November Newsreel: Gazprom launches business in North America; Quanta acquires Price Gregory and more

Deal Completed For Underground Coal Gasification Project
GasTech, Inc. of Casper, WY has concluded the sale to Linc Energy, Brisbane, Australia, of coal leases containing 7 billion tons of deep Powder River Basin (PRB) coal. These PRB coals are the same beds being exploited in the world’s largest coal mines. Deep coals are the greatest fossil fuel resource in the world, with an energy content conservatively many times that of oil and gas, according to a news release from GasTech. At depths below 500 feet, PRB coals are uneconomic for conventional mining. However, the energy from these coals can be recovered using Underground Coal Gasification (UCG). Linc’s 7 billion tons of coal has the energy equivalent of more than 20 billion barrels of oil.

Big Labor Joins Push Alaska Gas Pipeline
The Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline project received a major boost last month at the AFLCIO convention in Pittsburgh, PA. Tagged as the "important project to our nation’s economic future," the project was endorsed in three resolutions unanimously passed by AFL-CIO convention delegates.
 
Vince Beltrami, president of the Alaska AFL-CIO, addressed the convention on the importance of this gas pipeline project to labor. “It would create tens of thousands of direct jobs and estimates exceeding 100,000 indirect jobs. From the engineering and manufacturing of pipe and other parts to the transportation, loading, shipping, and construction of the project and operations thereafter. So, as we adopt this resolution, I seek only to make this body aware of and hope to build support for the largest project in the country that moves us to a cleaner greener economy and puts thousands of our members to work.”

GTI Awarded Grants For California Energy R&D
Nearly $4 million was awarded by the California Energy Commission to Gas Technology Institute for projects designed to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions in residential homes.

"Over the years, GTI, along with our sponsors and partners, has continued to advance multiple types of high-efficiency, environmentally friendly furnaces, boilers and HVAC systems; water heaters; and cooking equipment into the marketplace," said Bill Liss, GTI’s Managing Director, End Use Solutions Center. "We also have a strong history of providing venting and code issue solutions for single- and multi-family homes."

Karen Douglas, Energy Commission Chairman, said "These two projects address several major California energy goals, including the reduction of carbon and an increase of energy efficient technologies decreasing the state’s dependence on fossil fuels.”

Through one award, GTI will manage a 30-month program which includes 15 partner organizations. GTI and its partners will ultimately provide design and installation guidance for high-efficiency radiant cooling and heating systems, and related improvements. The second research contract addresses energy and efficiency issues for water-heating systems.

"Natural gas water heating is used in over 80% of the 12.3 million California households, and consumes over 2.1 billion therms annually," said Doug Kosar, GTI’s Institute Engineer and program manager for the three-year project. "This program has the overall goal of significantly reducing residential water-heating energy consumption.”