Pipeline capacity has to be expanded and not just for oil. If you look at a satellite night pic, you will see areas over the Bakken and Permian shale basin areas lit up at night. The light is from natural gas being flared off. The gas has no value because the pipeline capacity isn't available to get it to market. 40% of all the natural gas extracted in the USA is wasted by flaring it away.
We are posed to be a major energy exporter within the next five years. The technology to turn gas into liquid fuels (GTL) improved dramatically. Shell and Sasol both have plans to build plants in Louisiana, but shelved them when the price of oil dropped (you need $60+ light crude to make it worth it). Exxon developed a process with Gigamethanol corp to turn natural gas into methanol (can be shipped with crude oil) then convert it to gasoline.
Edit: Link below to the satellite photos of the flaring:
http://geology.com/articles/oil-fields-from-space/
We are posed to be a major energy exporter within the next five years. The technology to turn gas into liquid fuels (GTL) improved dramatically. Shell and Sasol both have plans to build plants in Louisiana, but shelved them when the price of oil dropped (you need $60+ light crude to make it worth it). Exxon developed a process with Gigamethanol corp to turn natural gas into methanol (can be shipped with crude oil) then convert it to gasoline.
Edit: Link below to the satellite photos of the flaring:
http://geology.com/articles/oil-fields-from-space/