Exxon, parrying attacks, launches natural-gas website
By Ben Geman
Exxon Mobil Corp. launched a website Thursday to tout the abundance of U.S. natural-gas supplies and the benefits of hydraulic fracturing, the process that’s enabling a production boom but bringing fears of water pollution alongside it.
“Natural gas is providing the United States with an enormous economic advantage as a result of American ingenuity and innovation,” the website states. (E2 Wire)
What New Ethylene Crackers Tell Us
By Geoffrey Styles
Ed. note: This piece first appeared on Energy Outlook, Geoffrey Styles’ blog.
Sometimes a news item informs us about much more than the event in question. I think the recent announcements of new petrochemical projects in the US fall into that category. Both Shell and Dow Chemical are planning new ethylene crackers in the US, a market in which established ethylene facilities were being shut down only a few years ago, as part of the demand destruction necessary to balance natural gas demand with shrinking US supplies. Anyone looking for further indications of the game-changing nature of shale gas need look no further than these projects. Yet they also give us intriguing hints about two other situations of great interest: global oil prices and US economic growth. (Energy Tribune)
New York steps closer to allowing hydrofracking
New York state would throw open its share of one of the world’s richest natural gas deposits to drilling under recommendations made by its environmental agency, creating a potential boom feared by environmentalists. (Reuters)
Europe’s Green Lobby Trying To Kill Shale Revolution
Thursday, 30 June 2011 15:54 Fiona Harvey, The Guardian
One of the most influential members of the European parliament is proposing a new directive that would penalise or even ban the exploitation of shale gas, the controversial new fossil fuel that is tipped as the major energy source of the future. (GWPF)
