Archive for January 8th, 2014

Stormy weather batters Europe’s Atlantic coast – in pictures

Guardian: It's not just the UK and US that have been having extreme weather, as these spectacular images from Portugal to Ireland attest

As ‘frack hits’ grew in Alberta, regulators stepped in

EnergyWire: The hiss of gas escaping was the first indication something was wrong in an oil field near the town of Drayton Valley, an hour as the crow flies from Edmonton, Alberta. A landowner whose cows graze there in springtime came across the well spewing oil and gas one evening in September 2011. The wind, blowing at about 2 miles per hour, fanned crude oil and chemicals onto the surrounding hay fields. The landowner telephoned Patrick Sheve, the field operator of Sword Energy Inc. (currently called Journey...

Train derailment: Oil train catches fire in Canada

Christian Science Monitor: Tuesday's train derailment is the latest in a series of oil-train accidents that have fueled a debate over how to safely transport crude oil and refined petroleum products. North American oil and gas production is rising faster than pipeline capacity, forcing bottlenecks at key energy transit points. Companies have turned increasingly to rail to move oil from shale-rock formations in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, to markets at home and abroad. The latest train derailment involved...

Thanks To Fracking, Natural Gas Supplies (Barely) Withstand ‘Polar Vortex’ Assault

Forbes: The polar vortex gripping the nation has brought a crazy week for natural gas. On Monday the demand for gas nationwide hit a record 125 billion cubic feet as homeowners and power generators sought to burn as much of it as they could get to keep the cold at bay. In a normal early-January week the draw on natural gas inventories is about 170 billion cubic feet. This week, according to market watcher Bentek, the drawdown is expected to be on the order of 310 bcf — the most ever. The record demand stretched...