Fracking in N.Y. proposes use of propane

In upstate New York, a landowners group may pair up with a Canadian company, GasFrac, that uses liquid propane instead of water-based fracking fluid to get natural gas flowing into wells, Wheeling News-Register reports.

This alternative technology cancels the need for water by using a thick gel made from propane to carry sand and other particles to hold open cracks instead. The company claims to have performed over 1,000 frack jobs in 400 wells from Canada to south Texas.

Supporters of this technology are excited to prove that safe natural gas production is possible, while critics claim this process won’t eliminate methane gas releases.

Chesapeake plans $900M complex

Chesapeake Energy Corporation recently announced its intent to open a $900 million natural gas processing complex with facilities across two Ohio counties, Harrison and Columbiana, by the middle of next year. (See article.)

“We look forward to joining with the citizens of Ohio to provide superior service and a high quality, reliable stream of natural gas and (natural gas liquids) products to our customers,” Mike Stice, president of a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy, said.

Chesapeake is partnering with M3 Midstream and EV Energy Partners to build the facilities that Chesapeake will operate.

Frank Tsuru, president and chief executive officer of M3, said, “We will invest significant capital and technical resources to develop this project in a responsible manner, utilizing the highest industry standards.”

The site proposed for Columbiana County will be able to house 600 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The Harrison County facility will have a fracking capacity of 90,000 barrels per day.

Plans for natural gas storage beneath Sacramento approved

An administrative law judge advocated that a Sacramento company be allowed to store natural gas in a sandstone formation 3,800 feet below a southeast area neighborhood on Tuesday, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Administrative Law Judge Richard Smith said that the economic, legal, social and other benefits justify approval of the project, despite significant and unavoidable environmental effects such as potential natural gas leakage or potential groundwater contamination.

Credit: Sacramento Natural Gas Storage

The site in question is a depleted natural gas reservoir, the former Florin Gas Field. It lies below 379 acres of land with more than 700 homes in the Avondale Glen Elder neighborhood. The Sacramento Natural Gas Storage LLC plans to store 7.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas there.

According to company reports, about three-fourths of homeowners have signed leases authorizing gas storage under their properties in exchange for $500 and annual lease payments.

Natural gas mogul speaks on fracking, coal, greenhouse gases

David Porges, the CEO of EQT Corporation, a major natural gas company, spoke to an audience of about 100 people at the University of Charleston on Thursday night about fracking, coal and greenhouse gases. (See article.)

Porges said the chemicals used in the fracking process are no worse than the ones you find in your own home. He added that all the chemicals used in fracking are available on frackfocus.org, which is run by the Groundwater Protection Council.

‘”I tend not to be a big proponent of using natural gas instead of coal because of climate change … I don’t know whether the Earth is in a long-term warming trend or not,” he said.

But if the planet is warming because of human activity and high levels of carbon dioxide, “We’re going to have to figure out a way to get energy we need without creating greenhouse gases,” and natural gas offers a lot of air quality benefits, he said.’

When asked about whether fracking causes earthquakes, Porges quickly negated the claim and said “sensitive areas” should be avoided.

EQT operates in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia and owns over 14,000 wells and 5.2 trillion cubic feet of total natural gas reserves.

Auburn’s wastewater treatment ban lifted

To the surprise of many, the Auburn City Council lifted the ban on treating wastewater produced from fracking in a 3-to-2 vote on Wednesday, a local paper reported.

During the public forum session, 27 of the 30 speakers were there to speak against lifting the ban, fearful of the dangerous chemicals entering their water supply.

“We have no desire to see this city, which has begun to show so much promise…become one of the places that accepts toxic wastewater,” Devon Roblee, a resident of Auburn said.

The few who were there in support of lifting the ban argued that the content of the water is very closely monitored and at its peak, drilling wastewater only makes up 0.5 percent of the total flow at the plant.

Patricia Beer, a member of the local Cayuga Anti-Fracking Alliance, delivered a warning to the council and the treatment plant operators.

“We will promise to be unceasing in following up,” she said. “You didn’t do your job before, we don’t trust you’ll do it this time. We’ll be watching ever step and reporting to the DEC and EPA in the future.”

The scam behind the gas boom

A recent investigative piece in “Rolling Stone” takes a sharp look at the men behind the Big Energy companies. Journalist Jeff Goodell puts his primary focus on Aubrey McClendon, director of Chesapeake Energy and America’s second-largest producer of natural gas.

Goodell tells us McClendon’s story without using a single adjective to make him sound human. McClendon was born into the oil and gas industry; his great-uncle Robert S. Kerr was the cofounder of the Kerr-McGree Corp. McClendon started his career as an accountant—he didn’t hop aboard with natural gas until 1989. But it was a quick buck, when Chesapeake Energy went public four years later it was already valued at $25 million.

For Chesapeake Energy, the primary profit in fracking does not come from selling the gas itself, but from buying and selling the land that contains the gas. The company owns the drilling rights to just about 15 million acres of land—more than any leaseholder in the country. To quote, “As McClendon put it in a conference call with Wall Street analysts a few years ago, “I can assure you that buying leases for x and selling them for 5x or 10x is a lot more profitable than trying to produce gas at $5 or $6 per million cubic feet.”’

Chesapeake could be considered more of a land-acquisition machine than an energy company. Its key to success is moving swiftly and quietly. However, the company is required by law to drill on purchased land within five years of acquirement. And it is during this race to drill that grave mistakes are made.

One fact energy companies will take the time to hammer into your head is this, “when it’s done right, drilling and fracking is harmless to the environment.” But when the main goal is profit and the company isn’t taking the time to make sure everything is working properly, fracking can harm the environment.

Goodell leaves us with this food for thought:

“He’s not going to back off until every last square foot of shale rock in America is drilled and fracked and sucked clean of gas. McClendon may rely on sophisticated new drilling technologies, but at heart, he’s driven by the same dream of endless extraction that has gripped oil barons and coal companies since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. In the end, all his talk of energy independence and a cleaner, brighter future boils down to a single demand, as simple as it is disastrous: Drill, baby, drill.”

New natural gas pipeline to Georgia proposed

Spectra Energy, a Houston-based natural gas company, wants to build a pipeline that would “start at an existing interstate pipeline connection in Tennessee and then run 230 miles through parts of Alabama and Georgia, coming near Atlanta, before connecting with another pipeline in the east,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Spectra has signed nonbinding letters of intent with AGL Resources, which dominates the Georgia natural gas business, to consider this pipeline.

Seeking federal and state environmental and safety approvals could take up to two years, so if the plan were to take action it would be a slow process. Spectra will be seeking contracts for the proposed pipeline for the rest of the month.

Existing U.S. Pipelines Photo credit: NYT

Seven ways Koch Industries controls the fracking business

Kosh Industries is owned by brothers David and Charles Koch, each are worth over $22 billion dollars from their work in the gas industry (specifically, their domination of the nation’s pipelines and refineries). An article published in the Republic Report on Saturday lists the 7 ways Koch Industrieshas monetized the fracking business. Here is the compilation:

1. Koch Pipeline. This is a Koch Industries subsidiary. Koch Pipeline is planned to transport natural gas from Pettus, Texas to Corpus Christi.
2. Flint Hills Resources. This is a Koch Industries subsidiary. Land was purchased in Ingleside, Texas to store shipments of natural gas.
3. Koch Supply & Trading. This is a Koch Industries company. It takes care of commodity trading and financial products.
4. Koch Chemicals Technology Group. This is a subsidiary of Koch Industries. They are designing a facility near Yoakum, Texas to help process natural gas fracked in southern Texas.
5. John Zink. This is a Koch Industries company. The company helps service the fracking industry by providing flares to processing plants.
6. Georgia Pacific. Koch Industries acquired this company. Produces products that are vital to the fracking process.
7. Koch Fertilizer. This is a Koch Industries company. It produces fertilizer for fracked land.