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if you want to use methane as a proxy:
http://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/fluid.cgi?Action=Load&ID=C74828&Type=IsoTherm&Digits=5&PLow=.1&PHigh=10&PInc=.1&T=298.15&RefState=DEF&TUnit=K&PUnit=MPa&DUnit=kg%2Fm3&HUnit=kJ%2Fmol&WUnit=m%2Fs&VisUnit=uPa*s&STUnit=N%2Fm
or if that link is munged try
http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/fluid/
also has ethane, propane, butane,....
for methane at 25 C and 1 bar (~1 atm) there are 1542 m^3/tonne
benzene
yeah, intentional or not, there is a great deal of obfuscation in the article: "near" with no numbers or units, "gas-production facility" without saying what kind of facility, "comparable to" again without any quantification, "sites" again without saying what kind of site, e.g. a well being drilled, poducing well, gathering facility, etc.
in my own cynical way, i think this is an old fashioned supply and demand problem. Gas prices are low so gas companies are offering low lease rates. This is the local population's approach to 'counter-offering'.
benzene
agreed that the concentration of nasty fumes in the air around the fueling hole of a car is unhealthy; however, houses and publicly accessible ground is typically at least 10s and usually 100s of feet from gas wells. During drilling it's usually much more than that. Dissipation is a function of r^2.x (x>0) so the concentration drops off rapidly away from the source. If the concentration and effluent rate is so high that it doesn't dilute to a sufficiently low concentration over a small radial distance, then it not only is a breathing hazard to the operating personnel, but it's also a fire hazard. Since both of those are deletarious to profitable operation well operators have an incentive to not let those things occur. In addition, if a well is losing benzene, then it is also leaking larger quantities of methane, ethane, and propane, etc. which are profit (and liability).
Gas wells do leak. That's a fact of life. However, I'd bet that the concentration of benzene within 5 feet of any normally operating well (i.e. one that is not in iminent need of repair) is much less than the concentration of benzene within 5 feet of an operating gasoline station pump. Taking into account the relative amounts of material being delivered to the surface from the 2 sources I'd say gas wells perform remarkably well.
Maybe the Fort Worth official should move to La Brea.
cheers,
Charlie
benzene and gas drilling
The highest level was comparable to levels experienced by drivers while filling their cars with gasoline
sounds like gas station owners should be more fearful than gas well operators.
if these kind of noises came from nearly any source other than politicians, then I might give it more credibility. fear and extortion seems to be the political plan du jour.
[OT] Pickens Predicts CNG Bill Enacted by May 2010
whether or not a bill passes by May is not substantively important. Symbolically, maybe; however, there is no infrastructure to support widespread use of these vehicles. If the federal gov't wants to move this idea, then it would be more effective to merely create NG fueling facilities at federal sites and subsidize creation of the same for state and local gov't vehicle pools. I suspect Obama could do the first by fiat - no legislation necessary. Of course, manufacturing of NG vehicles is also necessary, but hey, the federal gov't/we own GM so I suppose putting that into gear should be easy.
personally, i'd be a happy camper if this proposal became law and NG vehicles became common but it really looks like nothing more than another shiny bauble for Nancy Pelosi to play with.
hydrofrac'ing/benzene
Dew,
I'm not a frac fluid expert so I don't really know whether there is benzene is used, however, I don't see how or why it would be useful and thus my skepticism. Most hydrofrac'ing fluids are 90 to >99% water (i.e. "slickwater" fracturing). Surfactants, biocides, and scale/corrosion inhibitors are also mixed in the water but I don't think benzene serves any of those purposes. If you can lay hand on SPE-115766, -122931, -119898 they might be of interest. The first is a general overview and the other 2 specifically address environmental aspects of hydraulic fracturing. The 2nd paper does not mention benzene at all while the 3rd mentions benzene management in the context of "flowback". Having benzene in the water produced back from the stimulated well (the flowback water) makes much more sense than adding benzene to the injected water. The nature of these reservoirs is that any complex or large hydrocarbon molecules will be highly degraded and one of the products of that degradation will be benzene. The purpose of the fracturing is to open up permeability and desorbtion of the volatile hydrocarbons into the created fractures. Consequently, benzene along with methane and any other volatile compound present goes into the water stream produced back to the surface. So as usual, the wailing and teeth knashing masses are trying to fix a symptom rather than the problem (unless killing the patient is considered a successful treatment of the problem).
regards,
Charlie
Exxon’s Tillerson Presents Merger Case to Congress
that was an interesting article. kind of strange that it was from a Dallas newspaper. With throw-away lines like "Exxon opposes the cap and trade system approved by the House in June, Tillerson said. But Exxon, which has funded groups that deny global warming, recognizes that industrial emissions contribute to climate change, he said." I'm guessing it's the local liberal newspaper.
back on point. I suspect that the service companies have a stake, potentially larger than the production companies, in disclosing the composition of the fluids used in hydro-frac'ing. Some of the chemicals used are proprietary. Maybe congress should ask Coca-Cola to turn over its secret recipe. I wouldn't be surprised if there are aromatic compounds in Coke, too. Articles like the posted one tend to include half-truths meant to scare people who don't understand the difference between benzene and aromatic molecules which by definition contain benzene rings.
Hydro-frac'ing is getting a lot of attention because of a variety of factors: close proximity of natural gas operations to large populations not accustomed to such things and generally biased against such companies; technical ignorance of the population combined with fear, manipulation of the fear and ignorance by politically motivated groups who already have the ear of the local populations; noise and inconvenience caused by development of the resource; subtantive unknowns regarding how and why hydrofrac'ing works and what happens to much of the injected water which exacerbate the fears of the technical illiterati, etc. Underlying, the first two of those reasons is a naive opinion held by a non-trivial part of the population that the country's energy needs can be met without hydrocarbon fuels.
MA, Cambridge voting
I voted at 11:55 AM precinct 1. 1 person leaving as I was going in. No other people either entered or left while I was there. Maybe 25% of the names their list had been checked off (that would be a high estimate). most primitive voting exercise I've ever experienced.
I walked past the precinct 2 polling place on my way to vote and saw 1 soggy Coakley volunteer, 2 people leaving, 1 going in (precinct 2 polling place was an apt building. very strange)
The Carbon Capture Report is a service of the University of Illinois and represents active research in the areas of automated machine learning
obviously their machines are lacking in some analytical abilities.
just for grins if you google: oil site:idenix.com you'll turn up 2 hits on the Idenix website, e.g.
under Robert Pelzer's page:
Mr. Pelzer was Senior Vice President and General Counsel at DuPont Pharmaceuticals based in Wilmington, Delaware. Mr. Pelzer also held a variety of positions within the DuPont organization, including Director and General Manager for the European oil and gas business and Vice President and General Counsel of Conoco Canada Limited in Calgary, Canada.
compine that with words like "pipeline" and probably "climate" or "global" or "environment" and the 'learning machine' decides that Idenix has something to do with carbon capture and oil
Monsanto & GMO seeds in Iraq
In occupied Iraq, it is now illegal for farmers to plant anything except GMO seeds
according to site below your claim is bogus. if you have substantive evidence to the contrary i'm sure we'd all love to see it. There's no shortage of claims such as yours.
http://www.juancole.com/2008/07/genetically-modified-seeds-not-used-in.html
Re: MON and worldwide farm acreage
Dew,
I think the world has vast amounts of undeveloped acreage that could be used for agriculture. It may be more expensive to develop that acreage or even make it accessible so biotech is a cheaper alternative (which I think is what you're really arguing).
regards,
Charlie
Re: Ag biotech (MON)
Dew,
you might want to look at:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/BiotechCrops/
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/CostsAndReturns/testpick.htm#historic1
i wouldn't sign onto the acreage argument but the data and my anecdotal observations are that the farming community has committed to ag biotech and it hasn't hurt their profitability even with rapidly increasing fuel costs.
Charlie
OT poorgrad & uninsured yng adult facts
jbog was correct regarding millions of uninsured young adults (18-24 yo). I provided a reference to the US census bureau's data which apparently nobody bothered to look at.
In 2007 there were 7.99 million uninsured in the 18-24 yr old bracket and in 2008 the number grew by nearly ~200k.
Charlie
OT uninsured
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthin08/p60no236_table7.pdf
not sure how many young adults don't care about insurance but if it's only 5% of uninsured 18-24 yr olds, then there are still > 1 million young adults who choose not to have health insurance.
FWIW: the Senate's healthcare bill sets 26 yrs as the limit for being considered a dependent on a parent's health insurance. Wondering if employer provided plans will be forced to carry those 'elderly' dependents?
Senate healthcare bill
I'd like to know if the Senate version of the healthcare bill.
<http://help.senate.gov/BAI09A84_xml.pdf> has any relevance to MNTA's M-Enoxaparin ANDA? I'm not clear on whether M-Enoxaparin is being treated strictly as a generic substitute for Lovenox outside the purview of this bill or if it is being treated as an "interchangeable" under the healthcare bill's language (pg 1859-1906).
If M-Enoxaparin is addressed by the healthcare bill than it appears to me that the bill eliminates simultaneous approval of multiple generic versions of Lovenox for at least 1 yr after approval of the 1st generic (pgs 1865-6).
thx,
Charlie
shale gas
I'm not so sure that regulations need to be upgraded vs interpretations of existing law being better enforced [i.e. I really don't know which is more appropriate or necessary but yes there do appear to be some problems]. In shale gas, contrary to many other hydrocarbon resources, there are a lot of small operators with relatively limited resources for training and avoiding environmental problems and who are developing projects in highly populated areas. Bad combination. However, folks in the service industry won't be hurt in anycase so I'm happy with whatever happens ;^)
regards,
Charlie
Sounds a bit like sour grapes because she lost out on royalty payouts (she sold her mineral rights for $180 so she and other family members go for environmental litigation payouts).
It looks like the Marcellus is over 1 mile deep at Dimock, and water wells tend to be on the order of a few hundred feet, so any contamination of water wells that is traceable to NG production is probably due either to a faulty well (e.g. bad cement job) or one of the surface spills of fracturing fluid. Those things do happen in oil and gas production and are fixable. Unfortunately, the "back to living in caves but I still want a Lexus" crowd has gotten hold of this story.
audio presentation of locals who seem to generally be happy with natural gas production in the area
http://pagaslease.com/journal_mp3_dsblk_04-30-2009.php
regards,
Charlie
why does trying to convince him have to take up half the board?
putting him and his pals on ignore is a very effective way of reducing 'noise'. try it, you'll like it.
I've been puzzled about shale gas outside of North America for two years now. Can't understand why it has taken so long for this obvious technology transfer to start....Or North America has a more entrepreneurial oil and gas industry?
I think your guess is correct. Shale gas reservoirs in North America are/were being drilled by small operators which don't exist in the rest of the world. Those small operators comprise something like 30% of the shale gas service provider market (not sure if that's still true). Those small operators have/had a problem in that most of them carried a substantial debt load. Plummeting gas prices and tightened credit may have driven many of those operators into bankruptcy.
[ot wallstarb]
No one can be an expert on all science - but if you really think hard that once you have a grasp on it - it doesnt change often and it's pretty constant - so assuming that is true then what is the variable tjhat will change more often? Science or the stock relative value and risk/reward?
The answer is obvious - and while the science may help - its pretty much a constant and doesn't change often. What will change is the ebb and flow of investor sentiment. If you know that the science is sound or not you can make entry/exit decision based on relative value or risk/reward objectives.
wallstarb,
While most of your words above are English, the accumulation of them is nonsensical. While you obviously have some readers I, and obviously several others, think you are detracting from the value of this board.
Why don't you set up your own board on i-hub? I don't see why it should be any more difficult for your followers to read your board than it would be for others to put you and your TA responders on ignore.
This is not censorship, merely appropriate division according to the different interests of board readers.
regards,
Charlie
wsj - Gas Drillers' Painful Growth Paradox
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125381630844038367.html#mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
a very concise and dead-on article
[ot] precision in language
I have found it useful to try and understand what people mean by their statements rather than focus on the denotation errors.
Zipjet,
Unfortunately, the common failure to be precise in language has led to an equally common tendency of people to interpret meaning rather than simply accepting literal meaning. Unfortunately, people tend to color their interpretations with their personal opinions of the person issuing the words or what the listener or reader believes to be the ultimate intention of the issuer.
In this particular case PIPE has a negative connotation so one could easily believe that wallstarb is using lack of precision as a subterfuge to undermine MNTA's price for his personal gain. Of course, if he or anyone else objects to this insinuation, then maybe my words should be more carefully re-read.
regards,
Charlie
DD,
I was referring specifically to your question about APC. I didn't have any information but just wanted to let you know that i couldnt reply to such questions.
regards,
Charlie
OT] A true global market for NG?
sort of. i agree with the WSJ article. Australia and other countries have certainly developed NG resources for export (LNG). The Gorgon field is certainly advantageously placed for Oz. However, with prices and resources in the US being as they are the possibility of significant LNG imports to the US are marginal at best and I don't think the US has significant export capability at the moment. Building it would entail the same problems as building new refineries. Gorgon has technical problems (e.g. transport to mainland for processing and compression) but its location is nearly optimal from a marketing and local population perspective.
The Persian Gulf has the biggest NG reservoirs in the world and until recently those resources were stranded. The owners are starting to monetize those resources not just thru NG as fuel exports but thru more profitable chemicals manufacturing. Historically, this has been a good chunk of US exports (one of the few sources of positive net revenue) so this will be another blow to the "heavy industry" part of the US economy and will put further margin pressures on US refineries.
regarding one of your previous questions: I can't substantively reply to your questions about specific companies and projects unless it's public domain. don't want to get myself in trouble.
regards,
Charlie
shale gas
DoA,
my comments don't really run counter to SLB's white paper. SLB (and anybody else that can) want to develop technology which gives them a competitive advantage to the mom & pop operations. That technology tends to be expensive but if it increases the return to the resource owner or cuts down on the number of holes that the owner is paying for then SLB can argue that their services are cheaper.
The business about fracturing (part of stimulation, not completion, in spite of what the document says) is exactly why gas shales are cheap to produce. Anybody with enough money/credit to buy a high-pressure pump and some tanks can pump a few 100k to a few million gallons of pond water down the hole can stimulate a gas shale reservoir. A surprising number of people have that kind of money. Amongst that crowd Tesco is actually on the large side.
I would not be surprised if any given shale gas well undergoes a rapid decline from the initial production rate; however, there is a difference between decline and depletion. A poorly completed and stimulated well is likely to have a shorter life; however, i do not think that is what Sutherlin was refering to.
Your last quote exemplifies my analogy to the CA gold rush, e.g. rather than spending money to develop the resource for maximum production, many owners and service providers go for the quick hit.
I've forgotten the percentage of horizontal wells vs vertical but I believe almost all shale gas wells are now horizontal. Horizontal wells present some problems for logging but for many folks that just meant they'd save some money and not log the wells. This undoubtedly contributed to a lot of uneconomic wells being drilled but until the last year or so that didn't matter much to many resource owners.
Low NG prices, environmental concerns, and current credit situation are all conspiring to make life hard on the smaller shale gas development companies.
regards,
Charlie
GENova
i like the description on google finance:
Genova Biotherapeutics, Inc., formerly Kinder Travel, Inc., is a travel agency offering a range of travel services, including corporate travel, vacations, cruise holidays, and group tours. right to the poor house.
Sutherlin’s comments re Tesco
DoA ;^)
you found the comment i intended you to see.
Sutherlin was only a director of Tesco; unfortunately directors frequently don't know much about the businesses they supposedly oversee. Hopefully for you he knows more about mining.
The nat gas business has fundamentally changed from 15 yrs ago and there is no going back. People who make historical comparisons between the price ratio of oil to NG and then conclude that NG prices must rise to get back to that historic ratio are ignoring that fundamental change and will probably lose their money [hopefully i got the lose/loose case correct so Dew won't delete my post].
Whether Tesco's market cap is $250M or $300M is irrelevant - both are miniscule compared to the major players in the overall natural gas services industry.
part of the reason for the fundamental change in the NG market is the advent of cheap means of exploiting shale gas. Because sophisticated drilling, completion, and production techniques are not necessary for shale gas dozens of "mom & pop" drilling and production companies have cropped up to exploit shale gas reservoirs. This has resulted in a situation that is a bit like the California gold rush of the 1850s where thousands of small operators descended on the resource and rapidly and sloppily stripped off the easiest and richest reserves. That didn't last long - partially because the sloppiness caused health and environmental hazards. The same is starting to happen in the shale gas business because small operators tend to be on the sloppy side. In addition, when NG was higher, drillers were just drilling wells w/o regard to whether or not a well was economic. If enough holes were drilled the avg would work out to being profitable. That won't last either. Eventually, the big service companies will gain back the market and be able to impose higher prices on the market.
So, yes, NG prices will increase again but I wouldn't bet on the oil:NG price ratio to close to its historic avg. When NG will make it back to $7 is outside my willingness to speculate but in anycase I wouldn't bet on Tesco being a big grower in market share or stock price. Whether or not that will have any bearing on JOYG is something I know not.
Nat Gas Sutherlin comments
other factor for natural gas is that the depletion rates on the natural gas wells, particularly the new Shale plays that the depletion rates are dramatically fast. 18 months is a typical average Shale. And the drilling part of it – I still have a connection to the oil and gas drilling business in one of the boards I am on and in that industry, it still is a rule of thumb that no one is starting drilling programs with natural gas prices below $7.
everything i've quoted above is either flat out wrong or very misleading. Probably why Tesco is only a $300M O&G service company (when most are multi-billion $ companies).
http://www.slb.com/media/services/solutions/reservoir/shale_gas.pdf
Most science doesnt work and wont ever make it any where near comercialization
just a bit over-the-top, don't you think?
GENZ
Genisi, thanks for your posts.
According to Biohealth Investor GENZ has restarted production of Fabrazyme and Cerezyme at the Allston plant. Will they be allowed to sell that production when they eventually satisfy the FDA?
thanks
Charlie
[OT} Dew goes on tour ;^)
http://www.allisports.com/tours/dew-tour
[OT] re Brazil's New King of Food
whelpy... I was certainly wrong on the Brazilian currency and inflation call. I still think their inflation will take off when oil recovers but the food angle might be A good idea.
charlie
OT grant systems & go to work welfare
One major impediment... is the grant system itself. It has become a sort of jobs program, a way to keep research laboratories going year after year with the understanding that the focus will be on small projects unlikely to take significant steps....
it should also be recognized that whether or not congress or a federal department intends this as a strategy, grant systems can become jobs programs within research institutions because many administrators, scientists, and support staff within the institutions guide the system to the result (i.e. there is a non-linear relationship). It's not just limited to healthcare research, e.g. look at the DOE national lab system and research related to nuclear waste or 'alternative' energy projects.
quiz: debt
[OT] HES (oil, brazil)
sorry for the delay in replying.
I'd say that the PR you referenced should not be used to infer that the Guarani well was 'dry'.
i believe that the Guarani well is only the 2nd well drilled in block BM-S-22. Exploration for reservoirs below salt and in such deep water is very difficult and so the uncertainties in interpretation of remote surveys are greater and consequently the liklihood that the first wells will not intersect hydrocarbons is greater. While a 'failure' at this stage might be expensive (this single project probably cost >> $100M), it's not necessarily terminal for prospective production in a particular block or even for the particular well. As the announcement states, they are drilling sidetracks from the original well and the additional costs of sidetracks is much lower than drilling new wells. Having said all that - I have no idea of whether the original well intersected hydrocarbons. I'd bet only the drilling, logging, and completion crews and the upper management of XOM, HES, and Petrobras know. The latter certainly won't spill the beans prematurely and the former tend to get fired and become un-employable when they spill the beans.
the latter comment gets to your 2nd question: Hackett almost certainly knew whether or not there were any problems with a project as large as Guarani. However, the definition of what constitutes a problem is subjective. If something had happened to the well making it un-enterable from the seafloor, then that would be a huge problem and as a CEO I might be a bit queezy. If the completion of the well to planned depth didn't initially intersect oil, I might be disappointed but drilling off this well is continuing so i wouldn't be looking to fire a bunch of project geophysicists.
regards,
Charlie
Dew,
As of late 2005 BM-S-22 was Hess's only Brazilian asset (they retained a 40% interest after selling the other 60% to xom & petrobras) but I think they have at least 2 others now (bm-es-20 bm-c-15). Look for info on wells Azulao & Guarani. They are continuing to explore the Santos & Esperito basin although they've cut their capex budget by ~35%. Petrobras recently announced a new shallow water oil discovery in a block that formerly belonged to Hess.
this may be useful
http://rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=76780
I dont know much about Hess or exploration efforts in Brazil and i have to be careful about what i say. The above is all public domain but hopefully it will be helpful.
regards,
Charlie
[OT] Natural-Gas Production Goes from Bust to Boom; Prices Plummet
apljack,
I don't know anything about the regulatory processes but it wouldn't surprise me if shale gas development in Arkansas (and some other states) is "relatively unregulated". That is undoubtedly part of the reason why there are so many 'mom & pop' service companies & operators in the shale gas business. The fouling of surface water is why the guy I mentioned earlier was paying $4/gallon for the water he was using in the fracturing process. But that was either PA or NY and the population density is sufficiently high in that area that regulations were already in place.
one of the things i do is try to find better (which includes environmentally more friendly) ways of developing these resources. CO2 is something that has been considered but it's not a panacea and it wouldn't stay in the ground in this case. Because most of it would be produced with the natural gas after stimulation it makes the natural gas unsaleable without separation and wellhead separation is currently impractical in most cases.
Before I forget again I'll take the opportunity to thank the folks on this board for sharing their knowledge. I don't get much opportunity to reciprocate.
cheers,
Charlie
OT] Re: Natural-Gas Production Goes from Bust to Boom
Granted that making synthetic oil from kerogen is uneconomic, but do you agree with the WSJ article I posted that mining natural gas from shale is a big deal?
yeah, gas shales are a huge deal. the wsj article was right on target. But just to be clear, oil shales and gas shales are very different beasts. Oil shales really aren't shales (they are mostly carbonate) and the organic matter in them is not 'mature' but when heated produces a high quality crude oil. Gas shales are composed of silicate clays with natural gas adsorbed on the mineral surfaces and in micropores. Fracture the shales to open the permeability and the gas desorbs. The process of fracturing and producing gas shales is primitive and cheap and the shales are extensive so there are a lot of 'mom and pop' companies involved. At the moment gas shale wells tend to produce at very high rates initially and then drop off very rapidly. That is a drawback that we non-mom and pop sorts are trying to fix and use as a means of getting back marketshare.
OT] Re: Natural-Gas Production Goes from Bust to Boom
re oil shales and water.
1. oil shale development is a long ways off even at $75/bbl. semi-wildass guess would be that we'd need sustained $120/bbl for oil companies to start doing more than treating it as a long term research project.
2. the water is to distribute heat into the oil shale. the organic material in the shale is mostly algal kerogen which if heated to about 300 C will quickly 'mature' into oil and gas, i.e. man could accomplish in months what would take nature millions of years. The useful characteristic of hot water or steam is that it has a higher heat capacity than many other cheap fluids. People are looking at other means of getting heat into the rock with a minimal number of holes, e.g. radio- or micro-wave heating, but those suck up a lot of power which is where alternative power sources such as wind come into play. That process would also generate water as the kerogen is decomposed and that would help distribute the heat and might also open up permeability but I have my doubts if that will be as effective or as cheap as injecting hot water.
Nature's cruel twist on the matter is that much of the rock within which the kerogen is interspersed has a high solubility in water (e.g. some of the mineral matter is baking soda). So if there was an abundant supply of water nearby and folks wouldnt get bent out of shape about environmental problems, then it might be possible to solution mine the oil shale. Unfortunately none of that is the case - at least at the moment.
[OT] Natural-Gas Production Goes from Bust to Boom; Prices Plummet
yeah, gas shales are not the most environmentally friendly gas sources. In order to produce the gas an enormous amount of water is pumped in to fracture the shale. Then the now contaminated water must be pumped out and disposed of. Unfortunately, as little as 20% of the water is recovered which causes other folks concern as to where it went. A drilling guy recently told me they were paying $4/gallon for water (that includes cost of treatment) for gas shale projects in western PA/NY. Those sorts of development costs put a basement on the NG price.