According to the data experts at Enverus, the U.S. oil and gas rig count ended the year at 407 rigs, down slightly more than 50% from the same point in 2019. The Marcellus play ended the year with 32 active rigs, and the Utica with 6 active rigs (total of 38 active rigs in the M-U). At the end of 2019, there were 840 rigs operating in the U.S.
Read More “Enverus U.S. Rig Count Ends 2020 Down 50% from 2019”
What if we gave the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) a $2.5 million grant to study a link between peanut butter and childhood cancer. Researchers could only use the money to study any potential link between peanut butter and kids getting rare cancers. Sounds absurd, right? What if there is NO link between peanut butter and cancer in kids? What if there IS a link to some other environmental factor like, say, an old uranium dumpsite nearby? But the remit is ONLY to research peanut butter. Sound silly? Sound stupid? Substitute “shale drilling” for “peanut butter” and you can see how absurd it is for Pennsylvania to announce awarding $2.5 million to Pitt to study a single potential cause for rare childhood cancers in southwestern PA.
Read More “Pitt Researchers Get $2.5M for Fake Study to Link Shale & Kid Cancer”
The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is one of the crown jewels of our federal government. NETL is a U.S. national laboratory under the Dept. of Energy Office of Fossil Energy. NETL focuses on applied research for the clean production and use of domestic energy resources. Capturing and using carbon dioxide is a key focus of NETL’s programs.
Read More “NETL Morgantown, WV Working on Carbon Capture for Gas-Fired Plants”
Wood Mackenzie, also known as WoodMac, is a global energy, chemicals, renewables, metals, and mining research and consultancy group. WoodMac writes reports and dishes out expert advice to investors dealing with the energy industry. WoodMac analysts have put their heads together to predict what we should expect in the energy space in the coming year, from oil markets to solar costs and coal exports to electric vehicles.
Read More “WoodMac: Ten Predictions for the Energy Sector in 2021”
For some reason, S&P Global Platts has not tabulated and reported on the latest Enverus rig count numbers for the past few weeks. Have no fear. MDN pulled the latest rig count report directly from Enverus. It shows that over the past week (ending Dec. 16), the U.S. rig count fell by five to 401 active rigs.
Read More “Enverus U.S. Rig Count Drops by 5 to 401, M-U Steady at 38”
The story of the Marcellus/Utica is a story of natural gas. At least, mostly. We focus almost exclusively on natgas production here on MDN. But there is another story in the M-U, and that’s shale oil. More oil is produced in the Ohio Utica than in the Pennsylvania and West Virginia Marcellus, but all three states produce at least some oil from their shale plays. We spotted a new report about the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) and its use in “enhanced oil recovery” or EOR. The report covers (in part) the Marcellus region and was co-authored by researchers at West Virginia University.
Read More “WVU Co-Authors Study Using CO2 to Extract More Oil/Gas from Shale”
By now it’s a cliche to say that 2020 has been an exceptional year–and not in a good way. For the first time in our memory of writing MDN, we witnessed widespread curtailments or “shut-ins” of wells in the Marcellus/Utica during 2020. That is, drillers voluntarily turned the values off and flowed less gas in a bid to (a) not sell the gas at prices that don’t return a profit, and (b) drive up the price of gas (see M-U Shut-ins Help Keep Regional Gas Prices Stable…for Now). Will that trend continue in 2021?
Read More “M-U Drillers Increasingly Shut-In Wells to Boost Gas Price, Profits”
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), published our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The latest DPR, which shows estimates for oil and gas production from the seven largest shale plays in the U.S., shows a drop in shale gas production across all plays (including the Marcellus/Utica)–except for a slight production increase in the Haynesville–coming next month in January. The M-U is forecast to drop another 154 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) from production levels in December.
Read More “DPR: Most Shale Plays, Incl. M-U, Continue Big Drop in Production”
Each year S&P Global Platts hosts its “Global Energy Outlook Forum” in New York City, an event we always look forward to attending. The Forum assembles some of the best thinkers and industry participants from across all energy sectors to discuss what happened during the previous year, and what’s on the way next year and down the road with respect to energy. All kinds of energy. This year, given COVID-19, there was no Forum. However, Platts did release its 2021 Energy Outlook yesterday.
Read More “S&P Global Platts Analytics 2021 Annual Energy Outlook”
MDN has repeatedly read that Marcellus/Utica drillers (as well as drillers in other shale plays) must drill far less and produce far less in an effort to boost profits for shareholders. Just yesterday we published a story about M-U drillers overspending, by half a billion dollars, in 3Q20 (see 3Q Financial Health of Top Marcellus/Utica Drillers Troubling). Yet today we’re reading about a new report just published by the International Energy Forum (IEF) that says if the oil and gas industry doesn’t increase spending by 25% over the next three years, we face a supply shock (not enough oil and gas) of historic proportions.
Read More “Report: Oil & Gas Supply Shock Coming Unless Drillers Boost Spending”
Although in recent months a number of major Marcellus/Utica drillers have shut-in (or curtailed) some of their natural gas production, apparently those days are over. According to an analysis by S&P Global Platts, M-U gas production in December has (so far) averaged nearly 33.9 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day), making December’s month-to-date average the highest on record. In fact, on Dec. 7, two days ago, regional output in the M-U was estimated at 34 Bcf/d, less than 300 MMcf/d below its all-time, single-day record high. What’s going on?
Read More “Higher Regional Prices/Demand Leads to Record M-U Dec. Production”
Do political, agenda-driven “researchers” never tire of spinning false narratives around fracking? When Michael Bloomberg pays your salary (as he does for researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), apparently not. Back in 2016, Brian Schwartz, a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute (virulent anti-fossil fuel group) was among a group of researchers who published a junk science report claiming fracking in PA gives you headaches (see Johns Hopkins Junk Science: Fracking Gives You Headaches). He’s baaaack! This time Schwartz says PA fracking gives you (gasp)…heart failure.
Read More “Johns Hopkins Junk Science: PA Fracking Gives You Heart Failure”
Last Friday MDN posted a link to news in our “best of the rest” about an amazing new discovery that we think needs more attention. Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a new low-toxicity (very safe) mixture that converts natural gas into a solid, non-explosive form of ice, making it easy to transport and store. Get ready for a new term: SNG.
Read More “SNG: Researchers Convert NatGas to a Solid for Storage, Shipping”
Natural gas-fired electric generation has increased in most U.S. regions since 2015, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Annual electricity generation from natural gas power plants in the U.S. increased by 31% in the Northeast region, by 20% in the Central region, and by 17% in the South region between 2015 and 2019.
Read More “NatGas-Fired Power Plants in M-U See Dramatic Increase 2015-2019”
Each year Cleveland State University publishes a report for JobsOhio looking at how much money has been invested by the private sector in the Utica Shale (and related) industry. The CSU’s eighth report (full copy below) was recently released and shows some eye-popping numbers. Total shale investment from July through December 2019 in Ohio was approximately $3.06 billion, including upstream, midstream, and downstream. Cumulative shale oil and gas investment in Ohio through the end of 2019 is estimated to be $86.4 billion! It’s hard to wrap your head around that kind of money and its impact on the Ohio economy.
Read More “Jul-Dec 2019 Private Investment in Ohio Utica Shale: $3 Billion”
Each year East Daley Capital publishes its Midstream Guidance Outlook which looks at themes and trends affecting the midstream (pipeline) sector in the coming year. The latest version of Daley’s report has just been released and draws some interesting conclusions about the midstream in 2021. Namely, associated gas growth in the Permian and elsewhere will go down and result in rising gas demand from the Marcellus/Utica and Haynesville gas plays. The big winners will be M-U pipeline companies, including Williams, Antero Midstream, and Equitrans (EQT Midstream).
Read More “2021 Midstream Outlook: Less Assoc Gas = Good News for M-U Pipe Cos.”