Research

Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count dropped five rigs after adding seven the week before. The count went from 629 active rigs two weeks down to 624 last week. The national count is officially rangebound. Since last October, the national count has gone as low as 616 and as high as 629. And that’s it. No higher and no lower. The Marcellus/Utica cumulatively lost one rig (in Pennsylvania) last week and now runs 42 rigs. The number of gas rigs cumulatively across the country fell to its lowest number since January 2022.
Read More “Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Drops 5 @ 624, M-U Drops 1 @ 42”

The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for March, issued yesterday (below), shows EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for April will decrease production from the prior month of March. This is the ninth month in a row that EIA has predicted shale gas production will decrease for the combined seven plays. However, it won’t decrease everywhere. Gas-focused plays like the Marcellus/Utica and the Haynesville will see the biggest drop in production. In contrast, the oily Permian play will boost the production of “associated” natural gas — the gas that comes out of the ground along with oil. The Permian is also boosting oil production in April.
Read More “EIA Mar DPR: NatGas Production Continues to Drop, Oil Grows”

Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count added the seven rigs it had lost the week before. The count went from 622 active rigs two weeks ago back up to 629 last week. The national count is officially rangebound. Since last October, the national count has gone as low as 616 and as high as 629. And that’s it. No higher and no lower. The Marcellus/Utica cumulatively lost one rig last week and now runs 43 rigs. Pennsylvania lost two rigs and now operates 22 rigs. Ohio stayed the same at 12 rigs. And West Virginia picked up one of PA’s rigs and now operates nine rigs (up from eight the prior week).
Read More “Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Adds 7 @ 629, M-U Drops 1 @ 43”

Bayou City Energy (BCE), an E&P-focused private equity firm, yesterday published a VERY INTERESTING white paper titled “Natural Gas Producers: Why Don’t You Stay?” (full copy below). The thesis of the white paper (or report) is that drillers in gas-focused plays can’t produce natural gas as cheaply as oil producers who produce gas as a side benefit (called associated gas). Therefore, gas-focused drillers need to drastically, immediately change their capital allocation strategies (spend less on new drilling, for now). The author also makes the case that gas-focused drillers should look for opportunities to merge with a “liquids-rich producer.”
Read More “Report Claims Associated Gas Cheaper to Produce than M-U Dry Gas”

Yesterday, the American Gas Association (AGA) unveiled a new study, “Advancing America’s Pharmaceuticals: The Value of Natural Gas to U.S. Pharmaceutical Manufacturing” (full copy below). Natural gas and other petrochemicals are irreplaceable for manufacturing medicines, with 99% of pharmaceutical feedstocks and reagents derived from natural gas and other petrochemicals. Face masks, disposable gloves, and syringes are also manufactured from petrochemical feedstocks like natural gas and are critical to combatting the spread of disease. Without natural gas, we would all live short, brutish lives. Billions would die.
Read More “Americans’ Access to Life Saving Medicine Depends on Natural Gas”

Plugging and capping old wells has been in the news a lot lately. The left claims old oil and gas wells are partially responsible for toasting Mom Earth. Bunkum (see our companion story today about the EDF/Google satellite). But, let’s be honest, it’s better to cap old wells than to have them belching methane for years and years. Amid the confusion surrounding this issue is a claim that even plugged wells can and do continue to leak significant quantities of methane. A new study from a British university lays that baseless claim to rest.
Read More “Decommissioned Fracked Wells Emit 10X Less Methane Than Single Cow”

The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for February, issued yesterday (below), shows EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for March will decrease production from the prior month of February. This is the eighth month in a row that EIA has predicted shale gas production will decrease for the combined seven plays. However, the decrease is less than in previous months, meaning the rate of decrease is slowing. EIA says combined natgas production will slide by a cumulative 25 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day). The Marcellus/Utica, called “Appalachia” in the report, is predicted to decrease by 76 MMcf/d in March compared with February.
Read More “EIA Feb DPR: Production Drop Continues in M-U, but Slows”

U.S. natural gas production in the Lower 48 states is once again very close to all-time high levels, contrary to the blatherings of groups like the International Energy Association (IEA), which continues its meme that both oil and natgas either already have or will soon peak in demand. That’s just not happening here at home. Natural gas production is up to nearly 104.5 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) over the last week, not far off from the all-time highs of nearly 105.7 Bcf/d recorded in December, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Read More “U.S. NatGas Production Nears All-Time High Again – No Slowdown”