What really happened?

We got our stove installed after propane hit over $5/gallon, thankfully our stove came with a 1/2 ton of Lumberjack pellets.

A lot of stoves got installed after the price of gas went past $3. $1500 can cover a lot of stove install. One friend had a tank fill of nearly 500 gallons at 3.29 and still using some electric. Woof. Still on the fill of propain of 200 gallons after three seasons. Used the propain stove on Christmas more for ambiance and pilot on for emergency power out.

When I was speaking to one of the sales reps for MWP he mentioned that there was a company at one of the mills in Maine this year that really didn't know what they were doing and put out an unusually low amount of tonnage. If I recall correctly he said the company was bought out by some new people who know what they're doing and that next year that Mill should be putting out much more product.

Maybe some of you have some insight into all of this?

I found this article from a Maine newspaper........

Corinth Pellets Mill Upgrade

Dana B said:

t next year that Mill should be putting out much more product.

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I'll say... according to the article they increased employees from 4 to 26 when they bought the place in December.

I had to pick up some bags yesterday to get me by while I wait for my next bulk delivery, and the guy said that another big issue with the mills in Maine is that they run out of bags every year. That surprised me, you would think that would be the least of their issues. Anywho, with 4 tons of storage capacity and bulk delivery service that is not a concern for me......

Bag shortage sounds like a very lame excuse. I worked at a packaging and printing company and turn around on orders was under a week. Maybe Maine has a border customs and entry fee tax for them to negotiate

The rest of the country thinks we're part of Canada, anyway, so you're probably right . At least they made it through the year without burning down this time.

Dana B said:

When I was speaking to one of the sales reps for MWP he mentioned that there was a company at one of the mills in Maine this year that really didn't know what they were doing and put out an unusually low amount of tonnage. If I recall correctly he said the company was bought out by some new people who know what they're doing and that next year that Mill should be putting out much more product.

Maybe some of you have some insight into all of this?

I found this article from a Maine newspaper........

Corinth Pellets Mill Upgrade

Click to expand...

They've been around since 2007. But like most mills have had fires and QQ issues. They seem to be selling to hardware stores more than anything atm.

No bag shortages here. I must say though, packaging is pretty expensive and is constantly going up in price.

Both crude and NG are up. The drought in vegetable growing region of SW is making a impact on grocery prices. Three weeks ago bought frozen peas and broccoli for less than a buck a pound and yesterday was on sale for $1.50 from the regular price of $2. February was almost lethal on the belt line. Going to have to expand the garden and start some seeds next month and get the rain collector going.

here is th thing that confuses the heck out of me about propane. all the shale gas comes up with propane and hexane. hexane is used to make plastics. i remember reading about a year ago about ho propane and haxane had gotten so cheap that some places were pumping it back into the wells becase selling it wasn't worth it. this to me means there was a massive over supply of both. did it take that much propane to dry out corn? seems odd. the article implied that consume prices should have plummeted,but instead they seem sky high. just seems odd that both ng and lp which we supposedly have a glut o due to fracking we have had supply shortages of and the prices have skyrocketed. i will have to find he aticle but i remember distinctly it talking about massive oversupply of hexane and propane due to fracking.

My Buddy owns a local Agway that sells pellets and said that part of the reason for the shortage is due to trucking (bad weather)

There was plenty of propain down in Texas but not where it was needed. From what I gather it sounds like it's shipped "just in time" to supply the end markets. But with farmers using 5 times the usual amount last fall and then the winter came on hard we were left short. Maybe if the had some huge tank farms that might help? The higher ups are saying they are going to take measures to make sure it doesn't happen again but I haven't heard any specifics. They'll prolly just fight as usual and nothing will get done...

daffonce said:

all the shale gas comes up with propane and hexane

Click to expand...

As I understand it, that shale gas is natural gas that has to be liquified for transport (LNG), and propane is a refined oil product (LP).
Almost interchangeable in performance, but completely different source.

HTH,
- Jeff

Corn around here was coming in at around 22 percent. Needs to be around 13 to keep in a bin. October started the below average temps. Havent heard anything to prevent the gas shortage. Will top off tank if I can get a fill agreement.

Wet shale wells produce natural gas (methane this is considered dry) and ngl (natural gas liquids not the same as lng liquified natural gas) ngl is composed of propane ethane (ths is used to make ur cross linked polyethylene like hdpe ldpe) and others. In 2012 while ng prices plummeted oil companies went for wet wells to capitalize on the high prices of ngl. That crashed the prices of propane and ethane. Guess they have moved on from that idea reducing the supplies of ngl and hence jacking up the price. In nd the shale oil wells there produce a lot of ngl and ng and they burn it all off as waste it isnt valuable enough to capture. Think it was enougb to heat up to a 100,000 homes for a year. Oil companies are fucked up.

What's really screwy is the government makes it near impossible for them to run a turbine and convert it to electricity.

those turbines kill a lot of birds. and the nimby crunchies think they are an eyesore.

daffonce said:

those turbines kill a lot of birds. and the nimby crunchies think they are an eyesore.

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Gas turbines, not the Chinese air beaters. The solar reflective arrays powering steam turbines in the desert are cooking birds. I've worked for a old design wind generation company and never seen any birds around towers. My living room window kills several birds a year though.

Ah gotcha now. No no the gas they are extracting and burning and capturing none of its potential you couldnt possibly make electricity from. Thatd be common sense so the govt forbids it. Just like all of the old dumps with open flamez burning off the vented methane what a waste. Common sense aint so common.