Alaska Can Meet U.S. Energy Needs
By Sean Parnell / Wall Street Journal

The United States is now facing a decision on how to meet its future energy needs. In the coming months, the U.S. Department of the Interior will weigh whether to allow oil and gas exploration on Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to be expanded. Such exploration could set the country on a clear and sustainable energy path for decades to come.

Alaska’s OCS contains an estimated 27 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. That’s more than twice the amount of oil that has been produced on Alaska’s North Slope since the Trans Alaska Pipeline System went online in 1977. Counting its OCS reserves, Alaska likely has more than 30% of the nation’s recoverable oil and gas. Developing these resources will advance our national interests in three significant ways.

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$21 Billion of Oil and Gas Deals Announced Third Quarter 2009
PR Newswire

HOUSTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ — PLS, Inc. (”PLS”) in conjunction with its international partner Derrick Petroleum Services (”Derrick”) reports that Global M&A activity for the 3rd Quarter 2009 totaled nearly $21 billion in 112 separate transactions. According to Brian Lidsky, Managing Director of Research at PLS, Inc., “Oil and gas deal volume increased markedly beginning in late August 2009 due to a confluence of events. These include: 1) a growing consensus that the economy bottomed in the 2nd quarter 2009 and a recovery is under way, 2) price stability of oil in the $65 - $75 per barrel range, and 3) a dramatic drop of U.S. natural gas prices in late August - early September towards the $2.50 range that signaled a buying opportunity to the U.S. markets. For perspective, the oil and gas forward 12-month strips at 3rd Quarter 2009 end were $73.00 per barrel and $5.93 per mcf (thousand cubic feet) versus year ago numbers of $99.02 per barrel and $8.15 per mcf.”

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Landfill Energy Project in the Works in Charleston
By Will Jones / WSAZ

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A new project in the works in Charleston will turn garbage into electricity.

It is called the “Landfill Gas to Electricity” Program and Charleston will be the first city in the state to have such a site.

The landfill will produce enough electricity to power more than 2,000 homes.

“This is a renewable resource. So it’s constantly regenerating itself, so as long as waste continues to come into the landfill the landfill will continue to produce gas and more gas,” said Thomas Loehr from Charleston Clean Energy.

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Texas completes $1 billion wind energy complex
By  Candace Lombardi / CNet News

One of the world’s largest wind farms is now operational in the area surrounding Roscoe, Texas, E.ON Climate & Renewables (EC&R) announced Thursday.

The series of 627 wind turbines providing a 781.5-megawatt capacity covers about 100,000 acres and four Texas counties. But it’s not an isolated wind farm per se, nor a uniform series of turbines.

The wind complex is a collaborative wind project with the community that included negotiations with over 300 landowners, and a mix of different turbines made by several companies including Mitsubishi, General Electric, and Siemens.

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Natural gas and how to play it
MoneyWeek

Oil is the energy resource that captures public attention – nearly all of us need its products to drive around every day, and feel the pain of prices of $130 a barrel, or thereabouts, when we fill our cars at the pumps.

But its poor cousin natural gas could be the one now offering more interesting investment opportunities:

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Sweeping Rahall Bill Would Overhaul Federal Oil and Gas Leasing, Royalties
By Noelle Straub / The New York Times

House Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) introduced a bill yesterday to forge a new Interior agency to govern oil and gas leasing on federal lands and to overhaul the federal royalty system.

The far-reaching bill also includes measures to improve planning for offshore energy development, address wind and solar programs, and boost funding for ocean conservation and land acquisition. It comes largely as a response to a series of scandals and scathing government watchdog reports on the federal agencies that handle oil and gas drilling on public lands.

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First Solar to Build World’s Largest Solar Power Plant in China
By John Duce and Indira A.R. Lakshmanan / Bloomberg.com

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) — First Solar Inc., a U.S.-based renewable energy company, will build the world’s largest solar power plant in China as the country plans to increase non- polluting electricity generation.

The plant would be about thirty times larger than existing solar power stations operating in Europe, Dulce Qu, a Beijing- based spokeswoman for company, said by telephone today. The 2,000-megawatt complex will be built in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China by 2019, Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar said yesterday. One mega watt is enough to power 800 U.S. homes.

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Energy stocks open mixed as crude extends gains
By Jim Jelter / Market Watch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil and gas stocks edged narrowly higher at the open Wednesday as crude-oil futures extended their winning streak to a third straight session. Early trades sent the NYSE Arca Oil Index

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Winter may heat up natural gas prices
By Markus Ermisch / Sun Media
August, 27, 2009
Finance Minister Iris Evans says she’s not relying on winter to give depressed natural gas prices a boost, but chances are that at this point, Jack Frost is the government’s best friend.

Alberta’s government, in yesterday’s budget update, lowered its forecast for the price of natural gas to $3.75 per gigajoule, a cut of $1.75 from the forecast included in April’s provincial budget. Natural gas royalties for the fiscal year are now estimated at $1.9 billion, $1.8 billion lower than the budget estimate.

The government also adjusted the average oil price to $61 US a barrel, up from the $55.50 US contained in the budget. The higher oil price is offset by an appreciating loonie, and oil royalties are now forecast to drop $333 million to $1.9 billion.

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By Erin Ailworth / Boston.com

A state board yesterday approved plans to build a natural gas plant in Brockton, but left local officials with the power to veto the plant’s construction by choosing whether to grant the zoning exemptions needed to build the 350-megawatt facility.

The state Energy Facilities Siting Board, a division of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, did not grant the exemptions because it “concluded that the proposed project’s environmental and energy supply benefits do not outweigh expected local impacts,’’ according to a statement.

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