The Century Mark -- 100 Active Rigs -- March 24, 2015

Active rigs:

	3/24/2015	03/24/2014	03/24/2013	03/24/2012	03/24/2011
Active Rigs	100	197	187	206	171

The NDIC GIS map was not available earlier this morning; it is now active. It was probably being updated.

RBN Energy: "wet" natural gas processing the Marcellus and the Utica.

Fast-rising hydrocarbon production of “wet” natural gas in the eastern Utica and southwestern Marcellus has been creating tremendous opportunities for the small group of midstream firms that saw what was coming—and pounced. Gas processing capacity in the Utica/Marcellus as a whole now tops 7.6 Bcf/d, more than 12 times higher than five years ago. The processing-capacity expansion is continuing, as is the build-out of NGL extraction plants and pipelines, and a broader, well-thought-out plan to integrate all this new infrastructure to allow the region to operate without the luxury of significant NGL storage capacity is finally coming into focus. Today, we continue our look at infrastructure development in the nation’s fastest-growing gas and NGL play.

Driving through the bucolic hills of the Upper Ohio River Valley a short jaunt southwest of Pittsburgh, you’d never guess you were in the heart of what has become a massive, well-planned and well-oiled machine capable of processing ever-increasing volumes of natural gas and separating out purity natural gas liquids (NGLs). Just five years ago there was only 600 MMcf/d of gas processing capacity in the entire northeast region. Most of that capacity was scattered widely, with each facility operating pretty much on a stand-alone basis. Since then, however, gas production in the overall Utica/Marcellus region has seen a 10-fold increase (from 2 Bcf/d to nearly 20 Bcf/d).  Production of dry Marcellus gas (which needs little or no processing before being piped to consumers) in northeastern Pennsylvania seems to be holding its own, even though local prices (TGP Zone 4 Marcellus) have averaged less than $1.30/MMbtu since the first of the year.  But the big growth is coming from the wet Marcellus in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia and in the Utica in eastern Ohio (mostly so producers can benefit from the financial uplift of selling NGLs as well as gas).

The wet or NGL-rich gas in these plays has supported a multibillion-dollar build-out of new gas processing facilities to remove ethane, propane and other NGLs from the raw gas so the resulting processed gas meets pipeline specifications, and the NGLs can be sold at what are mostly higher prices than gas on a BTU basis.

Terrorism List

DFW talk radio: Hezbollah and Iran taken off US terrorist list. US government says Hezbollah and Iran taken off the list due to "formatting" changes; John Bolton says it was a John Kerry concession to Iran to get the nuclear deal done. 

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Personal Note

The New York Times is reporting:

Now, a physicist who helped devise the [atom bomb] more than half a century ago has defied a federal order to cut from his new book material that the government says teems with thermonuclear secrets.

The author, Kenneth W. Ford, 88, spent his career in academia and has not worked on weapons since 1953. His memoir, Building the H Bomb: A Personal History, is his 10th book. The others are physics texts, elucidations of popular science and a reminiscence on flying small planes.

He said he included the disputed material because it had already been disclosed elsewhere and helped him paint a fuller picture of an important chapter of American history. But after he volunteered the manuscript for a security review, federal officials told him to remove about 10 percent of the text, or roughly 5,000 words.

The book:

World Scientific, a publisher in Singapore, recently made Dr. Ford’s book public in electronic form, with print versions to follow. Reporters and book review editors have received page proofs.

The Department of Energy, the keeper of the nation’s nuclear secrets, declined to comment on the book’s publication.

I must have been in my "nuclear-interest phase" back in 2013. I see I added these books plus many other general physics books to my library that year:

• Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth of an Atomic Community, Jon Hunner, 2003
• Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside The Center, Ray Monk, c. 2012

A big "thank you" to a reader for alerting me to the book. I will watch for it. On another note, now that I'm in my John le Carré / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy phase, I will be ordering a copy of the book next time I place an Amazon order.