Today in CCS

Business Green (blog)
Carbon storage database launched for CCS developers
Business Green (blog)
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) developers can now access "world leading" information on how much captured CO2 geological sites around the UK could potentially hold. The new CO2 Stored website, launched today by The Crown Estate and the British ...

Carbon Capture 'Vital' to Meet Climate Goals, Shell Adviser Says
Bloomberg
Carbon capture and storage, a way of cutting emissions from industry by burying them underground, needs more state support for the European Union to meet clean-energy goals, a Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) adviser said. “We've got to be clear that the ...

and more »

Hiring managers in the oil and gas industry plan to boost hiring in the second half of 2013 in the U.S., according to a national survey conducted by Rigzone, the leading online resource for oil and gas information, data and talent recruitment.

Citing current market or economic conditions, nearly half of U.S.-focused hiring managers (48%) plan to boost hiring in the next six months.  That compares to just eight percent of respondents who had a less favorable view of the market sparking a decrease in their hiring plans.

“The results are encouraging for oil and gas professionals who’ve seen new jobs created in the first part of the year, but at a slower pace than we’ve enjoyed in the past few years.  While the overall hiring environment may be described as tempered, ratchet that description up several notches to flat-out, unbridled optimism for engineers,” said Paul Caplan, President of Rigzone.

Top 10 Most Wanted

Engineering positions dominate the list of new positions hiring managers are planning to recruit for in the second half of this year.  The top ten positions are:

• Mechanical Engineers
• Design Engineers
• Petroleum Engineers
• Electrical Engineers
• Reservoir Engineers
• Pipeline Engineers
• Health, Safety & Environment Managers
• Finance & Accounting talent
• Production Engineers
• Process Engineers

Tighter Market, Tougher Talent

Nearly half of hiring managers (48%) said they are not seeing an increase in the number of candidates applying for positions, as compared to six months ago.  At the same time, professionals who are interested in new positions are upping their demands.  More than half (54%) of hiring managers and recruiters said candidates are asking for more money than they were just six months ago.

Companies are balancing the need to attract and retain talent.  On the question of counteroffers, hiring managers were nearly split, with 39 percent saying – yes – they are seeing or making more counter offers than six months ago and 40 percent stating that is not the case.

More than half (55%) of hiring managers and recruiters said they anticipate a shift to more full-time employment in 2013, as compared to 2012.  That compares to 34 percent of respondents who intend to hire more contractors, 26 percent who plan to utilize staffing more, and 21 percent who anticipate a hiring increase for rotational workers.  However, there are more hiring managers (18%) who expect to hire fewer part-time workers in 2013, which outstrips the 15 percent of respondents who anticipated hiring more part-time staff.

One-third (33%) of managers said the length of time to fill open positions has increased relative to last year. Those who saw the time it takes to fill open positions lengthened attributed the wait to a lack of available talent, with 71 percent citing an inability to find qualified professionals. Less than a quarter (22%) of hiring managers and recruiters said the time it takes to fill open positions is shortening,  primarily attributing the decrease to companies recruiting for new positions.

About the survey

From May 21 to May 24, 2013 Rigzone surveyed hiring managers and recruiters who primarily recruit for U.S. energy professionals.  Covering upstream, midstream, downstream, corporate and college recruiting, 183 responded to the survey, with 30 percent representing companies that have more than 5,000 employees.

Contact: www.rigzone.com

The post Oil and Gas Recruiters See More U.S. Job Creation Ahead in 2013 appeared first on Colorado Energy News.

For the second time since 2006, global investments in renewable energy  in 2012 failed to top the year before, falling 12 percent due to dramatically lower solar prices and weakened U.S. and E.U. markets.

However, 2012 was the second highest year ever for renewable energy investments, which total $1.3 trillion since 2006, according to Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2013; and the REN21 Renewables 2013 Global Status reports.

The reports noted that there was a continuing upward trend in developing countries in 2012, with investments in the South topping $112 billion vs $132 billon in developed countries — a dramatic change from 2007, when developed economies invested 2.5 times more in renewables (excluding large hydro) than developing countries, a gap that has closed to just 18 percent.

The 2012 global investment total for renewable energy (including small hydro-electric projects) was $244 billion. In previous years, global investments totaled $279 billion (2011), $227 billion (2010), $168 billion (2009), $172 billion (2008), $146 billion (2007) and $100 billion (2006). MORE …

The post Global Investments in Renewable Energy Drops by 12%
in 2012 – Report appeared first on Colorado Energy News.

What Carbon Capture Can't Do
MIT Technology Review
All of these improvements shouldn't obscure the fact that the potential of carbon capture is limited. Carbon capture and storage will never be able to accommodate all of the carbon dioxide we emit now. And quite frankly, carbon capture would have ...

Management appointments for carbon capture business
Gasworld.com
Carbon capture and sequestration via EOR is currently the only oil-recovery technique that results in secure geologic storage of carbon dioxide. Injection of captured CO2 for EOR reduces CO2 emissions to the atmosphere while increasing available oil ...

At the urging of conservation groups, USFS reverses course on drilling permit in critical big game habitat near the headwaters of the north fork of the Gunnison River

PAONIA, CO – The U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Paonia Ranger District announced this week that it is withdrawing its decision to approve an oil and gas drilling permit in the Gunnison National Forest. The Western Environmental Law Center submitted an administrative appeal on behalf of Citizens for a Healthy Community challenging the drilling approval because USFS failed to complete the legally mandated site-specific environmental analysis of drilling impacts.

The agency sought to approve the drilling request through a categorical exclusion, claiming that the site-specific environmental analysis had already been completed for the area. However, closer examination of the agency’s decision revealed that no such analysis had ever been performed, and that the project USFS was basing its decision upon was itself approved through a categorical exclusion – meaning that development would occur without ever evaluating the impacts of the proposed drilling on important wildlife habitat and water resources in Colorado’s North Fork Valley.

“Public lands managers need to take a hard look at the negative impacts of drilling our forests,” said Jim Ramey, Director of Citizens for a Healthy Community. “We appreciate that the Forest Service is not moving forward with this proposal under a process that fails to evaluate environmental impacts.”

“Although this proposal didn’t involve a huge number of acres, it would have set a bad precedent for the manner in which federal agencies manage and approve oil and gas development on our public lands,” explained WELC attorney, Kyle Tisdel. “Failing to provide any site-specific analysis of an oil and gas development is legally indefensible, and the Forest Service correctly recognized this failure in withdrawing its approval.”

The proposed well pad is located in the Gunnison National Forest near County Road 265 (Collbran Rd.) and is located in an elk winter concentration area. USFS has not announced its plans to proceed with the drilling request.

The post U.S. Forest Service Withdraws Drilling Approval in Gunnison National Forest appeared first on Colorado Energy News.

Like a fresh wind setting in motion the blades of a giant turbine, a new idea for encouraging the development of clean energy has blown into the U.S. Congress.

It is to allow renewable-energy companies to form master limited partnerships, a business structure that has long worked to attract investment capital to the oil and gas industry. Legislation in the Senate has support from Republicans and Democrats alike, not to mention the White House. We think it’s a neat idea, too.

A master limited partnership offers the tax advantages of a partnership (the partners pay the taxes, not the corporation) even as its shares are publicly traded like ordinary corporate stock. The limited partners receive quarterly dividends, and these are typically higher than those paid to corporate shareholders because the business itself pays no taxes.

This means the company can raise money from small investors at relatively low cost. Master limited partnerships would open a huge new pool of affordable capital for renewable energy, an industry that needs a lot of upfront investment and takes years to bring a big return. MORE …

The post Is This the New Model for Clean Energy Investment? appeared first on Colorado Energy News.

Research and Markets: Carbon Capture and Storage: CCS Moves Ahead ...
Wall Street Journal
This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Carbon Capture and Storage in Million Tonnes. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, and Rest of World. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2011 through ...

Carbon Capture and Storage: One Approach for Managing Greenhouse Emissions
EON: Enhanced Online News (press release)
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Carbon capture and storage (CCS) could offer a means to allow the continued use of the world's abundant hydrocarbon resources in a carbon constrained environment, Sherri K. Stuewer, ...

Summit Power Expands Carbon Capture Business Unit with Two New Executives
Environmental Expert (press release)
By geologically sequestering captured CO2 from power plants in oilfields that can use the CO2 to enhance production, we can gain a revenue contribution from oil that helps make possible CO2 capture, carbon sequestration, and ultra-low carbon electric ...

Research and Markets: Carbon Capture and Storage: CCS Moves Ahead ...
Business Wire (press release)
This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Carbon Capture and Storage in Million Tonnes. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, and Rest of World. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2011 through ...

and more »

Carbon capture budget cut
Collie Mail
The project would capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial plants and store them three kilometres under the ground. Mrs Marino said independent researchers had reported that carbon capture and storage was not yet commercially viable.

The findings of the report from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and specifically Jim Milne, the agency’s environmental manager, were reviewed by COGCC at its last meeting. Sixty-six of the the incidents required ground or surface water remediation measures.

The 2012 total is the fourth-highest in the last decade.
The highest was 527, reported in 2011. Back in 2008, at the peak of the natural gas drilling surge, 430 spills were reported from roughly 34,000 active wells. With the Niobrara shale oil leading the surge, Colorado’s active well count now exceeds 50,000.

The report showed 399 spills were documented last year, including 375 reported by the industry, 17 resulting from commission inspections and six resulting from landowner complaints.

Sixty-three had groundwater impacts, and 22 impacted surface water, although Milne clarified that the latter figure includes spills into dry as well as wet drainages. No water wells were affected.

Contaminated soil had to be excavated in 94 cases during the year, with 32 more cases requiring further soil remediation work. In 142 cases, the spilled fluids were recovered and no soil impacts occurred. Further research is needed to categorize several dozen spills.

Equipment failure was responsible for more than half of last year’s spills. 65 were the result of human error, and 62 were historical, which means these were old leaks discovered during current operations.

More data: 17 spill incidents were caused by pit closures, three by pit leaks and two by lightning. 18 resulted from other causes.

Of the spills, 110 involved oil/condensate, 123 produced water, and 75 a combination of those categories. Thirty-nine spills involved drilling mud, four cases involved flowback fluids from wells, and the fluids in 30 cases are unknown.

The spill amounts for oil/condensate ranged from less than a gallon to 398 barrels (a barrel contains 42 gallons). The produced-water spills ranged from one to 900 barrels, with the largest involving a pit leak in Las Animas County.

Spills by regions or counties is not broken out, however, the COGCC website shows that last year 30 spills were reported in Garfield County, 24 in Rio Blanco County, six in Mesa County and four in Gunnison County.

Milne said the data suggests that “perhaps some of these are preventable,” as in human-caused incidents, and Oil and Gas Conservation Commission staff will look at whether it can convey things it has learned to companies to help prevent spills.

One important point that Milne said the commission understand better — viewing a spill from an aerial position doesn’t correspond how serious it can be. A spill on a well pad or compact surface can spread far laterally but not infiltrate into the subsurface, where responding to it can be more difficult. “If they can see it on the surface it’s a lot easier to deal with quickly,” he said.

A recent and well publicized example of this is the the Williams natural gas liquids spill near Parachute Creek. It did not spread far on the surface but traveled hundreds of feet in groundwater. That spill, which is believed to have begun in December but wasn’t discovered until this year, ultimately was determined to be outside the commission’s jurisdiction.

 

The post Colorado Had 400 Oil, Gas Spills in 2012, According to Report appeared first on Colorado Energy News.

Sydney's carbon-capturing ability being studied
Cape Breton Post
Sydney's carbon-capturing ability being studied. Carl Poirier, president and chief executive officer of Carbon Capture and Storage Research Consortium of Nova Scotia, discusses the project at the Glace Bay Miners' Museum on Tuesday. Erin Pottie - Cape ...

Summit Power Expands Carbon Capture Business Unit with Two New Executives
Sacramento Bee
By geologically sequestering captured CO2 from power plants in oilfields that can use the CO2 to enhance production, we can gain a revenue contribution from oil that helps make possible CO2 capture, carbon sequestration, and ultra-low carbon electric ...

and more »

Summit Power Expands Carbon Capture Business Unit with Two New Executives
PR Newswire (press release)
By geologically sequestering captured CO2 from power plants in oilfields that can use the CO2 to enhance production, we can gain a revenue contribution from oil that helps make possible CO2 capture, carbon sequestration, and ultra-low carbon electric ...

and more »

Cape Breton Post
Company to look at possibility of carbon capture and storage in CB
globalnews.ca
SYDNEY, N.S. – A group in Nova Scotia is conducting geological research in the hope of one day storing carbon dioxide emissions more than a kilometre underground in the Sydney area. The Carbon Capture and Storage Research Consortium of Nova ...
Sydney's carbon-capturing ability being studiedCape Breton Post

all 1 news articles »

Sydney's carbon-capturing ability being studied
Cape Breton Post
Sydney's carbon-capturing ability being studied. Carl Poirier, president and chief executive officer of Carbon Capture and Storage Research Consortium of Nova Scotia, discusses the project at the Glace Bay Miners' Museum on Tuesday. Erin Pottie - Cape ...

Colorado is on the way to more renewable energy, but that ride is fueling a storm of controversy from groups in the state.

By James Maynard, iTech Post

John Hickenlooper, governor of Colorado, signed the Renewable Energy Standard Retail Wholesale Methane Act, SB13-252, into law June 5. This bill mandates that some electrical producers in the state, mostly in rural areas, produce 20 percent of their energy supplies from renewable sources by 2020.

Since that time, a storm of controversy, which had already been brewing, has boiled over concerning the mandate. The battle over renewable energy in Colorado has been a long-fought one. The Sierra Club organized 2,500 people to support the bill, helping to get the measure passed into law.

“Opponents spent millions of dollars to spread misinformation about renewable energy. You may have heard the negative TV and radio ads; but in the end, they weren’t enough. Coloradans want more clean energy and this bill is a step in that direction,” Anna Zawisza, programs director for the Alliance for Sustainable Colorad0, said.

Groups opposed to the new law believe that the new measure imposes a double standard on electric producers in rural and urban areas. While electrical production in the countryside would be subject to the new 20 percent standard, urban energy manufacturers would be allowed to remain at the current 10 percent mark for renewables.

“Now we’re changing the standard on them, we’re changing the rules mid-stream and that’s not fair,” Mark Waller, Republican House Minority Leader from Colorado, said.

While supporters of the new law claim that the mandates will encourage growth of wind and solar farms in rural areas, boasting employment in those areas, others disagree. A report by Management Information Services, a Washington think tank, estimated the move would cost between two and four billion dollars to implement. The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado calculates that costs for retail customers will only increase an average of two dollars a month.

John Salazar, the state’s commissioner of Agriculture, delivered a letter to the governor, signed by several agricultural groups around Colorado, expressing concerns that the mandate will raise the price of food.

The new law also defines wind and solar power as renewable energy, but not hydroelectric power, which is used more often in rural areas.

The post Colorado Energy Bill Fuels Storm of Controversy appeared first on Colorado Energy News.