Research

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    EIA: NatGas Production AND Consumption Hits All-Time High in 2015

    Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released their Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) for December. With respect to EIA’s natgas predictions, they say natgas production in 2015 will reach a record-high of 79.58 billion cubic feet per day of production, which will top 2014’s record of 74.89 Bcf/d. The EIA also says U.S. natgas consumption will rise to 76.49 Bcf/d, topping 2014’s record of 73.14 Bcf/d. More interesting facts and predictions from the EIA…
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    Baker Hughes Nov. Rig Count Decline Slows; Marc/Utica Lose Just 2

    The number of active drilling rigs worldwide was down by just 2 rigs according to the November Baker Hughes rig count report. But active rigs in the U.S. fell by 31 month over month in the U.S. There were 791 active drilling rigs operating in the U.S. in October, and 760 rigs operating during the month of November. Ouch. What about active rigs in the Marcellus/Utica? Once again MDN brings you the exclusive chart for Marcellus/Utica rig counts over the past 12 months. This month’s chart is heartening. Although the count declined by another 2 rigs from October, the it appears like we may be hitting bottom with respect to the number of active rigs. Both rigs lost in November were from one state. Which one?…
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    OH Shale Wells Already Smash 2014 Record, 3Q15 Results (Exclusive)

    Ohio’s oil and natural gas horizontal well (i.e. Utica) production for 2015 has, has of the third quarter, already surpassed production for all of 2014 according to the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR). The ODNR issued their latest quarterly production update, for 3Q15, yesterday. During 3Q15 Ohio’s horizontal shale wells produced 5.7 million barrels of oil and 245 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Below we have the ODNR’s high level overview of the numbers, along with our own analysis showing: the top 25 producing gas wells, the top 25 producing oil wells, and then the top 25 gas and oil wells as ranked by average production per day. There is a difference! The longer an oil or gas well is online, the less it produces. Newer wells produce more. So we show you which wells are not just producing the most quantity overall, but which wells are producing at the fastest (most productive) rates–even if they haven’t yet been online a full three months (92 days). We also include a link to the complete list of 1,134 wells that had at least some Utica oil or gas production in 3Q15 in a more usable format than that provided by the ODNR…
    Read More “OH Shale Wells Already Smash 2014 Record, 3Q15 Results (Exclusive)”

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    Top 20 NatGas Pipelines in 2015 – Ranked by Traded Volume

    The amazing thing about this wonderful industry we’re in–the fossil fuel energy industry–is that you learn something new every day. Like there’s a service called the Capacity Center (CapacityCenter.com) that tracks flows of physical natural gas in every interstate pipeline in the U.S. Each year (for the eighth year running) the Capacity Center issues a report detailing the Top 20 Traders (buyers and sellers) of natural gas along those pipelines, and the Top 20 Pipelines by volume of natural gas flowing through the pipeline. We’re intrigued–particularly by the Top 20 pipelines, because a number of them operate in the Marcellus/Utica region. Below is the full Capacity Center Top 20 Capacity Traders & Top 20 Pipelines Report for 2015. If you’re like us, you’ll dig it too…
    Read More “Top 20 NatGas Pipelines in 2015 – Ranked by Traded Volume”

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    Reuters Says Marcellus “Finally Succumbs” to Production Downturn

    The Reuters news service is, somewhat gleefully, reporting that America’s biggest gas field–the Mighty Marcellus–“finally succumbs to downturn.” The article in which they announce this “fact” breathlessly reports preliminary (i.e. not yet solid, as in draft) figures from DrillingInfo are at odds with projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to Reuters, the EIA’s numbers are too rosy, showing a year-over-year decrease in Marcellus production won’t happen until 2019. DrillingInfo, according to Reuters, indicates a year-over-year decline will come next year, in 2016. Who’s right?…
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    DUC DUC Goose! The Growing Backlog of Uncompleted Shale Wells

    Ever hear of a DUC? No, we didn’t forget the “K” on the end of DUC. It stands for Drilled but UnCompleted (DUC) wells. Completing a well means taking the final step of fracking the well and hooking it up to production. Lately there’s been a lot of talk about DUCs–a large inventory of wells drilled (holes in the ground) not yet completed. Completing a well takes a lot of sand, water and money. There’s little incentive to complete wells when commodity prices for oil and gas are so low. In some cases drillers will drill the borehole and not complete a well as a way of holding their acreage before a lease expires. In other cases, they’d love to finish the job–but the price they will get is too darned low, so they put completion on hold. Sometimes a driller has contracted for a rig and crew to operate it–instead of canceling and owing that money anyway, they go ahead and drill. How many DUCs are there in general, and in the Marcellus/Utica specifically? The honest answer is, no one knows for sure. But smart analysts can make some pretty good guesses, based on company reports and their own industry knowledge. Below we bring you the latest we can find on DUCs–specifically how many DUCs there are in the Marcellus/Utica…
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    Free Book: Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming

    All eyes are currently on Paris and the United Nations twenty-first conference of the parties (COP-21). COP-21 is an attempt to force all of the nations of the world to sign on to the myth of man-made global warming–and force them to reduce carbon output, which they believe will lower said global warming. In reality not even the people attending really believe in this nonsense–they use it as a method of controlling the citizens of the world. It’s about power–and the abuse of power. But let’s pretend there are some who do really believe this childish nonsense. What arguments do they use? One of the chief arguments is a lie so often repeated it’s now believed–that there is a “consensus” of scientists that man-made global warming is real. Something like 97% of all scientists believe it. Thing is, that statistic is pulled from an artificially low, select number of scientists. It’s not real. Yesterday, as COP-21 got under way, the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) released a new book titled “Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Consensus” (get a free copy below). This important new book lays bare and refutes the claim that there is a “scientific consensus” on the causes and consequences of climate change…
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    Antis Ramp Up to Discredit EPA Study that Found Fracking is Safe

    It was certainly a major blow to radical environmentalists when, after studying fracking for more than four years (reviewing some 950 studies, including conducting several original studies of its own), the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced what everyone already knew: fracking is safe (see EPA Draft Report Says Fracking Doesn’t Pollute Groundwater Supplies). Science is science and facts are facts. The announcement took the wind out of the sails for anti-fossil fuel nutters who thought they could convince everyone to return to the stone ages and eliminate the use of fossil fuels. However, science has been corrupted and politicized–just witness the global warming debate. Radical environmentalists knowing they can never convince the hoi polloi, the great unwashed, the people they consider idiots, to go along with their holier-than-thou energy plans to eliminate fossil fuels, if fracking is perceived as anything but evil–are fighting back. Here’s the plan. Get the EPA to discredit its own study. That process is now underway. In October the usual radical suspects showed up at EPA HQ to demand they turn their backs on their own study (see Anti Groups Try to Convince EPA They Got it Wrong with Water Study). Apparently they got through to at least a few sympathetic “scientists” who are members of the EPA’s own Scientific Advisory Board…
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    List of 36 Oil & Gas Companies that Filed for Bankruptcy in 2015

    Whew. Dodged a bullet–this year. Haynes and Boone, LLP is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Colorado, Washington, D.C., Shanghai and Mexico City. Their HQ is in Texas. The firm has a sizable Bankruptcy and Energy practices. Unfortunately those two practices are increasingly becoming one, and the firm says they’re adding lawyers to the Bankruptcy practice. Last week Haynes and Boone issued their very first Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor (full copy below), a report that details the rising tide of 2015 exploration and production company Chapter 11 filings. The report lists 36 bankruptcies in 2015 totaling about $13 billion in cumulative secured and unsecured debt. With fear and trepidation we reviewed the list–and found that none of the companies listed have major, nor even minor, operations in the Marcellus/Utica. However, that may not remain the case…
    Read More “List of 36 Oil & Gas Companies that Filed for Bankruptcy in 2015”

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    Platts Bentek: October NatGas Production Drops 1% from September

    Each month the U.S. Energy Information Administration issues natural gas production figures–but it’s usually two months or more behind. The smart folks at Platts’ Bentek Energy subsidiary provide a much quicker (and accurate) estimate, typically beating the EIA’s estimate by at least a month. For example, Bentek recently issued their estimate of what natgas production for October was in the Lower 48 States. Bentek says October averaged 71.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), a decline of more than 0.5 Bcf/d, or 1%, from September’s production numbers. The EIA won’t even issue September’s “official” production numbers until Nov. 30. Here’s a good preview of what October numbers will show by the time EIA gets around to disclosing them…
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    ScottMadden Report: Getting Marcellus/Utica Gas to Market

    ScottMadden, Inc., a top energy consulting firm, recently released the latest edition of their twice-per-year report called The Energy Industry Update. The current report, titled “Strange Brew: Adapting to Changing Fundamentals” (full copy below), offers insights into major events and emerging trends in the energy industry. This particular edition takes a close look at the natural gas industry–in particular how ever-increasing gas resources can find adequate infrastructure to make their way to market. We really like this report, for a couple of reasons. First, it gives you the wider context. Natural gas (and oil) doesn’t exist on its own. It is part of a complex tapestry of energy options and needs to be viewed that way. This report helps contextualize natural gas–helps you see the natgas puzzle piece in the larger energy puzzle. Second, we like the deep dive they do on natural gas. Not so long ago the estimates were that with shale gas in the U.S.–particularly in the Marcellus/Utica–we have a “100 year supply” of natural gas. Now? That number has risen to 140 years of supply. And it keeps growing. The report looks at rig counts and well productivity, pipelines that are (or will) move gas from the northeast to other markets, regulations and more. Take time to read it!…
    Read More “ScottMadden Report: Getting Marcellus/Utica Gas to Market”

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    Value of OH’s Oil & Gas Production a Straight Line Up in 2014

    Last Friday the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released their annual report on Ohio’s extraction/mineral industries, including the oil and gas industry. The report, titled “2014 Report on Ohio Mineral Industries: An Annual Summary of the State’s Economic Geology” (full copy below) contains precisely five pages of interest to MDN readers. But those five pages, which detail what happened (and where) in Ohio oil and gas during 2014, are loaded with good information. For example, natural gas production in Ohio in 2014 was 512,964,465 thousand cubic feet (Mcf), a 207% increase from 2013. The dollar value of natural gas produced in Ohio in 2014 was $1,939,005,678, an increase of 229% from 2013. The report has one page detailing how many wells were drilled by rock layer/resource play. Unsurprisingly the Utica/Point Pleasant shale layer was the most-drilled layer, with (as of the end of 2014) 521 wells drilled. The second most-drilled layer was the Clinton-Medina sandstone layer, with 92 wells drilled…
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    EIA: Shale Rockets U.S. Proved O&G Reserves to New Records

    Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), yesterday released their annual report of proved oil and natural gas reserves in the United States for 2014. The report, titled “U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves, 2014” (full copy embedded below) shows proved reserves for natural gas rose by 34.8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), or 10%, to a record high of 388.8 Tcf in 2014. Oil reserves rose 3.4 billion barrels, or 9%, to 39.9 billion barrels. That’s the highest oil reserves have been since 1972! This is the second year in a row for a new natural gas proved reserves record high, and the sixth year in a row for oil proved reserves (see last year’s report, EIA: Proved Reserves for Natgas Up 10% Last Year, Marcellus Leads). As a quick reminder, proved reserves are, according to the EIA, “those volumes of oil and natural gas that geological and engineering data demonstrate with reasonable certainty to be recoverable in future years from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.” That is, proved reserves are what’s in the ground now, can be gotten out, and we can prove it. This is a great report, full of excellent data and interesting charts and graphs…
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    EIA Stats Reveal Obama CPP Plan to Lower CO2 Isn’t Needed

    Why in the world is Obama pushing so hard to regulate oil and gas when carbon dioxide emissions, ACCORDING TO HIS OWN ADMINISTRATION, are going down?! Today the U.S. Energy Information Administration, part of the Dept. of Energy (an executive branch agency), issued a post on their website chronicling the decrease in CO2 emissions coming from energy from 2005-2013. Why are CO2 emissions going down? One word: shale. We might add a second word: fracking. The planet is getting healthier (if you believe in global warming nonsense) because of shale energy–and yet Obama wants to throttle it! Maddening…
    Read More “EIA Stats Reveal Obama CPP Plan to Lower CO2 Isn’t Needed”

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    OH Grange Issues New Study, Supports NEXUS & Rover Pipelines

    The people who are most affected by pipelines being built across their property are farmers–that’s a fact. Farmers often have questions and concerns when a new pipeline project is proposed that will cross their land, rightfully so. They’re cautious, they’re careful, they have a vested interest in preserving their land. So it’s big news that the Ohio State Grange, part of the nation’s oldest national agricultural advocacy group, has endorsed both the Rover and NEXUS pipelines in the Buckeye State. Energy Transfer’s Rover is a big, $4.2 billion, 711-mile new pipeline project from the Midwest Hub near Defiance, OH to Livingston County, MI, connecting with the Vector pipeline. Spectra Energy’s NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline project is a $2 billion pipeline that will carry Utica/Marcellus gas through OH, MI, and eventually connect to the Dawn Energy Hub in Canada. The Grange’s support of these two projects is a big deal. As part of their announcement, the Ohio Grange released a new report titled, “Natural Gas Pipeline Infrastructure and Its Impact on Michigan and Ohio Agriculture” (full copy below) which finds, among other things, that there is no SAFER way to transport natural gas than by underground pipeline…
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    Real Climate Science Discussed in Paris on Dec 7 @ Heartland Conf

    You may or may not be aware that the Obama Administration is in league with foreign powers to attempt to strip away our national sovereignty (the right to rule ourselves) under the guise of global warming nonsense–that mankind is causing or about to cause Mother Earth to fry. The way liberal/socialist/communists are attempting to foist this great hoax on the world is at an event called the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP-21), taking place this year on December 7-8 in Paris. All of the biggest global warming hoaxers from around the world will assemble (and party) in an attempt to get the United States to sign a treaty giving up our national sovereignty–and when we do, we’re finished as an independent country. So why should these nutball hoaxers have all the fun? The Heartland Institute has decided to assemble leading climatologists and scientists on Dec. 7 in Paris to discuss some real climate science. Heartland is calling it the “Day of Examining the Data” and will make the “compelling case that an objective examination of the latest climate science shows humans are not causing a global warming crisis.” Love it! Of course mainstream media won’t report a bit of it–because mainstream media doesn’t cover real news any more, they simply report propaganda–what they want you to hear. We have the lowdown on who will present at Heartland’s event–the only real scientific conference being held in Paris on Dec. 7…
    Read More “Real Climate Science Discussed in Paris on Dec 7 @ Heartland Conf”