Natural gas prices are at $2.38/MMBtu, with a low of $2.10 and a high of $2.41. Gas storage is at 2,141 Bcfs, above the five year average. The rig count has fallen off a cliff, down to 731 from a high of 755 two weeks ago. The rig count number is a little hard to explain, as it’s so sudden. I would have expected it to go down, but rather more gradually.
The PA cracker plant smells bad. It’s not supposed to. Neighbors are not happy. I suspect this cracker plant was not ready to be opened when they opened it. Granted, I haven’t tried to construct a multi-billion dollar network of pipes and furnaces, but it seems like this hasn’t been done properly. It also seems like the plant’s public affairs office isn’t doing a good job of working with the neighbors. Par for the course with oil and gas companies, sadly.
Joe Manchin is going to re-introduce the permitting bill that died last session. Here is the news that the bill has been introduced, along with some bullet points from the legislation.
Wal-Mart is adding natural gas powered trucks to its fleet.
A company named Chemours (previously spun off from DuPont) and TC Energy are working together to build a plant that will use natural gas to run the electrolysis system for producing hydrogen at a plant near Parkersburg, West Virginia. This could help bring a hydrogen hub to West Virginia.
Did you know that American agriculture makes up 15% of the demand for natural gas? I didn’t. This article will bring you (and me) up to speed.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is in favor of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
A methanol plant that was begun in 2017 has officially been opened in Institute, West Virginia. A lot of West Virginia politicians were in attendance. This is the kind of thing we need here in WV. Pipelines are great and all, but turning our raw materials into finished products, or even just adding value before shipping it out of state, is what we really need.
We used less gas from storage this last winter than we have in the last seven years. That’s the main reason that natural gas prices are so low right now.
Natural gas production is expected to increase in May.
During Antero’s quarterly earnings call, they boasted that they now hold the world record for lateral feet drilled in 24 hours at 12,340. That’s about 8.5 inches per minute. Also, that’s longer than many horizontal sections of existing wells, so that gives you an idea how quickly the drilling portion of well development can happen.
If you’d like to read EQT’s quarterly earnings call transcript, you can find it here.
If you’d like to read SWN’s quarterly earnings call transcript, you can find it here.
If you’d like to read CNX’s quarterly earnings call transcript, you can find it here.
NNE is doing something unusual. They’re drilling a deep geothermal and carbon capture data well. It’s not for “production”, it’s for “science”. In other words, they’re collecting data. Sometimes wells are for both production and science. Shoot, in oil and gas if you’re not doing some kind of science on every well you drill you’re going to get left behind. This one’s primarily for the science, though, as both deep geothermal and carbon capture are such new technologies.
Equitrans, the midstream company that’s building the MVP, published it’s first quarter report. I haven’t read the whole thing, but it does discuss the MVP, stating it believes permitting will be successful, but also that there’s a lot of uncertainty around the project.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito from West Virginia has introduced a permitting reform bill to Congress. That makes three bills on permitting, all from West Virginia representatives. This is important for West Virginia’s lawmakers.
Natural gas production and demand both continue to grow.
Oh, great. I get to vote for either Joe Manchin, Jim Justice, or Alex Mooney for U.S. Senate this next time around. Fabulous choices, just…..fabulous. In spite of his vote for the IRA in exchange for, well, nothing, I’ll probably still vote for Joe Manchin because he seems to be more independent-thinking than the others.
The Commissioners of the FERC told the Senate that there is an electric power emergency coming. With the shut-down of coal and natural gas fired power plants, the lack of new power generation capacity, and the lack of natural gas (current low prices are temporary), and subsidized renewable power generation that can sell power far cheaper than other sources (driving them into unprofitability and consequently early shutdowns), we’re simply not going to be able to generate enough electricity for the nation. No dates, or even estimates, seem to have been provided, so I assume this is in the coming years, not months.
OPEC+ can cut back a lot of production still, and is signaling that it will as needed. That means the price you pay at the pump this summer is not going to be less than it is now, and will probably go up since summer is the high-demand season for gasoline.
The EIA is predicting record natural gas production this year and next.
The White House is now on record backing Joe Manchin’s permitting reform bill.
Joe Manchin is going to oppose all nominees to the EPA in protest of a recent EPA proposal that will regulate carbon pollution from fossil fuel power plants.
The Clean Air Council has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to shut down the PA cracker plant.