The Ruby Pipeline is now carrying natural gas from the Rockies to Oregon — but since El Paso Corp. started the $3.7 billion project in 2008 the story of natural gas in the mountain states has dramatically changed. In 2008, natural-gas prices were soaring, reaching $13.55 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Operators had few ways of shipping gas out of the Rocky Mountain region. When the Ruby Pipeline opened on July 28, the price of natural gas was $4.24 and two other new lines were in service — the Rockies Express, carrying gas to the East, and the Bison, taking gas to the Midwest. "Ruby was built for a different era," said John Harpole, president of Mercator Energy LLC, a Littleton- based natural-gas broker. El Paso officials, producers and some analysts say the 680-mile pipeline from Opal, Wyo., to Malin, Ore., will over time provide new markets for the Rockies. "We see a long-term need for Ruby," said Richard Wheatley, a spokesman for Houston-based El Paso. Even now El Paso has contracts — in five- to 15-year durations — that will fill about 73 percent of the pipeline's 1.5 billion cubic feet capacity, Wheatley said...
more
1 comment:
The unwritten part of the problem continues to be the regulatory resistance to anything that might mean production in this country. When it takes 12-15 years to get the necessary permits to put in an oil well or pipeline, then you can bet time will have changed by the time you are ready to put jobs to work.
Post a Comment