EIA Observes M-U Gas Production Flat, Key PA Counties in Decline
The analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) have been looking at natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica (i.e., Appalachia) for 2022. The M-U is the largest-producing natural gas shale play in the world. Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. after Texas. The EIA looked at PA’s production, specifically production from the four largest-producing counties, for 2022. They found what we told you about back in March: Production in PA has fallen (see PA Shale Production & Drilling Tumble in Latest IFO Qtly Report).
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Yesterday the International Gas Union (IGU) released its 14th annual 2023 World LNG Report–the world’s most comprehensive public source of information on key developments and trends in the LNG sector (full copy below). With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the gas markets went wild last year. The IGU report calls 2022 the “most turbulent year of gas markets” in history and says, “LNG demonstrated essential value as a flexible, reliable, available energy resource for a secure energy transition.” Forget about the energy transition nonsense in that statement. The fact is, LNG saved the day over the past year plus. LNG, particularly U.S. LNG, pulled Europe’s bacon out of the fire.
Once a month, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. Last month the EIA predicted an average price at the Henry Hub of $2.66/MMBtu for 2023, and $3.42/MMBtu for 2024 (see 
The weekly rig count for the U.S. finally, after nine straight weeks in a row, turned around–just a bit. With its venerable rig count, Baker Hughes reported last Friday that overall, the U.S. rig count added six rigs, reversing a downward trend. There were 680 active rigs for the week ending July 7. Both the Marcellus and the Utica maintained the same rig levels for the past four weeks in a row with a cumulative 48 rigs. That number is down from an average of 52 it had been running for the first five months this year. The good news is that we haven’t lost any more rigs.
Pennsylvania’s Democrat Party is hellbent on driving the Marcellus Shale industry out of the state. They have been for years. That’s just a truthful observation and beyond dispute. The latest evidence is the party’s insistence on adding a severance tax on top of the existing impact fee, PA’s version of a severance tax. The Dems in the PA House passed a resolution on Friday by a single vote that directs the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to “study” Pennsylvania’s revenue from the oil and gas industry, comparing it with the top five states in natural gas production in the U.S.
Domestic consumption and export of natural gas in the U.S. grew a combined 34.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), or 43%, from 2012 to 2022. One of the biggest reasons for the dramatic increase was a mass change from producing electricity with coal plants to using natural gas-fired plants instead. So says the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in a new post.
Earlier this year, British oil giant BP announced it would no longer publish its vaunted annual Statistical Review of World Energy, a publication it has issued each year since 1952 (see 
Gas-fired power plant additions have surged in 2023 according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) most recent infrastructure report (full copy below). Nearly 4,470 megawatts (MW) of natural gas-fired electric generation came online in the first four months this year, up from 551 MW in the same period in 2022. Utility-scale solar capacity increased by 3,409 MW through April of this year, up from 3,064 MW in the year-ago period. New wind capacity fell to 1,967 MW from 5,161 MW in the same period last year. Contrary to the constant meme that “renewables” like solar and wind are replacing natural gas for electric generation, the facts say otherwise.
The weekly rig count for the U.S. has continued to be anemic over the past two months. Baker Hughes, with its venerable rig count, reported last Friday that overall, the U.S. rig count continued to bleed rigs–down another five rigs to 682 in the week ending June 23. That’s the lowest count since April 2022 and the eighth week in a row the U.S. has lost active rigs. The good news for the Marcellus/Utica is that both the Marcellus and the Utica maintained the same rig levels last week. It’s good news they didn’t bleed any more rigs!
MDN has repeatedly warned you that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has become a political shill for the extreme left environmental movement. Two years ago, the IEA published its laughable Net Zero Roadmap (see 
The experts at NGI (
Almost from the first day when MDN editor Jim Willis began to write the MDN blog/news site, he heard of the concept of “peak oil.” For many years, peak oilers said that the world’s oil supply would soon run out–there’s just not enough oil left to extract out of the ground. Which is a joke. When the world saw the power of shale energy, it became evident even to the most hardened liars that they could no longer sell the concept of peak oil supply. Seemingly overnight, they changed and began to peddle peak oil demand. The lefties at Bloomberg are now predicting peak oil (for all uses) is coming in 2029. Which reminds us of the end-of-the-world predictions that surface from various cults every few years. This time it’s a prediction coming from the cult of anti-fossil fuelism.