The American Energy Revolution -- It Simply Never Quits -- September 21, 208

Wow, it never quits. Some days I feel I need to quit blogging. It makes no difference. I can't keep up. There's no purpose. What is the purpose? I started the blog because I wanted to learn about the Bakken. I've talked about that elsewhere. It took on a life of its own. I no longer need to know any more about the Bakken. I get it. But I can't quit. It never ceases to amaze me.

The Bakken is a metonym for the US energy revolution. It simply never quits. President Bush II, the intellectually incurious, didn't see it coming. Jimmy Carter must have been his mentor. President Barack Obama did what he could to stop the US energy revolution -- at first he didn't see it either even when it was staring him in the face ("we can't simply drill our way to less expensive oil") and then when he did, he went global, knowing that if the US wasn't stopped, it would leave the rest of the world in its wake.

I didn't see it either, but I am "proud" to admit that in 2007, when I started the blog, I realized that the Bakken was going to be different. Looking back that is really, really amazing. Certainly, it was fortuitous, just plain lucky. The Bakken could have been a bust, but something suggested to me it was going to be different. Also, retiring from the military in 2007, I had nothing else to do. LOL.

By they way, my hunch is that the Bakken is still much less than what it will ultimately be. There's something about the Bakken that is just off the radar scope. I'm starting to think it's akin to three blindfolded men trying to determine the size of an "elephant," not knowing they are are touching an Argentinosaurus huinculensis. The Bakkenus hallucinomongus.

That's not an exaggeration. The Bakken is producing more natural gas than the largest natural gas play in the Mediterranean. And in the Bakken, natural gas is a by-product, a nuisance, and a dangerous hassle.

I write all that to note this: Williams Energy seeks "green light" to start up the Atlantic Sunrise.

• seeks final approval from FERC to put its Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline on-line
• 1.7 billion cubic feet per day (300,00 boepd)
• construction began in 2016
• a $3 billion expansion project of its existing Transco natural gas pipeline; is this the world's largest natural gas pipeline; maybe someone can compare it to Russia's Nord Stream at 110 billion cubic meters vs Transco's 15 million dekatherms per day (don't even get me started)

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) is a natural gas pipeline which brings gas from the Gulf coast of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania to deliver gas to the New Jersey and New York City area. It is owned by the Williams Partners. 

• this is the best part: greenfield construction of the Pennsylvania portion of Atlantic Sunrise, called the “Central Penn Line,” began in September 2017. Central Penn, which will be jointly owned by Transco and a third party, includes approximately 200 miles of large-diameter pipeline, two greenfield compressor stations and compressor station modifications in five states

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