Pages

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

EOG Buys LNG Company

Despite low natural gas prices, I still think natural gas will be the bridge to a new energy future.  There is just too much activity in the natural gas arena to think that natural gas won't be a bigger player down the road.

More proof of that today: EOG will acquire Galveston LNG, Inc. Galveston has a 49 percent interest in the planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal to be located at Bish Cove, near the Port of Kitimat, about 405 miles (652 kilometres) north of Vancouver, British Columbia.


On January 13, 2010, Apache Corporation (Apache) announced an agreement with Kitimat LNG Inc. to acquire 51 percent of the planned Kitimat LNG project. Apache will be the operator of the project.

Planned capacity of the proposed Kitimat LNG terminal is about 700 million cubic feet of natural gas per day or 5 million metric tons of LNG per year. Preliminary construction costs, currently estimated to be approximately $3 billion (Canadian), will be revised at the conclusion of front-end engineering and design.

Again, this looks to me like EOG is buying assets at a time of depressed or stressed prices. 

And needless to say, North Dakota has a big play in natural gas, also.  We just don't hear that much about it due to the price differential with oil.

Naturally Fractured Niobrara?

I normally won't post on stories outside North Dakota but since this involves many companies drilling for oil in North Dakota and a potential new formation in the area, I will link the article on Investipedia.com regarding the Niobrara.

Note that St Mary Land says that the formation is naturally fractured, and one of their Niobrara wells had good production even without fracturing. It sounds like the Niobrara horizontal wells will still be fractured. More to follow, I'm sure.

The most interesting thing about this article, however, relates to something the North Dakota governor said yesterday: that if the EPA is given the authority to regulate fracturing, it will shut down fracturing for two-to-three years while they put the regulations in place. Wouldn't that be interesting if oil companies could shift their attention to the Niobrara during this hiatus?  Of course, if the Niobrara is not productive in North Dakota, and if fracture stimulation is shut down for a few years, it will be devastating to the oil industry in North Dakota.