Where on Earth is Our Propane Going?

The natural gas export debate remains pretty heated, especially with new export facilities being approved at a more rapid pace. At the same time, propane exports continue to slip out of the country with little fanfare. Where is all the propane going?

 

 

America is the propane export king
The U.S. is currently the world's top exporter of propane. It has surged past Middle Eastern rivals such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to take the top spot at more than 70 million barrels. That's well ahead of last year's more than 55 million barrels.

The company leading this surge is Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD ) . The midstream operator alone has exported nearly 60 million barrels of propane this year. It's not content with the status quo, either, continuing to ramp up export capacity and recently announcing another expansion at its LPG export facility in the Houston Ship Channel. The project, which won't be complete until 2015, adds another 1.5 million barrels per month of propane export capacity.

What's key here is that without Enterprise's export capacity, U.S. natural gas producers would be in trouble. As the following chart shows, without exports last year the U.S. would be significantly oversupplied with propane. Read more here.

AutoGas is Gaining Traction: Government Fleets

Law enforcement fleets, including police, security, and traffic enforcement vehicles, require a versatile, reliable fuel. Propane can meet the performance needs of high-mileage, high-runtime vehicles that range from large, powerful police cruisers to smaller, more maneuverable scooters. Law enforcement agencies, which often custom-order vehicles, can request dedicated propane vehicles or propane bi-fuel vehicles as part of their ordering process. Law enforcement fleet operations are also conducive to centralized propane refueling. Read more here.

Autoline to feature propane expert panel

This Saturday, the Autoline TV show will begin airing an expert panel on autogas use by fleets, featuring Denis Gallagher, CEO of Student Transportation of America, Abe Stephenson of Dish Network, and Edgar Benning of the Flint transit agency. Autoline is broadcast on PBS stations, and this show will be posted to its website on September 21.

The Schwan Food Company: A propane proponent for over 40 years

See the S2G at ICUEE!

Visit our partner, Freightliner Custom Chassis in booth N3106 at the ICUEE Expo in Louisville, to see the all new, propane S2G on display!

Report: Natural gas boom should last decades

A new report outlines that the huge economic benefits from America's natural gas boom should last several decades, and Louisiana, already benefiting, could see tens of millions of dollars and thousands of new jobs by 2025.

It's being called America's New Energy Future, shifting global competitiveness to the United States for manufacturing.

Natural gas liquids are a byproduct used in chemical production. Robust supplies of them, especially ethane will keep prices low, and drive more manufacturing back to the U.S. according to this new report from IHS, a global information company.

"It's a great opportunity for Louisiana, and for the country as a whole," says Martha Moore, senior director for policy and economics at the American Chemistry Council.  "Louisiana is already the second largest chemistry producing state with over $68 billion in output and we do anticipate that will grow substantially as these investments come on line."

The IHS report says there will be $100 billion in new investments producing over 300,000 new jobs nationally in the next twelve years. Read more here.

Adapting fuel cards to the alternative-fuel world

As natural gas and other alternative fuels begin to get a more in-depth look from the trucking industry, fuel card programs are being adapted to handle them as well, according to interviews with both fleet operators and fuel card providers.

“We are currently used by fleets to purchase many types of alternative fuels such as LNG [liquefied natural gas], CNG [compressed natural gas], propane, even for DEF [diesel exhaust fluid],” Randy Morgan, executive vp-- fleet for Comdata, told Fleet Owner.

“Our philosophy is that it doesn’t matter where the fleet purchases fuel – retail, mobile re-fuelers, or at their own terminals – or what type of fuel they purchase, be it gasoline, diesel, CNG, LNG, or propane,” he added. “We have a comprehensive solution allowing them to account for all fuel spend with one system and one card.” Read more here.

CFUSA Featured in African Mining Brief

Mines require various types of fuels, oils and lubricants in order to run machinery and equipment and the complexity of trying to monitor and control its dispensation has given rise to modern fuel management systems. Gone are the days of a padlock, pencil and clip boards to do this job in favour of more efficient and timely processes.

The price of commodities has seen a steady rise over the years and this has added to the demand for better systems in order to improve the management of fuels. Enter the Fluid Automated Management Solution. A good fuel management system should automate the fuel dispensing operation in an organization, reducing fuel loss and the operational and administrative workload. Read more here.

7 Alternative Fueling Infrastructure Pitfalls and How Propane Can Help

It’s no secret that about the only thing you can count on in the fleet management business is that hard costs will continue to rise, and the price of conventional fuels has not been exempt. It’s one of the many reasons fleets across the country are transitioning to alternative fuels to reduce operating costs and capital expenses while stretching their budget dollars.

However, despite the per-gallon savings a fleet might enjoy with alternative fuel, a lot of fleet professionals know the real cost of alternative fuels goes well beyond that.

In order to plan and implement a successful alternative fuel program, fleet managers must evaluate their fuel options based on total cost of ownership. A mistake fleet managers make time and time again is failing to plan for the total infrastructure ownership costs — including installation time. Without proper planning and preparation, the following infrastructure pitfalls can make or break your program’s success.
Pitfall #1: Shy Away from Tough Questions

No matter the fuel, most salespeople will tell you the upfront infrastructure investment “pays for itself.” But payback can be defined broadly. It is critical that going in, you define the payback period that is acceptable for your company. Next, ask the tough questions about the true initial cost of the infrastructure and factor into your ROI calculations.

When you perform a true apples-to-apples comparison, propane autogas beats the competition on a regular basis. In fact, for the price of installing just one CNG station, you can install an average of 15 or more propane autogas refueling stations for the same investment. Read more here.

Natural gas liquids are a rising star in the oil patch

Worldwide production of natural gas liquids is soaring — fueled largely by the U.S. drilling boom — and that rapid rise will alter the global energy market for at least a decade, analysts say.

Global production of natural gas liquids will grow from more than 26 million barrels a day currently to nearly 30 million barrels a day by 2023, according to research firm ESAI Energy. Natural gas liquids — such as ethane, propane and butane — are natural gas derivatives used as fuel and petrochemical feedstocks.

“It is clear that natural gas liquids are a rising star in the oil patch,” ESAI Energy wrote in an analysis Friday, noting that the growing abundance gives petrochemical companies more options for competitively priced fuels to use as feedstock.

In the last five years, U.S. production of natural gas liquids has increased from 500,000 barrels per day to more than 1.8 million barrels per day, as shale gas and tight oil exploration continues, according to a IHS report released earlier this week. Read more here.

Denver Says 'No' To Natural Gas Buses: Why?

The Regional Transportation District (RTD), the public transit agency serving greater Denver, needed dozens of new full-size buses. The behemoths that were in service at RTD, comprising North American Bus Industries' (NABI) 9100 models, were getting tired. Most had logged hundreds of thousands of miles over a dozen years on the road. It was time to look at replacing part of the fleet.

So, in February, RTD sent out a request for proposals for 52 60-foot, low-floor articulated buses. The agency was welcoming proposals for all technologies - not just diesel, but also hybrid-electric, all-electric and compressed natural gas (CNG) units.

The fuel savings that fleets can reap from switching to CNG are well-documented and often profound. This summer alone, a number of public transit fleets announced large deployments of CNG-powered buses, with Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, the Utah Transit Authority and Miami-Dade Transit among them. And fleets such as L.A. Metro already have thousands of natural gas buses in service.

In Denver, proposals for CNG buses came from two OEMs - New Flyer Industries Inc. and NABI. The price disparity between diesel- and CNG-powered vehicles was not otherworldly: an 8.5% incremental cost over diesel for NABI's natural gas bus, and a 9.7% premium for New Flyer's CNG-powered unit.

Considering transit buses' high fuel consumption, and that most organizations that are running natural gas buses realize a fuel-cost savings of 50% or more over diesel, it would seem like CNG had a solid chance of being the next fuel of choice in Denver.

It was not to be.

In late August, RTD's board of directors voted unanimously to accept a proposal from New Flyer for 52 diesel-powered 60-footers.

With so many public transit agencies launching CNG initiatives lately, and with such upside in terms of fuel cost, why did RTD balk at natural gas?

First of all, it isn't always about fuel cost - it is often a matter of what level of resources must be expended to make fuel readily available. Clean Energy Fuels worked with RTD to arrive at estimates for how much it would cost to build adequate CNG refueling capacity and infrastructure at two RTD sites.

The initial figure was $3.54 million per location - certainly a sizable sum for most organizations in the public sector today. Read more here.