Lots Of News Today: CO2 For Fracking -- Don't Hold Your Breath; Kashagan -- On The Rocks; US Natural Gas For Europe? Don't Hold Your Breath

Actions have consequences. On the road to New England. The New Hampshire Business Review discusses the high cost of energy in New Hampshire.

Ask Greg Biederman, CEO of Nylon Corp of America, about the natural gas spikes this past winter.

The Manchester firm – which employs about 50 workers – uses the gas to fuel manufacture of those cords you find in weed-whackers and for thin, clear membranes used to protect insulation of multiple wires.

His energy bill (which also includes electricity) rose from $1.8 million to $2.5 million in two years. That’s primarily because of the cost of natural gas, which has risen 30 percent from last winter. The amount Biederman pays for the actual gas remained about the same – about $4 per BTU, according to the breakdown his supplier, Sprague Energy, provided to him. But transmission costs increased to as high as $91 per BTU.

And as the demand for natural gas increases, “we are going to have the same problem year after year,” said Biederman. “It’s going to be astronomical. There is a real power crisis coming to the Northeast. If it spreads to electricity, it’s going to price us out of business.”

Comments not necessary. Except one: I still bet New Hampshire votes for Hillary if she runs.

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Reuters via Rigzone is reporting:

Carbon dioxide, used for years to force crude oil out of old wells, likely will not replace water in fracking anytime soon because of technical challenges and limited infrastructure, says General Electric Co , which is studying the issue under a $10 billion research program. 

The delay means energy companies will continue to use more than 2 million gallons of water for each fracked well, equal to baths for some 40,000 people, stressing water supplies in arid American states and likely delaying fracking's expansion to western China and other water-stressed regions. 

The inconvenient truth is that American golf courses use way more water than oil companies.

Reuters via Rigzone is reporting:

Output at Kazakhstan's huge Kashagan oilfield may fail to restart this year if test results expected in May show cracks in the offshore part of its pipeline network, Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister Uzakbai Karabalin said on Monday.

An inspection of the pipelines is under way and "suspicions have emerged" of microcracks in those laid in the Caspian Sea, Karabalin told reporters.

Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy and the second-largest post-Soviet oil producer after Russia, is pinning hopes for future prosperity on Kashagan, whose recoverable reserves are estimated at 9 billion to 13 billion barrels of oil.

Production at the offshore deposit, the world's biggest oil find in 35 years, started in September but halted in early October after the detection of gas leaks in the $50 billion project's pipeline network.

Sorta puts the Bakken in perspective. 

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Natural Gas And Europe

As you read this story, ponder the cost of natural gas in the US had it not been for the Bakken. 

The New York Times is reporting:

As congressional pressure builds on the Obama administration to quicken gas exports to Europe to reduce its dependence on Russia, it may be tempting to gaze upon a marshy, alligator-infested Louisiana inlet of the Gulf of Mexico.

There 3,000 workers are installing a huge set of turbines, pipelines and refrigeration units, building a terminal that will send American natural gas around the world by the end of next year. By 2017, the facility built by Houston-based Cheniere Energy could handle roughly a sixth the amount of gas that flows from Russia to Europe every day.

The Cheniere plant will be part of a new surge of liquefied natural gas supplies coming from not only the United States but also Australia, Africa and the Middle East. That surge, perhaps along with increased production in Europe itself, promises to keep the Continent flush with non-Russian natural gas at the end of the decade.

But for the short term, the United States can offer little hope for Europeans eager to diversify their gas sources as Russia occupies Crimea and may threaten other parts of eastern Ukraine.

Much, much more at the link. A huge "thank you" to a reader for sending me the link.

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Other Stories

The Washington Post is reporting that some Europeans are demanding that Europe start fracking for natural gas. Won't happen in my investing lifetime. These guys are nuttier than Obama.

This is pretty cool. Koch Industries, with more than 2 million acres in western Canada, may be the biggest lease-holder in the heavy oil that US refiners need. Or so The Washington Post reports. Who's to know. But if so, it's pretty cool.