mcarristo

A Delaware company announced Thursday it will invest $52 million in a truck-to-rail facility in Milan to help move oil from the Four Corners region to market.
NLG Energy Partners’ facility will create 62 jobs initially and another 50 or so within five years, according to the state Economic Development Department.
Most of the jobs will be New Mexico-based truck driving positions, and wages overall will average $92,000 a year plus benefits, said Angela Heisel, spokeswoman for the state Economic Development Department.
Cibola County will receive $1.2 million in Local Economic Development Act funds from the state to help with capital expenses on the project, Heisel said.
Oil trucked from the Four Corners area will be loaded into rail tankers at the facility, from which it can be shipped elsewhere.
Operations at the Milan truck offloading/rail loading facility are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2015.
“New Mexico is geographically positioned to become a leading logistics hub and we’d like to see this region replicate the success that’s taking place at our southern border with the location of Union Pacific there,” Gov. Susana Martinez said in announcing the facility.
Steve Henke, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said the difficulty of transporting increasing volumes of crude oil from a region of the state where the infrastructure is geared to natural gas means that producers have to discount that oil $10 to $12 per barrel to cover added transportation costs.
“Anything that will help reduce the cost of transporting that oil out of the San Juan Basin just aids in the economics of that production investment,” Henke said. “We’re certainly not talking the volumes (of crude oil) that are coming out of the Permian Basin, but again, to be able to help continue that growth in drilling and production in that Mancos Shale, we need to keep that cost on those margins as attractive as possible.”
Crude oil production in the San Juan Basin has doubled in the past three years.
Data compiled by the state Oil Conservation Division show more than 1.1 million barrels of crude were produced from northwestern New Mexico oil wells in 2012 and more than 2 million barrels produced in 2013.
The region is on track to top last year’s crude production in 2014 with nearly 2.1 million barrels produced between January and August this year, according to the OCD.
NGL Energy Partners is a Delaware-based business that serves the energy industry at various points throughout the supply chain.
The company owns a network of terminals, rail cars and other facilities.
By: Journal Staff (Albuquerque Journal)
Click here to view source article.

The Up Aerospace SpaceLoft8 rocket launces at the vertical launch site of Spaceport America on a suborbital mission on November 12, 2013.
LAS CRUCES — UP Aerospace is set for its next suborbital launch on Monday out of Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.
It will be UP’s first flight since last year, when it launched two rockets in summer and fall with more than a dozen payloads paid for by NASA under the agency’s Flight Opportunities Program. That initiative, launched in 2011, pays commercial aerospace companies for suborbital flights to test new technologies in space.
Monday’s flight will include four payloads that UP is now packaging and loading onto its rocket, company President and CEO Jerry Larson said earlier this week.
“This is our third mission for NASA,” Larson said. “All the payloads are here. We’ve been putting the vehicle together at the spaceport this week in final preparation for Monday’s flight.”
This is UP’s 13th launch from the spaceport since 2006, and the 21st time a rocket has flown from the facility since it began hosting vertical launch activities eight years ago, said Spaceport America Executive Director Christine Anderson.
“UP is a key player in NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program,” Anderson told the Journal during the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight, an annual, two-day event that the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium is hosting in Las Cruces this week. “We’re thrilled to have them flying here.”
UP is one of seven companies chosen in 2011 by NASA to fly payloads for the agency, and it’s one of only four companies the agency selected to continue managing flights in a new round of selections NASA announced in September.
That reflects the success of UP flights and their contributions to NASA’s space research and development efforts, said Paul De Leon, NASA’s Flight Opportunities manager for suborbital launches.
In fact, at least one of the payloads that UP flew last year — and that will fly a second time on Monday — will soon be headed to the International Space Station. It’s a device built by the engineering firm Control Dynamics Inc. that can isolate experiments from vibrations and other interference on rocket flights. That can help further lower microgravity levels for some experiments in space.
“Even though the Space Station is in orbit, some vibrations still happen that can impact experiments there,” De Leon said. “This device will reduce that.”
In general, NASA says the Flight Opportunities Program, which it launched as part of a shift to using private companies to continue space exploration after the space shuttle stopped flying, has successfully provided the agency with low-cost launch alternatives that allow it to mature new technologies.
Apart from the vibration-isolation device, for example, a 3D printer will also soon be placed on the Space Station after having been tested in a high-altitude balloon by Near Space Corp. of Oregon.
“The program is an effective means to an end for us to develop technologies for further missions in space,” Laguduva Kubendran, NASA Flight Opportunities Program executive, said Thursday in a presentation at the symposium. “We have some 140 payloads now in the pipeline to fly on commercial launches. We want to get to where we’re flying payloads through commercial companies at least every quarter, and eventually get to monthly and even weekly flights.”
UP was chosen to continue in the program given the company’s reliability, De Leon said.
“The relation with UP is very good,” he said. “They’re very detail-oriented, very reliable and all their flights have been a success.”
The contract extension announced in September could mean a lot more launches by UP out of Spaceport America. Under the initial NASA contract from 2011, UP was eligible to fly up to eight rockets with NASA payloads. The new contract extends that for another five years, with potentially more than a dozen launches.
“Under the new contract, we could earn up to $10 million,” Larson said. “This award is a lot more open-ended than the last one. We could fly as many as 15 missions.”
After Monday’s launch, two more UP flights are scheduled for next year, including one in summer and another in fall.
“We plan to stay at Spaceport America for all our launches,” Larson said. “Our operations here are working well. We want to continue flying from here for many years to come.”
By: Kevin Robinson-Avila (Albuquerque Journal)
Click here to view source article.

Bernalillo County has been awarded $8 million in federal funding to improve access to the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge in Albuquerque’s South Valley, according to a press release from Senator Martin Heinrich’s office.
Bernalillo County has been awarded $8 million in federal funding to improve access to the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge in Albuquerque’s South Valley, according to a press release from Senator Martin Heinrich‘s office.
The funding, awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Land Access Program (FLAP), will be used to provide roadway improvements along 2nd Street SW and to build a new pedestrian and bike path to the refuge.
Expanded access to the refuge is expected to attract more local residents and tourists, boosting the local economy and promoting economic development throughout the surrounding neighborhoods, Heinrich’s office said.
“This federal investment will help improve access to the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge and allow for even more economic development and tourism opportunities in the region,” Heinrich added. “Second Street has long been in need of funding for infrastructure improvements. Today’s announcement would not have been possible without the overwhelming support and collaboration from the community to establish the Valle de Oro and is an indication of the return on investment that the refuge will continue to provide.”
The Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge was established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in September 2012 and is the first designated urban national wildlife refuge in the Southwest.
By: Tina Orem (Albuquerque Business First)
Click here to view source article.

It’s likely that the Albuquerque apartment market is increasingly landing on investor radars. The reason? The Duke City has one of the nation’s most stable apartment rental markets.
The results of CBRE New Mexico’s September apartment market survey lays it out — continued strong occupancy rates and sound year-over-year rent growth.
Rents have increased from $735 to $751, with all unit types showing gains. Albuquerque’s weighted average rent and effective rent have gone up 11.26 percent and 12.03 percent, respectively, since CBRE’s first survey in 2008. Year-over-year market occupancy is stable — from 94.37 percent in September 2013 to 94.30 percent in September 2014.
“Albuquerque enjoys a reputation as one of America’s most stable rental markets, having avoided the severe occupancy and rent declines experienced by most other Sunbelt markets in 2009 and 2010,” said the father-son team of David and Billy Eagle, who operate CBRE New Mexico’s multihousing group. New Mexico is in the Sunbelt market, which spans southern regions from California to Florida.
“Albuquerque occupancy trends have been consistent since CBRE began tracking it seven years ago,” the report said.
The latest survey includes 141 market-rate (225-unit average) and 44 affordable properties (170-unit average). Market-rate properties were 81 percent of the surveyed units and affordable properties made up 19 percent.
The Eagles say they expect about 690 units to come online for the remainder of the year and in 2015 — about 80 percent being market-rate, mainly on Albuquerque’s Westside, with some in the Northeast Heights.
“There will be minimal opportunities for significant market-rate development beyond 2015 due to a scarcity of zoned or suitable land,” the report said.
The report said affordable units will come online as well, but will typically be smaller properties near Downtown, the southeast, southwest or northwest corridors of the city.
By: Damon Scott (Albuquerque Business First)
Click here to view source article.