Free Republic

Whoever said the days of American manufacturing were over spoke too soon. America's manufacturing days may have stalled for a period, but they are far from over. I see many good days ahead for our nation and manufacturing, but it will take work and the cooperation of government and business to make it happen. Advances in shale development have changed the picture. Today, supplies of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquid (NGL) from shale, once thought unobtainable, have led to record-breaking volumes of fuel and raw materials that will rewrite our future. While attention has primarily focused on the...

Ethane in Mont Belvieu posted at 22.5 cnts/gal on Friday, continuing the NGL’s descent into the abyss that started mid-2012. The last time we saw ethane at this level was back in 2002. With natural gas prices hanging in there above $3.00/MMbtu, there is no doubt about it. We are deep into ethane rejection economics. Not just for the Conway market like we had last summer. But wide spread, across the board, knock-out-the-ethane style rejection, unlike anything we’ve seen in the last five years. In fact, this is something new. Impending widespread rejection in the world of shale…a world of...

OUSTON — U.S. oil and gas companies that have depended on natural gas liquids to lift profits may now have to rein in spending or sell some assets after the industry drilled its way into a glut of natural gas liquids. Prolonged low natural gas prices sent most of the exploration and production industry in search of gas that contains butane, propane and ethane — natural gas liquids (NGLs) that can be stripped out and sold for higher prices linked to a barrel of crude oil. But so much had been produced that ethane is not even worth selling in...

As we’ve noted previously, the shale gas production boom is helping lift chemical industry profits and paving the way for further U.S. chemical industry expansion. Another beneficiary of the gas production expansion is companies that process natural gas, which is often called fractionation. Natural gas usually needs to have impurities removed from it before shortly after it is produced from wells and can be moved via pipeline. This includes natural gas liquids such as propane, butane, pentane, hexane and heptane — which can be very valuable products themselves. Since many of the shale gas formations that are being tapped are...