Natural gas prices are $7.96. That’s down from a high of $8.78, and up from a low of $6.53. Note that if you had predicted one year ago that that this last 30 days’ low would have been the high, you would have been laughed out of the room/internet. Drilling rigs are at 714, up 21 from last month, and still a gradual increase. Storage is at 1,643 Bcfs, up 76 Bcfs from last month.. It’s the injection season, so that’s expected. Numbers are below the five year average, and getting close to the five year low.
The Biden Administration has re-started leasing federal lands for oil and gas development.
We’ve come out of the winter with less natural gas in storage than we have in the last three years.
A Libyan oil field has been shut down by tribal leaders. That takes about 450,000 barrels of oil per day off the market. That’s not a small amount, and should affect international prices.
The small West Virginia town of Bethlehem is located in the northern panhandle, and has a lot of oil and gas development nearby. One issue that the residents of Bethlehem probably did not anticipate was the noise of trucks driving through at, literally, all hours of the night. You would think that the oil and gas companies would do something about this before they develop a lot of ill will with the community, but in my experience it takes a lot more than a newspaper article to get to them to mitigate anything.
The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled against Antero Resources regarding tax valuation of wells in 2016 and 2017. This isn’t likely to affect any of our clients in any way, but if you’re interested in reading up on some tax law, here’s the link to the decision.
The number of drilling rigs goes up and down, has been as high as 2000 in the past, and has been tracked for decades. The number of frac spreads, on the other hand, has a much shorter history and far less recognition. What’s a frac spread? How many are there and how many can there be? Why are they important? This article answers these questions.
Hackers, probably Russian, have attacked U.S. LNG facilities with malware.
The White House is not very happy that it has to lease those federal lands for oil and gas production.
Russia is cutting off natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.
Libya has, perhaps temporarily, resumed full production of oil again.
Natural gas production growth has slowed, mainly due to the inability of anyone to build new pipelines. Don’t mistake the headlines–natural gas production is growing. Just not as quickly as it used to be.
Mountain Valley Pipeline is asking for new permits. For the third time. Hopefully this time they’ll figure out how to avoid legal challenges, a/k/a do things right. I’m not an environmentalist, and I’d like to see this pipeline built, but I’m none too fond of the companies that have tried to build pipelines through this area and the way they’ve got about it.
The Biden Administration has canceled a lease on federal lands in Alaska. The administration cited a lack of industry interest in the lease, but Senator Murkowski from Alaska says the industry is interested in leasing the land. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.