PA DEP 2019 Annual O&G Report: Permits Down, Production Record High
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just published its 2019 Oil and Gas Annual Report. This is the fourth year in a row the DEP has published the report in an interactive, electronic (i.e.online) format ONLY. What does the 2019 report show? While permits issued and number of new wells drilled have both gone down (again), gas production has gone up (again)–to a new record high.
Read More “PA DEP 2019 Annual O&G Report: Permits Down, Production Record High”
S&P Global Platts published analysis last Friday looking at supply and demand for natural gas in the Midwestern region of the country. Platts says supplies to the region from places like the Bakken, Midcontinent (SCOOP/STACK), and Rockies will decrease this winter–by a lot. But then, demand in the region will decrease too, given the slumping economy because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, it looks to us like maybe there’s an opportunity for Marcellus/Utica gas, which travels to the Midwest via several pipelines, to make up the difference between supply and demand. The region will still need more gas than supplies available.
Amid all the prattling about so-called renewable energy and how renewables are taking over the world and everyone should just dump using fossil fuels right now because renewable nirvana is here…comes this splash of cold, hard truth. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has run the numbers and found that in 2019, like in years past, the vast majority of the energy used by Americans comes from fossil fuels. Some 80% of all the energy we consumed in this country last year came from fossil fuels. Renewables? A minuscule fraction.
The Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) released an important new study yesterday. Titled “How Pipelines Can Spur Immediate Post-COVID Economic Recovery,” the new study finds delays, obstruction, and cancellation of pipeline infrastructure projects are threatening at least $13.6 billion in economic activity, over 66,000 jobs, and more than $280 million a year in state and local tax revenue at a time when America’s financial recovery from COVID-19 requires MORE investment and tax revenue. A section of the report finds anti-pipeline fanatics in NY, NJ, and PA threaten $3.5 billion worth of investments and 17,000 jobs in our region alone.
Each quarter the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issues an update on Utica (and Marcellus) oil and natural gas production. Apparently ODNR no longer issues a summary press release as they once did. They have, however, published a detailed spreadsheet of all active wells showing oil and gas production by well, which we have below. We do our own summary to show you the top 25 shale gas wells and top 25 shale oil wells for the quarter. We also have a summary of the overall results from the experts at S&P Global Platts.
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), maintains a list of pipeline projects going back to 1996. Based on that list EIA recently published an article on their Today in Energy site pointing out during the first half of 2020 some 5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of new natgas pipeline capacity (across the entire country) came online. They also point out some 8.7 Bcf/d of previously planned new pipe capacity was canceled in 2020, including Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Constitution Pipeline, both here in the M-U region. We grabbed the spreadsheet of the 145 active and/or canceled pipelines in 2020 and trimmed it down to show the list of pipelines active or canceled that have the potential to flow M-U molecules. Our list (below) shows 41 active pipe projects and 4 canceled projects.
Last Thursday Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report–for April through June 2020 (full copy below). The report shows natgas production in PA rose 2.8% compared to the same period last year. However, overall production fell 2.8% compared to 1Q20–the second quarter in a row production has fallen quarter-over-quarter.
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR estimates how much oil and natural gas each of the country’s seven largest shale plays produced in the previous (i.e. current) month, and how much each will produce in the coming (i.e. next) month. The August report, which predicts production for the coming month of September, estimates natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica will decrease by 203 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–the biggest (by far) decrease in any of the seven shale plays tracked.
Please don’t come to Boston. If you do, you may experience blackouts from an unreliable electricity grid powered by so-called (very unreliable) renewables. That’s our takeaway on the obtuse attitudes that pervade New England and the Communist politicians that run that section of the country.
Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw, Majority Chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, is hammering ICF International, a consultant hired by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP has paid $874,000 (so far) to ICF for research relating to “climate change.” ICF is providing research used by the DEP to justify Gov. Wolf’s harebrained idea to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme meant to drive natgas electric plants out of existence in the state. All in the name of saving Mom Earth. Ludicrous. ICF, supposedly impartial, appears to be anything but according to Yaw.
Over the past week, comparing this past Wednesday (Jul 15) with a week ago Wednesday (Jul 8), the Enverus onshore rig count increased by five–from 276 to 281. After four solid months of the rig count going down, perhaps we’ve finally hit bottom, turned a corner, and any other analogy you can think of to indicate better days are ahead.
Rystad Energy, an independent energy research and business intelligence company headquartered in Oslo, Norway (but with major offices in cities including Houston), recently issued their latest assessment of the worldwide oil and gas marketplace. Rystad is predicting the number of oil and gas wells drilled worldwide in 2020 will fall by a staggering 23% from the number drilled last year. Rystad’s prediction models stretch out five years and forecasts over the next five years the number of wells drilled in any given year will *still not* exceed the number of wells drilled in 2019. Yuck.
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR estimates how much oil and natural gas each of the country’s seven largest shale plays produced in the previous (current) month, and how much each will produce in the coming (next) month. The July report, which predicts production for the coming month of August, estimates natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica will decrease by 210 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–the biggest decrease for any of the major shale plays.
West Virginia University (WVU) has created a new “
Shame on Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell for prostituting himself to Gov. Tom Wolf by teasing a forthcoming “report” that says by enacting a jobs-killing carbon tax in the state it will generate 27,000 new jobs, add $1.9 billion to the PA economy, and even save lives. (Maybe the carbon tax can part the Red Sea too?) These are outrageous lies. Perhaps McDonnell should have resigned if Wolf was pressuring him to lie like that. Better to resign with dignity than damage your reputation for becoming known as a paid liar.