: Mic
And how exactly do the "good patriots" defend and support their neighbours? How do the consumers/people living in the areas fight back?
Education, the ballot, civil disobedience.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-a-small-town-is-standing-up-to-fracking-w482577
Forum jump:
