NG production.

As being the nation's largest NG resource reserves, as PA residents, are we going to get dirt cheap NG? Like coal? I'm in the Pocono Mountain area and there aren't any pipelines....yet. Any info on this?

Don' hold your breath. Most will be exported to large
met areas in the Northeast.

You won't get cheap gas, but you might get polluted water from the fracking process

The gas drilling and storage process is really quite interesting.
With the depth of the shale, it's amazing that they can drill and
recover almost two square miles from a 5 acre site.
During the summer months, they store the gas in porous shale formations.
In the winter they retrieve the gas and send it to market.

Promising and scary...you decide.

http://standardspeaker.com/news/marcell ... s-1.855653

It's hard to have much of a discussion on this subject without getting
the horror story crowd all giddy and weepy, but this is an industry that
has produced natural gas for almost a century. It's not in their best interest to
screw things up. The state has them on a pretty short leash. Newspapers do what
they do. They need to write about something. Mistakes will happen, and when they do,
that's what we have newspapers for. When your cold in the winter time, that's why they
drill for gas.

tsb wrote:Don' hold your breath. Most will be exported to large
met areas in the Northeast.

My buddy mentioned that PLANS to bring a pipeline will happen. Personally, why not? Yes, I know the NE would be much more profitable. BUT think how much of an impact it would cause to the PROPANE industry. With NG as the competitor, propane companies would crap in their pants and most likely lower prices.

I live right next to a very active area for gas extraction. It is scary with some of the stories I hear about .Trucks filled with some type of fluid driving around with the valve cracked open when its raining ,I personally saw this but at the time I really didn't think much of it . I am all for the process of getting the gas because it frees us up from foreign oil but I just want to see it done carefully . Fuel oil spills and chemical spills are caused by someone being careless or reckless and should not be allowed to happen,but it does all to often . Just another reason to love coal ,if an oil or waste fluid truck spills near a creek its a disaster.If its a coal truck you grab a shovel .

Flyer5 wrote:I live right next to a very active area for gas extraction. It is scary with some of the stories I hear about .Trucks filled with some type of fluid driving around with the valve cracked open when its raining ,I personally saw this but at the time I really didn't think much of it . I am all for the process of getting the gas because it frees us up from foreign oil but I just want to see it done carefully . Fuel oil spills and chemical spills are caused by someone being careless or reckless and should not be allowed to happen,but it does all to often . Just another reason to love coal ,if an oil or waste fluid truck spills near a creek its a disaster.If its a coal truck you grab a shovel .

The environmental regulations are controlled by the states. PA is way behind in their regulations and the number of officials who do the enforcement. NY is much tougher. Lots of examples in other states where the ground water can really be permanently damaged. Absolutely no reason for it, because with proper drill and cementing the well it's not a cause for concern. The NG is way below any water aquifer. The well casing just needs to be sealed where it goes through the aquifer.

stokerstroker66 wrote:

tsb wrote:Don' hold your breath. Most will be exported to large
met areas in the Northeast.

My buddy mentioned that PLANS to bring a pipeline will happen. Personally, why not? Yes, I know the NE would be much more profitable. BUT think how much of an impact it would cause to the PROPANE industry. With NG as the competitor, propane companies would crap in their pants and most likely lower prices.

Sorry, But maybe you're not aware that propane is a derivative/byproduct of natural gas.
So the natural gas producer will never let the propane prices be more economical than their gas.

They have no great plans to add more residential infrastructure, their position is, if you're lucky enough to have gas line on your street in front of your house...great...if not...sorry bout your luck...buy propane.

Natural gas companies aren't lying awake at night trying to figure out how to get their gas to more of our homes.
They're figuring out how to compress it into a liquid to reduce it's volume of space and send it to market in bulk.

Other fuels, like our coal and wood pellets, are in demand in the European and Chinese markets and they have the MONEY to pay the top rates. Europe want our wood pellets and China wants our coal. Who's inline for our NG?

The NG Boom now, will NOT benefit us consumers, unless maybe you are getting your paycheck from it. The bigger benefit will be recognized by big business and the utilities.

Energy prices always do and will continue to fluctuate...but they will never be cheap...sorry.

McGiever wrote: They have no great plans to add more residential infrastructure, their position is, if you're lucky enough to have gas line on your street in front of your house...great...if not...sorry bout your luck...buy propane.

Natural gas companies aren't lying awake at night trying to figure out how to get their gas to more of our homes.
They're figuring out how to compress it into a liquid to reduce it's volume of space and send it to market in bulk.

We have a natural gas pipeline less than two miles from here. It has been there longer than I am alive and all it does is pass through. Sometime in the last fifteen twenty years they built a small plant that would use a lot of gas because they dry food product for animal feed. They got hooked up to the gas line and I heard at the time any homes along the line they had to lay from the large pipeline to the plant could hookup free. (free connection not free gas) I don’t know if any of the homeowners took them up on the offer and it was probably only about six homes that the line went by anyway.

I’m sure many have heard about the latest incident regarding gas in northern PA
http://www.wnep.com/wnep-chesapeake-progress-made-in-stopping-fluids-20110422,0,5524695.story

Well I'm seeing natural gas becoming quite atracive here in Pittsburgh, PA. and it is a domestic fuel as is coal. It was only 6 years ago that the high natural gas prices started me looking into solid fuel.

Now after running the numbers through the NEPA Fuel Comparison Calculator, I was shocked to see such a drastic savings if I had used only natural gas.

Just this season, with my current fuel prices of anthracite and natural gas here in Pittsburgh, I would have saved $315.00 this season if I only used natural gas rather than anthracite. Wow! Back in 2005, I would have saved around $1000.00 if I had used anthracite rather than natural gas.

Anthracite coal prices would have drop to $187.00 a ton or I would have to use a natural gas furnace less than 65% efficient to equal the same anthracite fuel cost at the current price of $240.00 a ton here in Pittsburgh. What is going on here? It is definitely making me wonder where to spend my hard earned money?

I have the same 92% efficient natural gas furnace as I did in 2005 but now even more efficient coal burning appliances and it is still currently less expensive to use natural gas rather than anthracite coal. Just for fun, I also ran the numbers for using purchased split hard wood and found that I would have saved only $90.00 this season if I had only burned purchased split hard wood rather than natural gas. To me an only $90.00 savings isn't worth all of the effort with burning purchased split hard wood.

So, I am quite perplexed? My natural gas price has dropped to $1.10 per Therm. That is including all of the taxes. Anthracite coal prices are expected to go even higher because of the diesel fuel delivery cost. What is one to do? This is really making me think this up and coming winter heating season. Hum?

Any thoughts?

McGiever wrote:
Sorry, But maybe you're not aware that propane is a derivative/byproduct of natural gas.

Actually about 55% comes from natural gas processing, and 45% comes from crude oil refining. You are right in that propane will never be economical to use.

they have a gas line run to the Tobyhanna Army Depot and then it continues down 611 and ends at the Johnson and Johnson facility. boy it would be nice to cook with real gas but..

I hear the $$ behind the drilling and extraction is from china and they plan to cram it in ships and drag it across the pond to sell... i'd rather not drill if we can't use it in this country...I'd rather "they" stay on thier side of the water too.......

Starting to feel like the average Arab, aren't you !