Bush officials say they're concerned about natural gas shortages

[sabra]

http://www.klfy.com/global/story.asp?s=3843594&ClientType=Printable

Bush officials say they're concerned about natural gas shortages

BATON ROUGE, La. Senior Bush administration officials are worried about possible shortages of natural gas, and say that the region's production may not recover for months.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Interior Secretary Gail Norton are touring the Gulf Coast area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. They spoke as they flew to from Houston to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve's storage site at Bayou Choctaw, about 12 miles from Baton Rouge.

...

Bodman says authorities don't know as much about the damage to the natural gas supply system as they do about the effect on crude oil production. He says that in addition to possible pipeline damage, the hurricane also shut down gas processing facilities on-shore.

Norton says 90 percent of the Gulf oil platforms will be able to produce by the end of the monty, but damage to on-shore facilities is expected to keep oil production down.

[shoelace414]

1. I'm worried about it

but not overly, because I don't pay to heat this house I'm living in - Bush

[Eurobabe]

2. why ,oh why have we not impeached this incompetent

bastard and the misadministration YET!!!!????

This country is a mess.

[ewagner]

3. Natural gas-fired boiler

....getting worried...

so I just ordered two chords of dried hardwood for the winter....

the wood burner will keep the heat up for most of the house and minimize our reliance on natural gas .... like use it overnight only and heat by wood during the day.

hope it works...

[MadHound]

15. What kind of woodstove do you have?

There are a couple of things you can do to make it hold heat longer, and help keep the house warm at night.

If it is a double walled stove, remove the top and pour sand between the walls. It means that it will take a bit longer to warm things up of a morning, but it will hold heat very well at night.

Do you have a catalytic convertor on your stove pipe? If not, get one. Not only is it better for the enviroment, but it will also increase the heat that goes into your house, and not up the chimney.

[sunwyn]

4. I pay my heating bill...

and I am terribly worried. I work two jobs now just to pay for gasoline....this ridiculous.

[Heddi]

5. How...convenient

Gas prices were up during labour day and haven't gone back down

natural gas prices are higher BING! just in time for winter!!

Why, now would be SUCH an opportune..I mean CRITICAL time for the country to come together with regards to ANWAR drilling.

Surely that can't be a coincidence, could it? George has always been so forthright with us in the past...surely he's not using a national tragedy for legislative gain..... :eyes:

[gratuitous]

6. What, exactly, are they concerned about?

That they didn't get into natural gas futures early enough to make yet another financial killing off the misery of others?

[Brother Buzz]

18. That's the up side that they are smiling about...

but I wonder if they are a bit concerned about the unintended consequences of stalling this crappy economy even more with expensive energy. We will be looking at inflation in the ensuing months.

[amandabeech]

7. Natural gas was already tight even before this.

We are building more and more and bigger and bigger houses and heating them with natural gas. More people are switching from oil heat to heat and from electric water heating to gas.

On top of that, since the '90s, we have been using more and more natural gas for electrical generation. In some states almost half of the electricity is generated by gas. If my recollection is correct, California, Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Massachusetts use lots of gas fired power plants.

If the idiot chimp were a real, caring person, he'd be asking for conservation of all energy until all damage done to our oil & gas infrastructure by Katrina is repaired. Personally, I believe that we need to do this indefinitely due to peak oil and the limited natural gas supplies in North America.

In addition, * should make money available for winterproofing and for heating subsidies so that no one is cold this winter. And the energy bill should be repealed immediately and replaced with something that will encourage the maximization of renewables and encourage the development of any technologies that can allow us to use what energy we have in as efficient a method as possible.

[Strelnikov_]

14. Are We Really Going To Run Out In 9.5 Years?

I was reading an article that stated that we would be out of domestic natural gas in 9 years. So I went over to EIA and came up with the following numbers.

Have I made a mistake, or should I go put a down payment on my 'Unibomber' cabin today.

And how do they think LNG can even come close to taking up the slack? Using figures from the following article (3.3 BCF/ship, 50 day cycle), we would need 8,300 LNG shipments per year, with a fleet of 1,140 ships, just to satisfy 2003 consumption levels.

Sure, there is a huge amount of gas reserves in other parts of the world, but assuming this level of imports to 'secure' our energy future is folly.

If this is the plan, I'm starting to feel like one of those people in the Superdome about Monday evening.

Dry natural gas reserves/production/consumption:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gas.html

All 2003 data

Dry Gas Reserves TCF

US 189.04
CAN 56.57
MEX 14.86
260.47 TCF

Dry Gas Production TCF

US 19.04
CAN 6.45
MEX 1.49
26.98 + 0.51 TCF LNG Imports = 27.49 TCF

Dry Gas Consumption TCF

US 22.38
CAN 3.21
MEX 1.82
27.41 TCF

260.47 / 27.41 ~ 9.5 years


Dry natural gas: Natural gas which remains after: 1) the liquefiable hydrocarbon portion has been removed from the gas stream (i.e., gas after lease, field, and/or plant separation); and 2) any volumes of nonhydrocarbon gases have been removed where they occur in sufficient quantity to render the gas unmarketable. Note: Dry natural gas is also known as consumer-grade natural gas. The parameters for measurement are cubic feet at 60 degrees Fahrenheit and 14.73 pounds per square inch absolute.

Info on LNG shipping.

http://www.energybulletin.net/5517.html

[Blue Diadem]

8. Uhhh.. my bill was already showing a drastic increase

before the hurricane. I get my new budget figure every August and it already went up $720 a yr.

So with shortages..

Time for some type of supplemental heating.

[Strelnikov_]

9. Another Related Article

It appears that the onshore damage to support facilities is extensive. From articles I am seeing, most facilities in St. Bernard Parish are heavily damaged.

This article also alludes to the fact that they have not really assessed the undersea (pipeline) damage yet.

What is the saying about having all your eggs in one basket . . .


Crucial Energy Outposts Struggle To Increase Load
Houston Chronicle
Sept. 13, 2005

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/energy/3351294

On Monday, 57 percent of the Gulf's oil production and 38 percent of its natural gas production remained off line, only a slight improvement over Friday's production numbers. Those totals are unlikely to improve until companies can fully assess the pipeline damage and send out repair crews.

. . .

Using tankers to shuttle oil to shore could be a challenge because most Gulf oil fields also produce gas. Since gas cannot be moved easily by tanker, it would need to be flared, or burned off. Natural gas flares have been outlawed in the Gulf for years, however, and while the government has waived a number of laws after Katrina to make the flow of oil and refined gasoline easier, this seems like one law unlikely to be waived.

"A temporary pipeline seems like wishful thinking, too," Kim said. "The work force to lay down new pipe just doesn't exist given all the work that needs to be done on current repairs and assessment."

[olddad56]

10. They are only concerned about their ability to create a shortage.

[freestyle]

11. So, we'll all get help with insulation, efficient appliances, etc.

A responsible government would be doing all it could right now to help people replace old windows and doors, better insulate roofs, wrap water heaters, replace inefficient furnaces, etc. It would also be prepared to assist people who still might not be able to afford to heat their homes after all of that. It would also press industries that use natural gas as an input to be more efficient, especially electricity generation, or seek alternatives where possible. It might even ramp up collection from a vastly untapped source of natural gas, which is landfills.

But, we don't have a responsible government so many will struggle and some will die because they could no longer manage the choices between food, rent, medicine, or heat.

[ramapo]

12. If people had only listened to Jimmy Carter

I hate to always bring this up but having watched 25+ years squandered by a greedy and lazy majority that just figured that it was entitled to all the gas and oil it wanted forever, much of today's budding energy crisis could've been avoided.

[NYC]

19. I frequently think of Jimmy Carter.

I remember him wearing sweaters.

[leftylady]

13. Why? Are their prices falling?

That is the only thing I could imagine them being upset about.

[buzzsaw_23]

16. kick n/t

[genieroze]

17. Coming to a hell house just in time for winter.

[ladylibertee]

20. Heat/Gas is included in my rent, but I can certainly understand the

frustration that some of you are feeling.Especially those of you who live in parts of the Midwest where it gets like 50 BELOW in the winter.DUMBO has really screwed up and I agree, he has got to go.

[Supersedeas]

21. the problem solving Admin is talking and tell us of their 'concerns'

[Demeter]

22. So, BushCo Will Do Everything In Its Power To Ensure Shortages!

Isn't that the way these things go?