Because of its prime geographical location, Louisiana has been one of the United States’ most productive areas of oil production, with its first attempt at oil discovery dating back a century and a half. This first dig proved unsuccessful, however, the promise of untold riches and energy independence proved too strong a pull for early exploration to be so easily thwarted. The first oil field discovered that proved to be commercially viable for production occurred in 1901, the Heywood well, and can be seen as the jumping off point for the many years of oil production to come.
Rivers and large bodies of water have always been the lifelines for civilization, and the massive mother of all U.S. rivers, the Mississippi River is no different. Cutting a large swath through the middle of the United States, the Mississippi brings with it tons upon tons of sediment, rich with decaying plant and animal matter, depositing them at her massive mouth at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico. Hydrocarbons form as bacteria combines with the molecules of dead animal and plant matter; the results of the mighty Mississippi’s centuries, even millennia of hard work can be seen in these huge deposits of sediment that have been mounded and compacted into the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico. The pressure created by years upon years of pounding and pounding have created a veritable hotbed of hydrocarbon production, and where hydrocarbons exist, oil and natural gas supplies are present for extraction. Geologists employed by oil exploration outfits like observed these advantageous, naturally-occurring conditions, and several large drilling platforms were erected off Louisiana’s shore in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1940’s in hopes of capitalizing upon the oil deposits, both for economic boost to the state of Louisiana as well as providing energy for the millions of United States’ inhabitants.
Louisiana’s oil industry began to flourish with it reaching its peak production numbers of over 725 million barrels in 1969. Louisianan reserves have experienced a slight decline since then, however, new efforts employed in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of new congressional allowances have motivated an oil production renaissance with an increase in production since 1996. Some estimates show that Louisiana’s yields could increase by at least 33 percent in the next 20 years, allowing for large profits for this state that has been in dire need of economic boosting since the horrible havoc wrecked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Oil outfitters like Triple Diamond Energy Corp will surely be available to help with the harvest of this oily bounty. Louisiana will undoubtedly continue to remain as one of the United States’ most important states in terms of oil production for many years to come.
About the Author: Robert Jent is the president of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
U.S. Pipeline Construction Boom
As demand for natural gas in the United States continues to soar, pipeline companies are experiencing their highest all-time profits. Trying to keep up with natural gas needs, many pipeline companies have been starting and completing new projects at breakneck speed, helping to pipe the much needed natural gas from the prolific basins of the southeastern United States to various areas across the continent. As the price of oil soars, many locales are hoping that the United States’ mammoth natural gas supplies will rise to the challenge, providing the energy needs of the many, taking up the slack and decreasing the United States’ dependence on foreign oil reserves.
The largest project, the Mid-Continent Crossing, a collaboration between CenterPoint Energy and Duke Energy Gas Transmission, was agreed upon in 2006, and the two companies seemed determined that the construction of this large pipeline would be supported by the higher natural gas prices nationwide and increased demand, especially in the United States’ energy hungry and highly populated Northeast. The proposed route included a 1600 mile pipeline that would run from the Waha Hub near Plains, Texas, crossing several states along the way including Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and others, all the way to Pennsylvania. This pipeline proposal was encouraged by claims of each state along the route, assuring the two companies of needy customers that would more than support the great costs incurred by the enormous build. Along the way, Duke Energy bowed out and was replaced by Spectra Energy, assuring CenterPoint that they would be an advantageous partner. In the end however, initial numbers that drove the two companies in their proposal and ongoing talks proved to be inflated, and construction was discontinued even before it began. Demand proved to be a fickle mistress in this case, though the two companies are leaving communication lines open should the market support their joint venture in the future.
Perhaps such a large endeavor was too ambitious. The construction boom continued throughout 2007, motivated by a nearly 4% increase in demand, but on smaller scales. Around 69 new projects were proposed in 2007 across the United States amounting to around 3200 miles of expansion. Most of these proposals included lateral construction of new tributaries from pre-existing routes. This might have been the downfall of the Mid-Continent Crossing project; its proposed route was too ambitious because it involved primarily all new construction without an existing network in place. American companies like Triple Diamond Energy Corp and others continue to employ market analysis, assessing need for new pipeline ventures to help better serve the nation’s consumers.
About the Author: Robert Jent is the president of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.
The largest project, the Mid-Continent Crossing, a collaboration between CenterPoint Energy and Duke Energy Gas Transmission, was agreed upon in 2006, and the two companies seemed determined that the construction of this large pipeline would be supported by the higher natural gas prices nationwide and increased demand, especially in the United States’ energy hungry and highly populated Northeast. The proposed route included a 1600 mile pipeline that would run from the Waha Hub near Plains, Texas, crossing several states along the way including Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and others, all the way to Pennsylvania. This pipeline proposal was encouraged by claims of each state along the route, assuring the two companies of needy customers that would more than support the great costs incurred by the enormous build. Along the way, Duke Energy bowed out and was replaced by Spectra Energy, assuring CenterPoint that they would be an advantageous partner. In the end however, initial numbers that drove the two companies in their proposal and ongoing talks proved to be inflated, and construction was discontinued even before it began. Demand proved to be a fickle mistress in this case, though the two companies are leaving communication lines open should the market support their joint venture in the future.
Perhaps such a large endeavor was too ambitious. The construction boom continued throughout 2007, motivated by a nearly 4% increase in demand, but on smaller scales. Around 69 new projects were proposed in 2007 across the United States amounting to around 3200 miles of expansion. Most of these proposals included lateral construction of new tributaries from pre-existing routes. This might have been the downfall of the Mid-Continent Crossing project; its proposed route was too ambitious because it involved primarily all new construction without an existing network in place. American companies like Triple Diamond Energy Corp and others continue to employ market analysis, assessing need for new pipeline ventures to help better serve the nation’s consumers.
About the Author: Robert Jent is the president of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Sifting Through “Tar Sands”
The term “tar sands” are somewhat of a misnomer as tar is itself a man-made product from crude oil and does not exist naturally. “Tar sands” are perhaps better referred to as “oil sands” because it is the heavy, extremely viscous, blackest of oils, bitumen that lies naturally beneath the Earth’s surface in a gritty amalgam of clay, sand, and water. Because of its need for extra refining due to its less than hospitable state, tar or oil sands has until now been a sort of “last resort” supply for most countries in conventional oil trade. As oil supplies dwindle across the planet, more and more countries are turning to tar sands for relief, and new technologies are emerging that help make these reserves more recoverable.
Of the nations of the world, Canada stands alone currently as having the most developed tar sands industry, seeing production of nearly a million barrels of synthetic oil daily. This represents nearly 40% of Canada’s total oil production, and numbers are steadily on the rise. Much of Canadian tar sand deposits are recoverable through open pit mining techniques which prove very efficient when deposits are near the surface. Large hydraulic shovels dig up the tar sands and deposit them in extra large dump trucks for transport to a nearby extraction plant. Hot water must first be added to the combination, allowing the oily bitumen to rise to the top for ease of separation. The bitumen is then skimmed from the top like the fat on buttermilk, and off to another plant for further refining into synthetic oil blends.
Main objections to harvesting tar sands in the United States are from highly vocal environmental groups voicing valid concerns over the disturbance of habitat for seemingly miniscule amounts of oil. Even with modern advancements during the 1990s, nearly two tons of tar sands are still required to produce one barrel of oil. This would mean large excavation sites would be necessary in areas of tar sand congregation like Utah, and most citizens don’t enjoy the decimated landscape that is left after a quarry or a mining operation has run dry. Triple Diamond Energy Corp and other American oil extraction companies are continually striving to uncover new ways of efficiently removing oil deposits while maintaining diligent stewardship of the environment. As needs grow and supplies diminish within the United States, new methods are direly needed and will be put to the test.
About the Author: Robert Jent is the president of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.
Of the nations of the world, Canada stands alone currently as having the most developed tar sands industry, seeing production of nearly a million barrels of synthetic oil daily. This represents nearly 40% of Canada’s total oil production, and numbers are steadily on the rise. Much of Canadian tar sand deposits are recoverable through open pit mining techniques which prove very efficient when deposits are near the surface. Large hydraulic shovels dig up the tar sands and deposit them in extra large dump trucks for transport to a nearby extraction plant. Hot water must first be added to the combination, allowing the oily bitumen to rise to the top for ease of separation. The bitumen is then skimmed from the top like the fat on buttermilk, and off to another plant for further refining into synthetic oil blends.
Main objections to harvesting tar sands in the United States are from highly vocal environmental groups voicing valid concerns over the disturbance of habitat for seemingly miniscule amounts of oil. Even with modern advancements during the 1990s, nearly two tons of tar sands are still required to produce one barrel of oil. This would mean large excavation sites would be necessary in areas of tar sand congregation like Utah, and most citizens don’t enjoy the decimated landscape that is left after a quarry or a mining operation has run dry. Triple Diamond Energy Corp and other American oil extraction companies are continually striving to uncover new ways of efficiently removing oil deposits while maintaining diligent stewardship of the environment. As needs grow and supplies diminish within the United States, new methods are direly needed and will be put to the test.
About the Author: Robert Jent is the president of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.
Natural Gas Providing Electricity
The choice for most plants providing electricity in the United States during the 1970’s and 1980’s were coal or nuclear powered. Though coal is the cheapest fossil fuel used to produce electricity, it is also the dirtiest, producing the highest levels of harmful particulate into the air, causing far reaching environmental damage, not to mention the adverse affects on respiratory health. Historically, U.S. electricity generation has been one of the most polluting industries. Thankfully, governmental emission regulations have forced the cleanup of a large amount of these coal-fired plants, and many have turned to cleaner options to help provide Americans with the electricity they need. There has been a slow rise since the early nineties, a shift to the use of natural gas to fire power plants.
Natural gas is used in the most basic way, similarly to coal, burned in order to heat water with the resulting steam funneled into a turbine, turning it, and producing electricity. The unfortunate reality of this tried and true way is its overwhelming inefficiency in comparison to newly emerging methods. Another way gas is used is simply as fuel to engines that turn the turbines, but this is only slightly more efficient than the steam producing method. Newer natural gas fired power plants are using both methods in “combined-cycle” units, harnessing the most successful attributes of both methods, combining them into one unit, and nearly doubling the thermal efficiency in the process. This allows for less of the natural gas produced heat energy to be lost, with numbers dwindling to nearly 30% lost rather than 70% in those methods when used alone.
An exciting innovation motivated by the increasing usage of clean burning natural gas is the development of smaller power plants that can be erected locally rather than the traditionally, large, centrally located power plants that have dominated the United States in the last century. This trend is known as distributed generation, and has allowed municipalities, independent factories, and even residential areas the ability to generate their own electricity, ensuring that their individual needs are met. Most all of these smaller plants are powered by the nation’s extensive natural gas infrastructure that grows each year as natural gas distributors like Triple Diamond Energy Corp expand operations to keep up with the ever- rowing demand for clean burning, highly efficient, and readily available natural gas. New supplies are needed, and American companies are hard at work, using all their available resources to discover them.
About the Author: Robert Jent is the president of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.
Natural gas is used in the most basic way, similarly to coal, burned in order to heat water with the resulting steam funneled into a turbine, turning it, and producing electricity. The unfortunate reality of this tried and true way is its overwhelming inefficiency in comparison to newly emerging methods. Another way gas is used is simply as fuel to engines that turn the turbines, but this is only slightly more efficient than the steam producing method. Newer natural gas fired power plants are using both methods in “combined-cycle” units, harnessing the most successful attributes of both methods, combining them into one unit, and nearly doubling the thermal efficiency in the process. This allows for less of the natural gas produced heat energy to be lost, with numbers dwindling to nearly 30% lost rather than 70% in those methods when used alone.
An exciting innovation motivated by the increasing usage of clean burning natural gas is the development of smaller power plants that can be erected locally rather than the traditionally, large, centrally located power plants that have dominated the United States in the last century. This trend is known as distributed generation, and has allowed municipalities, independent factories, and even residential areas the ability to generate their own electricity, ensuring that their individual needs are met. Most all of these smaller plants are powered by the nation’s extensive natural gas infrastructure that grows each year as natural gas distributors like Triple Diamond Energy Corp expand operations to keep up with the ever- rowing demand for clean burning, highly efficient, and readily available natural gas. New supplies are needed, and American companies are hard at work, using all their available resources to discover them.
About the Author: Robert Jent is the president of Triple Diamond Energy Corp. Triple Diamond Energy specializes in acquiring the highest quality prime oil and gas properties. For more information, visit www.triplediamondenergycorp.blogspot.com.
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