Gas prices are at $2.51/MMBtu, having gotten as low as $2.41/MMBtu and as “high” as $3.59/MMBtu on January 17. Prices have been around the $2.40 to $2.60 range since February 1, so they may have bottomed out. We know they can go lower, but it took a pandemic to do that. Gas storage is at 2.366 Bcf, over the five year average of 2,249 Bcf. At least this month we didn’t add to storage. Drilling rigs are at 761, down 14 from last month. That points toward reduced production in the near future.

The Freeport LNG plant is still offline, and new projections are for the end of February or the beginning of March. It’s the repair job that never ends. The linked article points out that every week it’s offline means one less LNG tanker moving LNG to Europe. That’s actually a lot of gas.

Toby Rice, EQTs CEO, had some things to say about gas production and energy prices in the near future.

Chesapeake’s CEO publicly asked his peers to cut back on natural gas production due to its low, low price. Previously I would have scoffed at an appeal of this sort possibly working, but recent changes in the industry suggest that oil and gas producers have been acting with more financial discipline and constraint, and looking ahead to the future, so maybe this will work.

CNX is using waste heat from a compressor station in West Virginia to generate electricity.

West Virginia coal companies are opposed to the development of natural gas, at least as far as they can oppose it. That means that power plants and other facilities that could add value to the product before it leaves the state are opposed by one of the largest and most powerful lobbies in the state. It’s no wonder we can’t get natural gas power plants built here.

Libya and Italy are partnering up to produce natural gas in the Mediterranean.

Equitrans has gotten approval of its EIS for a pipeline from Green County, PA to Wetzel County, WV. It’s a short pipe, only 5.5 miles long, so not too big a deal in the grand scheme of things. But for people whose property it will cross, it could be a very big deal. It’s an expansion of an existing pipeline called the Ohio Valley Connector.

Just in case you were wondering, we have enough proved reserves of natural gas (625 trillion cubic feet) for the next 20 years at current levels of use (30 trillion cubic feet per year). Yearly growth is growing, of course, but so are proved reserves. Also, proved reserves are an awfully conservative estimate of how much gas we can get out of the ground. As the price of natural gas goes up, the proved reserve number goes up because it’s partially determined by the economics of drilling for the gas. There’s a lot of natural gas in the ground. We’ll be using it for at least another generation.

After the Inflation Reduction Act, building new renewable power generation would be cheaper than building new coal plants in West Virginia (and probably everywhere). This is because of tax incentives. However, coal still has an amazingly powerful lobby here, so getting permits for renewables will be an enormous hurdle. It’s already an enormous hurdle for natural gas, which the coal lobby has less reason to oppose than renewables.

This is disappointing. Back in 2014, West Virginia created a Future Fund, essentially a savings account that would be funded using 3% of the severance taxes collected from oil, gas, and coal sales. It should have been a large fund, but there were exceptions built in to the funding. Because of the exceptions no money was every put into the fund. Legislators have decided to kill the Fund this year.

This article is based more in stock trading theory than in the supply side of oil and gas, but it will be interesting to those of you who trade stocks. It says there are five reasons why natural gas prices are likely to go up.

West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito has released a press release about the Mountain Valley Pipeline. There’s little of substance to it. It’s important mainly because it shows that she and Senator Manchin are still thinking about and working on the pipeline and permit reform.

It was only a matter of time. An environmental group has filed a notice of intent to sue the PA cracker plant for exceeding its permitted emissions limits.

Diversified Energy has a new headquarters in Bridgeport, West Virginia. The grand opening was on February 3, and they got some very important people there.

The respective oil and gas associations of WV, PA, and OH put out a press release promoting the benefits of natural gas. These press releases don’t really do much. They’re mostly read by those who agree with them. But putting your opinion out there is still important.

The public comment period on the third version of the EIS for the Mountain Valley Pipeline has been extended until February 21st.

Freeport LNG has been granted permission to load LNG onto ships. This isn’t a full restart of the plant, but it’s a step that way. Full operations are not expected to resume until mid-March.

Diversified Energy is right back in the news, announcing it has acquired $163 million to fund acquisitions. The acquisitions will not be in the Marcellus/Utica area, but since Diversified is now headquartered here, it seemed appropriate to point this out.

RBNEnergy has published a long-term prediction of what’s going on with natural gas supply and demand. As with everything RBNEnergy, it’s worth the read.

Senator Joe Manchin is mad about how the President is implementing the IRA. I have very little sympathy for him. He threw away all his negotiating leverage, expecting other politicians to act on a promise that was going to be hard for them to get political action on. He’s now trying to win back some negotiating leverage, but he’s having to work hard for it. And now he’s mad. Sigh. Seems a little petulant.

The Progressive Policy Institute, a Democrat, left leaning organization, has published a paper supporting doubling natural gas exports and building new natural gas pipelines. That’s wild!

The WV House has approved legislation giving $105 million to a company that will build batteries in the northern panhandle. I get frustrated hearing the opposition say that batteries will be in competition with oil and gas. Batteries are energy storage, not energy production. The energy they store will come primarily from natural gas, oil, and coal, with some renewables sprinkled in there. More batteries is good for West Virginia, particularly when they’re built here.