The launch of a startup company on Grand Cayman breaks a 60-year propane monopoly on the Caribbean isle. With phase one construction complete, Clean Gas Ltd. received its license to sell from the Utility Regulation and Competition Office in March, one of the final hurdles for pushing a head-to-head rivalry with the British overseas territory’s only other propane provider. “Cayman is a unique market where a single propane company has enjoyed 60 years of unencumbered bliss by being the only propane marketer in the Cayman Islands,” says operations manager Dayne Brady. “A group of born and raised Caymanian investors has taken on the challenge of trying to reduce the cost of living in Cayman by creating competition in the market, and it is working. Before...

(March 19, 2018) — It’s a safe bet that bulk plants were churning faster this past winter compared to the previous two, even absent a stinging Polar Vortex. But there was a new and widely reported storm phenomenon moniker — a bomb cyclone that unleashed freezing blizzard conditions across wide areas. Overall, more sustained wintry cold meant trucks had to roll. Two transportation companies wheeling to meet ramped-up demand were Etchberger Trucking Inc. of Freeport, Ill. and C Three Logistics LLC of Newfield, N.J., both headed by customer-focused, next-generation owners. Kris Etchberger of Etchberger Trucking and Henry Papiano of C Three Logistics founded their common carrier operations in recent years, following their fathers into the industry after previously working in the family businesses. Etchberger observes that this...

As a startup in 1977, DCC LPG launched Flogas with a single truck near Dublin, Ireland. The company, a business unit of the Dublin-based international sales, marketing, and support services group DCC Plc, has since grown to be one of the largest suppliers in Europe with operations in eight countries, soon to be 10. In April 2017 it expanded into Asia with the acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell’s LPG distribution business in Hong Kong and Macau. That deal closed in January 2018. And in March 2018 it arrives on these shores following the sealing of a transaction to buy a significant portion of NGL Energy Partners’ (Tulsa) retail propane business for $200 million in cash. That 10-state, midcontinent and western tranche includes NGL Energy’s flagship...

(February 14, 2018) — Environs about Janesville, Wis. aren’t just the end of the propane pipeline anymore thanks to Mike Turner of Kansas City, Mo.-based Alliance Energy Services. No more drip, drip, drip out the terminus. There’s now rail and storage in Waupaca, Wis., 73 miles southwest of Green Bay, thanks to Turner’s eye for an opportunity to bolster infrastructure and better serve customers. Unfortunately, notes Mike Summers, director of marketing at Alliance, Turner, a longtime sales representative and acquisitions manager, passed away in February 2017 prior to the project’s completion, the victim of a vehicular accident. The Waupaca terminal is unofficially known at Alliance Energy as the Mike Turner Memorial Terminal, and it opened in time for the winter heating season service last October....

(September 28, 2017) — For more than 20 years the LPG Charity Fund has assisted members of the LPG and gas processing industries when they faced catastrophic medical expenses and financial need, including assistance with temporary living and funeral expenses. The fund has dispersed about $1.4 million to help meet extraordinary expenses and more than $1.7 million has been raised to assist those in dire financial need. More than 55 individuals have been helped. The fund, staffed exclusively by volunteers, is reaching out to the propane industry, and others, to get the word out that its financial resources are available. David Herr, president of the board of trustees, outlines that the mission of the LPG Charity Fund since its founding has been to help LPG...

(June 12, 2017) — Multiple whirling masses of frigid air — polar vortexes — brought bone-chilling cold to large swaths of the nation the winter of 2013-2014, driving heating degree days, or HDDs, to unaccustomed heights. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data, the U.S. experienced 1045 gas home customer-weighted HDDs in January 2014, 55 more than the long-term average. There were 1258 HDDs in New England, 1283 in the Mid-Atlantic, and 1489 in the east-north-central region. Of the nine regions monitored by NOAA, only the Mountain and Pacific areas recorded fewer HDDs in January than they did a year earlier or as measured by the long-term average. But over the past two heating seasons, polar vortexes, even sustained cold temperatures, faded from recollection. After laboring under...

The U.S. shale revolution has driven a need for increased infrastructure in areas where there was neither extensive crude oil nor natural gas production previously, observes Ajey Chandra, vice president of the global energy consulting firm Muse, Stancil & Co. (Dallas). The Northeast, namely, was historically a region that imported natural gas from producing regions — the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana. But exponential increases in Marcellus and Utica natural gas and natural gas liquids production drove a need for large infrastructure projects. And even with the downturn in crude oil prices since 2014, U.S. natural gas production has continued to increase. Forecasts call for output to rise above 30 Tcf in 2020 and reach 40 Tcf in 2035. At the same time, Marcellus gas production...

Groundbreaking private initiatives by energy exploration and production innovators have returned to America the gift of energy abundance and security — virtually overnight and in robust measure. Nevertheless, a focused and vocal cadre of environmental activists, climate disciples, elected officials, and political operatives reject the contribution, demonize it, and seek to nullify its rewards. That’s not only lamentable, observes A.J. (Jim) Teague, CEO of Enterprise Products Partners LP’s general partner, it’s “naïve and hypocritical” in light of the lifestyle benefits enjoyed as a result of oil and gas production, benefits most Americans would not willingly give up. Speaking at January’s Argus Americas LPG Summit in Houston, Teague said such anti-energy attitudes must be confronted. “Otherwise activists will press on. They will prevent pipelines from being built and...