NYMEX Henry Hub NatGas Closes at $1.97, Lowest Price in 3 Years
Here we go, to the bad old days, once again. Yesterday, the “front month” or “prompt month” for the NYMEX Henry Hub futures contract closed below $2/MMBtu — closing at $1.97. It is the lowest close for the NYMEX front month contract since September 2020, when it closed at $1.83. Yeah, the bad old days of lower for longer. The reason for the current crash in price is, as we told you yesterday, largely due to warm weather (see NatGas Price is Crashing and Burning – How Low Will It Go?). Trading experts say the next level to be tested to see if the price will head even lower will be $1.80/MMBtu. God help us if it closes that low.
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Two days ago, Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus shale well (back in 2004), issued fourth-quarter 2023 expectations for production and pricing along with details about the company’s proved reserves. Range doesn’t issue its official 4Q update until later this month (Feb. 21). The preliminary numbers show the company, when converting all production to gas equivalent, produced 2.2 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) during 4Q23. The company received an average of $2.68 per Mcf (thousand cubic feet) for its gas.
Although oil and natural gas output is still increasing ever-so-slightly, according to experts like Rystad Energy, the rate of production growth has slowed. And because production is slowing, “investments in the shale patch are not expected to grow in 2024, keeping activity and output relatively flat” this year. How does slowing activity in 2024 affect employment in O&G in 2024? Rigzone asked a couple of experts. One comment in particular caught our attention because it has implications not only in the Texas oil patch, but also in the M-U gas patch.
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security held a hearing on Tuesday to challenge Joe Biden’s so-called pause on new LNG permits to non-free-trade partners as it “studies the impacts,” including on climate change, of LNG use. Republicans blasted the Bidenistas for the havoc they have created with the announcement. Democrats on the subcommittee defended Biden’s pause (go figure), arguing now is the time to reevaluate new LNG exports. The Dems are oblivious to the tangible harm this pause is causing (see 
Politicians on Capitol Hill aren’t the only people taking aim at Joe Biden’s pause on LNG export approvals (see today’s companion story, Repubs Attack, Dems Defend Biden LNG Pause at House Hearing). Some 23 “red” state Attorneys General wrote a letter to President Biden and the nutty Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, to inform them that this LNG approvals pause violates federal law. The not-so-subtle threat is that unless Biden “changes course” and reverses the pause, he’s facing a lawsuit by half of the states in the country.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai in December to participate in the COP28 confab, where he released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions by using budget-busting new technologies and onerous (frequent) inspections (see 
Do you remember those Ball mason jars your mom used for canning when you were growing up? Well OK, maybe we’re dating ourselves. Trust us, it’s a thing (see the image to the left). Here’s the interesting bit: Ball Corporation not only makes mason jars and other packaging solutions for beverage, personal care and household products customers, it also has an aerospace division that manufactures satellites! Ball is a $14 billion company. One of the company’s projects was to manufacture and deliver a satellite that would sniff out fugitive methane. The satellite was just delivered to Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, and will launch next month.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian explores sale of Haynesville upstream assets; Venture Global, Grain LNG ink storage, regasification deal; New bill helps Florida ports with greater access to natural gas; NATIONAL: Oil swings higher amid mixed data signals; We have the cleanest natural gas in the world; World’s largest carbon removal plant is about to open; How fractures nucleate, propagate and stop.