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Oil & Gas Jobs Continue To Grow – Latest Numbers for PA, OH, WV
The Energy Workforce & Technology Council, based in Houston, TX, is the national trade association for the global energy technology and services sector. The Council reports jobs in the O&G sector increased in November, adding 1,286 jobs. The O&G industry employs 652,398 jobs across the country, just 54,130 jobs away from returning to pre-pandemic levels. And how much do those jobs pay? The average hourly earnings for frontline oil-and-gas workers rose 1.3% in October from the previous month to $44.11, according to a Labor Department report released last week.
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Yesterday, the Republicans who sit on the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee got work done while the Democrats tried to block work. The committee advanced legislation to establish an Independent Energy Information Office by a party-line vote, with Republicans supporting. There was also a party-line vote advancing Paul Bruder, an environmental attorney nominated by Gov. Shapiro for the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) after Democrats failed to table the nomination. That’s right, the Dems tried to block a Shapiro (one of their own) nominee!
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is reporting there are eight natural gas pipeline projects either currently under construction or in advanced planning, totaling 20 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of capacity to carry natural gas to LNG export facilities either up and running or planned for the Gulf Coast. Considering the country currently produces around 95 Bcf/d in total for all purposes, adding another 20 Bcf/d (nearly 20%) is huge!
According to powerhouse consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY), it’s been a successful 2023 for the oil and gas industry. In 2023, O&G continued to win back investors and position itself as a key player in the so-called energy transition. Looking ahead, 2024 will be full of opportunities and challenges as everyone looks to “decarbonize” and supposedly move away from fossil fuels. EY offers four trends to watch in O&G for 2024.
Last Tuesday, Dec. 5, a tractor-trailer hauling a trailer with CNG (compressed natural gas) canisters traveling eastbound along Interstate 88 near Albany “exited the road and traveled down a steep ravine” shortly before 3 a.m. It crashed, ripping the top of the trailer off the frame (the part connected to the wheels). The driver was extracted from the cab and transported to the nearby Albany Medical Center, where, at last word, he was in critical condition. The New York State Police closed I-88 in both directions between Exit 24 and Exit 25 for a period of time. It was reopened by evening.
The commodity price for natural gas, as expressed by the NYMEX Henry Hub futures contract (for January), fell 10.5% in early trading yesterday before finally closing at $2.43/MMBtu, down 15 cents (6.17%) from the previous day. Why the big drop when prices are already low? Lack of demand due to warm weather. In fact, according to the National Weather Service, the entire continental United States will be warmer than average for the period of Dec. 19-25. Plump storage numbers, coupled with the weather, had natgas traders heading for the exits.
Williams is a powerhouse pipeline company. Williams operates more than 33,000 miles of pipelines in the U.S. and flows approximately one-third of the natural gas used in our country through those pipelines. Massive! The CEO of Williams, Alan Armstrong, is (or was) in Dubai for the United Nations COP28 climate meeting. He was there to preach the gospel of natural gas as the best way, the near-term way, to lower carbon dioxide emissions across the planet. He has proof to back up his claims. The U.S. is the only major country on earth to lower CO2 emissions since 2005. How? By switching from coal to natural gas for power generation.
An ancient Arabian proverb says, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” You know we’re no fans of OPEC+ and the murdering thug dictators who run the countries belonging to OPEC+. But this one time, we have praise for the group. They single-handedly changed the language in a final communique issued by the UN COP28 delegates that was supposed to call for the phase-out of fossil fuels worldwide. Instead, the language was modified to say, “reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner.” It was changed at the insistence of the OPEC+ club. Needless to say, the snowflake leftists at COP28 are weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth.
Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility recently received Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) authorization to place the final three liquefaction blocks (7-9) into service (see 
Hope Gas is a Local Distribution Company (LDC) that provides gas service to approximately 125,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. The company owns and maintains more than 6,900 miles of pipelines that safely deliver West Virginia natural gas to many homes and commercial or industrial sites. In September, Hope Gas asked the WV Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia for permission to build a new 30-mile pipeline in Monongalia County (see 
Amol Wayangankar, principal of Enkon Energy Advisors, spoke at the recent Hart Energy DUG Appalachia event in Pittsburgh. He had some REALLY interesting things to say about pipelines and takeaway capacity and where (and how much) Marcellus/Utica gas flows. One fascinating observation: Over the past 24 months, Appalachia gas production grew 0.3 Bcf/d, while production in the Haynesville Shale grew 2.5 Bcf/d and 5 Bcf/d in the Permian Basin. The M-U is in danger of losing market share to other basins unless we can begin to get more of our production out of the Northeast.
The Baker Hughes U.S. rig count hit a new low for 2023 five weeks ago (see 
In August, University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) researchers released three studies commissioned by the State Dept. of Health supposedly investigating whether or not there is a connection between shale drilling and childhood diseases, including cancer (see