Exxon Annual Report: O&G to Provide 54% of World Energy in 2050
ExxonMobil recently published “The Global Outlook,” the company’s latest view of energy demand and supply through 2050. The document forms the basis for Exxon’s business planning and is “underpinned by a deep understanding of long-term market fundamentals.” Exxon is making short-term decisions based on this long-term document. And what does this document say? It says, contrary to the fantasies of leftists, that fossil energy (petroleum, natural gas, and coal) will still make up 68% of the world’s energy sources in 2050, some 30 years from now. That’s down from 82% today. Oil and gas by themselves will provide 54% of the world’s energy in 2050. O&G is still the one.
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For the first time since June, the national active U.S. rig count added rigs–a single rig–last week. The new active U.S. rig count is 632, up from 631 the previous week. Unfortunately, the Marcellus/Utica lost yet another rig, sinking to 39 active rigs. Once again, West Virginia was the unlucky state that lost a rig, now running just 8 shale rigs. The rig counts for both Pennsylvania and Ohio stayed the same last week.
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for April through June 2023 (full copy below). There were 94 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 2Q23, a huge decrease of 39 wells (-29%) compared to 2Q22. Data for July and August 2023 show that new wells spud declined 48% (!) from the same period in 2022. Ouch. However, natural gas production volume was 1,859 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 2Q23, up 7 Bcf (+0.3%) from 2Q22. It is the first quarter without a year-over-year production decline since 2Q22. Let’s celebrate the small victories, right?
What’s the government’s answer to everything? Money! Have a problem, throw money at it, and declare it solved. Need more votes in the next election? Money helps with that, too. Here’s the latest “money solves all problems” proposal from the Dept. of Energy (DOE)… The DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced up to $30 million in free money (i.e., grants) for developing advanced technologies to reduce or eliminate the need for natural gas flaring at oil production sites. Cause you know, fugitive methane is toasting Mom Earth into a cinder.
Pennsylvania State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (
Quick! Apply pressure to the wound before the patient (in this case, the Marcellus/Utica) bleeds out. Another week, another lost rig in the Marcellus. We can’t seem to stem the flow of rigs leaving. The national rig count also lost one rig overall. For the eighth week in a row and the 17th of the last 18 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. The total is now down to 631 active rigs across both oil and gas (down from 632 last week). At least the loss is slowing. West Virginia dropped one rig after adding one last week. The rig counts for both Pennsylvania and Ohio stayed the same last week.
Three weeks ago, 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 
When Russia illegally and immorally invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the price of oil and natural gas worldwide soared to record highs. Western countries pledged to wean themselves off Putin’s oil and gas, and Putin threatened them in return with cutting them off without notice. There was a lot of scrambling, and Europe filled its storage with oil and gas, so prices began to drop when the winter of 2022/2023 rolled around. Prices have continued to drop (except for oil, recently). With prices in the doldrums, drillers are drilling less. Rigs are being released. Yet production is still rising! It’s confusing–what’s happening?
Two weeks ago, 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 
The left is slowly, begrudgingly, but inevitably coming to the conclusion that so-called peak oil demand–the theory that other forms of energy will replace oil and that oil demand will diminish–is “pure fantasy.” Axios, founded by former POLITICO “journalists” and catering to Gen Z lefties with attention deficit disorder from growing up playing video games 24/7, ran a short article quoting research by “prominent analyst Arjun Murti,” who offers a sobering case for why “a global peak in oil demand may be very far away.” While the article doesn’t use this exact language, the upshot is that using oil for energy leads to human flourishing–lifting people out of poverty. Oil demand may slip in certain Western countries, but the use of oil for energy will continue to grow in third-world countries for decades to come.
A coalition of 1,609 scientists worldwide, including two Nobel Laureates, have signed a declaration stating “there is no climate emergency” and that they “strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy” being pushed across the globe. The declaration does not deny the harmful effect of greenhouse gasses but instead challenges the hysteria brought about by the narrative of imminent doom. Whoops! What happened to the mainstream media narrative that ALL real scientists believe in the hoax of catastrophic global warming? One more lie from the left is now exposed…
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released production numbers for the second quarter of 2023 late last week, and nobody noticed…except MDN (thanks to a tip from a good friend). ODNR no longer issues a press release to summarize the results as they once did. We’ve got the full spreadsheet with oil and gas production details for all 3,233 active shale wells in the Buckeye State. We’ve sliced and diced the numbers and have our usual Top 25 lists for natural gas and oil wells. We’ve added a couple of new charts summarizing the data, showing the total production for the quarter by driller (gas and oil) and the total production for the quarter by county. You’re gonna love it!
The rig count carnage continues. For the seventh week in a row and the 16th of the last 17 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. A lot of rigs. Last week, the number decreased by 10 rigs after falling by 12 for the prior week. The total is now down to 632 active rigs across both oil and gas. Oil rigs have now fallen for a ninth straight month, while the combined oil and gas count has fallen for four straight months. After losing three rigs two weeks ago, the Marcellus/Utica count added one rig last week–in West Virginia.
Carbon offsets are the same thing as carbon taxes. A carbon offset refers to reducing so-called greenhouse gas emissions by buying a credit from someone who plants trees or agrees not to cut down trees. A company gets to keep on polluting as long as it pays a tax to do it–pretending they are helping the precious environment by paying to plant or not chop down trees. It is the darnedest feat of mental gymnastics we’ve ever seen. Who thinks up this stuff? (Hey, wanna buy a bridge in Brooklyn? We have one to sell!) A new study by the leftists at the University of Cambridge published yesterday in the journal Science exposes the sale of carbon credits as a scam.
In early 2021, MDN told you about a so-called “research report” issued by a front organization for the Heinz Endowments called the Ohio River Valley Institute (see