Research

  • | | | |

    CBO Report: Enormous Positive Impacts of US Shale

    While Andrew Cuomo and his buddies were busy banning fracking in New York, the Congressional Budget Office (certainly no bastion of conservatism) issued a report on fracking. The new report, titled “The Economic and Budgetary Effects of Producing Oil and Natural Gas From Shale” (full copy embedded below) says we now get 30% of our oil and 40% of our natural gas from home-grown American shale. The report says without safe, clean, fracked American shale, our natural gas prices would be 70% higher than they are. Do you like those low gasoline prices we’ve seen lately? That’s because of American-produced oil from shale deposits. The enormous amount of supply from right here at home is flooding the market and causing prices to drop like a rock. If Cuomo & co had their way, all fracking across the country would stop tomorrow. Dangerously stupid is about the only thing we can think of to say to the strange attitude being exhibited by New York’s so-called leaders. Here’s a high level overview of the CBO study, followed by a full copy of the study…
    Read More “CBO Report: Enormous Positive Impacts of US Shale”

  • | | | | | |

    NY Gov Cuomo Teases (Again) Health Report Ready “This Year”

    Don't Tease MeOnce again New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is being a tease with regard to the fracking issue. Question is, do we believe him this time? Or is this yet another empty promise? During this fall’s single/only gubernatorial debate, Cuomo was asked about the fracking issue and he said a report from the state Dept. of Health on the fracking issue is due by the end of this year (now two weeks away). At the time, his harried campaign staff ran around after that off-the-cuff remark to “explain” what he really meant by it (see Cuomo Staff Explains “End of Year” Deadline for Frack Report). It’s all about managing expectations, and if you’re a Democrat, managing stupid voters (witness comments by Jonathan Gruber and how he and others hookwinked stupid voters to sell passage of Obamacare). Yesterday in a radio interview, Cuomo once again mentioned the fracking health report and said it is “on time” for delivery THIS year. That caught the eye of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York…
    Read More “NY Gov Cuomo Teases (Again) Health Report Ready “This Year””

  • | |

    New Report: Managing the Risks of Hydraulic Fracturing

    Yes Virginia, there are risks with fracking. No one ever said there aren’t risks. The straw man argument put forward by those who hate fossil fuels is that fracking is too “risky,” hinting that only a level of no risk is the acceptable level. How does one counter that argument? By pointing out there are risks in everything. There are risks when you leave your front door every morning and get in a car, or on a train, and head off to work (at least for Republicans, people who still go to work). All energy sources have risks–upsides and downsides–including natural gas that comes from fracking. A new study has just been released by the Canadian Fraser Institute that takes an open and honest look at the risks in fracking–and how to manage them. The study is called “Managing the Risks of Hydraulic Fracturing” (full copy below). What does it say?…
    Read More “New Report: Managing the Risks of Hydraulic Fracturing”

  • | | |

    PwC Report: “Shale Effect” has Major Effect on U.S. Manufacturing

    A new report released yesterday by PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) says not only is the “shale effect” changing the energy picture globally, it’s also boosting U.S. manufacturing by saving money boatloads of money and creating tons of new jobs. The new report titled, “Shale Gas: Still a boon to US manufacturing?” (full copy of the 12-page report below) estimates that the continued shale effect on U.S. manufacturing could bring an annual cost savings of $22.3 billion by 2030, assuming a high natural gas recovery and low price scenario. In terms of job creation, PwC estimates that continued shale gas activity will create 930,000 shale gas driven manufacturing jobs by 2030 and 1.41 million by 2040. Talk about a boom! (Meanwhile, the anti-drilling nuts in NY are bleating about banning fracking with their Not One Well campaign–go figure.) According to PwC’s managing partner in the Pittsburgh office…
    Read More “PwC Report: “Shale Effect” has Major Effect on U.S. Manufacturing”

  • | | | |

    Benesch Shale Report 3Q14: Upstream, Midstream & Downstream

    Each quarter the Ohio law firm of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP produces an Ohio shale update. MDN often shares their updates–well worth your time to read. The latest edition, covering Utica Shale activity in the third quarter of 2014, is embedded below. This issue highlights infrastructure announcements, financial results for some of the Utica’s largest drillers, supply chain news and regulatory news. Take time to read this well-crafted summary (will only take you a few minutes)…
    Read More “Benesch Shale Report 3Q14: Upstream, Midstream & Downstream”

  • | | |

    Bank of America: OPEC is Dead, Oil Goes to $50/Barrel, LNG Drops

    The price of oil, as certainly connected to shale drilling. Even the price of natural gas is influenced by what oil is doing (see our recent story Will Low Oil Prices Slow Northeast (Indeed All) Shale Drilling?). So it was with great interest we read that Bank of America analysts have declared that OPEC is effectively dead and that oil prices may make a run at $50 per barrel–and begin to swing wildly in the coming years. BoA also sees LNG prices dropping like rock…
    Read More “Bank of America: OPEC is Dead, Oil Goes to $50/Barrel, LNG Drops”

  • |

    Monthly DPR Shows Shale Oil & Gas Production Continue to Climb

    Our favorite government report from our favorite government agency was released yesterday–the Drilling Productivity Report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). What does it show? EIA projects oil output from the top seven U.S. shale plays (the Marcellus and Utica being two of them) will increase from 5.2 to 5.3 million barrels per day by January 2015, and natural gas production will increase from 44.1 to 44.7 billion cubic feet per day by January 2015. Now, tell us again about that peak oil and peak gas. Below is the full report with MDN’s additions…
    Read More “Monthly DPR Shows Shale Oil & Gas Production Continue to Climb”

  • | |

    EIA: Proved Reserves for Natgas Up 10% Last Year, Marcellus Leads

    If you knock around the oil and gas industry more than a day or two, you’re bound to hear industry veterans talking about (particularly in reports to investors) something called “proved reserves.” Proved reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), “are 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. A new report issued yesterday by the EIA says proved reserves for natural gas went up a huge 10% last year–to an all-time record high of 354 trillion cubic feet. And where did proved reserves go up the most? Yep, the Marcellus in PA and WV…
    Read More “EIA: Proved Reserves for Natgas Up 10% Last Year, Marcellus Leads”

  • | |

    New Research: Fugitive Methane Declines, Without Onerous EPA Regs

    Play along for a minute. Pretend you believe that carbon (the thing you breathe out with every breath) and so-called “fugitive” methane (rascally devil escapes from oil and gas drilling operations) are causing the earth’s temp to spike. We know, we know. The earth’s average temp hasn’t gone up in 18 years–but we said, just play along here for a minute, k? If you’re a man-causes-global warming believer, it stands to reason you’d like to see less carbon and less methane. Both are already happening–without the jackbooted regulations of the federal EPA. The latest evidence is tabulated by Energy in Depth, the public relations arm of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA). EID’s report tabulates the latest science which shows fugitive methane emissions in major shale plays–including the Marcellus and Utica–have gone DOWN, significantly–from 2011 to 2013…
    Read More “New Research: Fugitive Methane Declines, Without Onerous EPA Regs”

  • | | | |

    Northeastern Winter Gas Outlook: More Marcellus Gas Needed in NYC

    Morningstar, an independent investment research and management company, is fresh out with a report titled, “Northeastern Winter Gas Outlook.” In the report, analysts take a look at the demand for natural gas by the northeast, in particular demand by New York City. What do they find? Although infrastructure (pipelines) have improved a somewhat in the last year, bringing more gas to the northeast (largely from the Marcellus), more needs to be done. Natural gas is very sensitive to supply and demand. The report states that in the past year alone over 1,000 buildings in New York City–apartment buildings and office buildings–have switched from fuel oil to natural gas for heating. That means there’s a lot more demand this winter than last–at least another 100 million cubic feet per day. If we get another extended cold snap, natural gas prices will go a lot higher in NYC…
    Read More “Northeastern Winter Gas Outlook: More Marcellus Gas Needed in NYC”

  • | |

    EIA Says 1/3 Natgas Pipelines in Northeast Bidirectional by 2017

    The U.S. Energy Information Administration is out with a new report today that says fully 1/3 of the major interstate natural gas pipelines that serve the northeast will be bidirectional by 2017–in just three years. That is, instead of bringing gas to the northeast, those same pipelines will be flow gas out of the northeast. Why? One word: Marcellus. Here’s the expert analysis by some of the best minds in the business (and we sincerely mean that)…
    Read More “EIA Says 1/3 Natgas Pipelines in Northeast Bidirectional by 2017”

  • | |

    EIA Coins New Term, Issues Report on Hydrocarbon Gas Liquids (HGLs)

    It’s vocabulary day at MDN. The U.S. Energy Information Administration, our favorite government agency, has just released a new report on, and has coined a new term, called: Hydrocarbon Gas Liquids (HGL). In a nutshell, EIA uses the term HGL to refer to the combination of NGLs (natural gas liquids like ethane, propane and butane) and olefins (things like ethylene, propylene, butylene, and isobutylene). If you’re new to this whole shale gas thing and to the oil and gas industry, you need to know that the hydrocarbons coming out of the ground (oil and gas) are tightly connected to–in fact the source of–things like plastic and antifreeze. That is, oil and gas is part of the petrochemical industry. The EIA recognizes the importance and connection between petrochemicals and shale, and so have authored a new report, titled “Hydrocarbon Gas Liquids (HGL): Recent Market Trends and Issues” (full copy embedded below). Since there’s a lot of “wet gas” in the Marcellus and Utica Shale, the petrochemical industry is tightly connected to shale drilling in the northeast. This report connects the dots…
    Read More “EIA Coins New Term, Issues Report on Hydrocarbon Gas Liquids (HGLs)”

  • | |

    Fracking Chemicals No More Toxic than Common Household Substances

    If MDN or someone from the oil & gas industry said, “Fracking chemicals are no more toxic than common household substances,” it would be dismissed by anti-drillers as just another industry lie. MDN has, in fact, been making that very assertion for years. That exact statement was made (once again) last week–but this time it was made by researchers at the liberal University of Colorado Boulder. Researchers recently published a new study in the peer-reviewed journal Analytical Chemistry titled “Analysis of Hydraulic Fracturing Flowback and Produced Waters Using Accurate Mass: Identification of Ethoxylated Surfactants.” The study concludes that yes, the oft-maligned “toxic chemicals” used in fracking that “big oil” supposedly hides from you are essentially the same chemicals found in cleaning products underneath your kitchen sink and in your bathroom medicine cabinet. Chemicals found in stuff like laundry detergent and toothpaste…
    Read More “Fracking Chemicals No More Toxic than Common Household Substances”

  • | | | |

    2 New USGS Studies Show Naturally Occurring Methane in NEPA Water

    Yesterday the U.S. Geological Survey released two studies of groundwater–one for Pike County, PA and the other for Wayne County, PA (both studies embedded below). The studies looked at well water samples in 2012 and 2013. In Wayne County 65% of the wells tested had detectable methane (i.e. natural gas) in the water. In Pike County, 80% of the wells had detectable methane in the water. Five alarms! Shale wells are polluting the water!! Oh wait…neither county has any shale drilling because both are in the Delaware River Basin and the DRBC (Delaware River Basin Commission) has so far not allowed shale drilling in the watershed. Methane can be either thermogenic (deep down methane found in shale) or biogenic (closer to the surface methane). Evidence of BOTH types were found in the survey. You can’t blame shale drilling, so what’s an anti-driller to do to when pesky scientific evidence rears its ugly head?…
    Read More “2 New USGS Studies Show Naturally Occurring Methane in NEPA Water”

  • | | |

    Bernstein: Marcellus Production Will Slow, Hit 25 Bcf/d in 2017

    A fascinating pair of research reports from Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC as been analyzed and summarized in a top notch article by SNL Financial. Historically the Marcellus has been divided into northeast Pennsylvania and southwest PA, the SW including WV and a tiny bit of eastern OH. Also historically, the NE portion of the Marcellus has produced more dry gas (methane only) than the SW, which is richer in wet gas (or natural gas liquids). However, because of lack of pipelines in the NE, researchers say dry gas production throughout the Marcellus–particularly in the NE–will slow over the next few years. Another juicy tidbit from the report: Bernstein researchers predict natgas production from the Marcellus will hit 25 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by end of 2017–just three years from now…
    Read More “Bernstein: Marcellus Production Will Slow, Hit 25 Bcf/d in 2017”

  • | | |

    New EIA Study: LNG Exports Covered by Increasing Shale Supplies

    The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently released the results of in-depth research to answer the question, will we have enough natural gas if we start exporting a boatload of it? The study/research report EIA recently released, titled “Effect of Increased Levels of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports on U.S. Energy Markets” (full copy embedded below) finds that yes, we’ll have more than enough natural gas to keep prices low here at home AND export a boatload of it to other countries. It won’t even raise the price all that much, if at all…
    Read More “New EIA Study: LNG Exports Covered by Increasing Shale Supplies”