Americans Have Saved an Amazing $1.1 Trillion Thx to M-U NatGas
Natural gas end-users, which include American households, businesses, manufacturers, and electric power generators, have realized $1.1 trillion in savings since 2008 as a result of increased natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica region, according to a new report released yesterday. You read that right! Folks across the country have benefited by using M-U gas to the tune of $1.1 trillion in savings. Astonishing! The new report (full copy below) says the total savings works out to be an average of $4,000 per household. Thank God for fracking and horizontal drilling in the Marcellus/Utica.
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According to the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration, our favorite government agency), in the coming month of November, the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce a combined 84 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas, and 8.9 million barrels of oil per day–a brand new record high for each. The real eye-opener is that while the M-U will produce 132 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of additional shale gas, the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico will produce an additional 210 MMcf/d of shale gas!
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a bombshell of a report yesterday. Two reports, actually. USGS periodically updates its estimates of how much oil and natural gas is still not accessed but is “technically recoverable” in various shale plays. The last time USGS evaluated the Marcellus and Utica plays was in 2011, when the two plays combined had 122 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of recoverable gas. In yesterday’s report, USGS says that number has almost doubled, to 214 Tcf. But the biggest surprise is that the Utica has MORE recoverable gas than the Marcellus!
LNG and the amount of so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions given off to produce LNG is the same the world over, right? We mean, LNG is LNG, right? Turns out, that’s not right. At least according to a new study just released by researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). In a new report (full copy below), NETL researchers found that LNG produced here in the U.S. gives off lower GHG emissions during its manufacture than does LNG produced in both Russia and Australia. Meaning Europe and Asia should want to buy and use the better-for-the-environment LNG produced by Uncle Sam rather than buy it from one of those other countries.
Yesterday the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) released its West Virginia Emissions Brief (full copy below) which shows significant emissions reductions and environmental improvements made across the state. This brief further demonstrates that states can reap the rewards of energy production while practicing sound environmental stewardship simultaneously. Although West Virginia is now the seventh-largest natural gas producer in the country and one of the largest consumers of energy per capita, statewide carbon dioxide emissions have fallen 64% since 1990. And Sulfur dioxide emissions are down 94%!
IHS Markit, a global analytics company that tracks data in the oil and gas industry, recently published a new report titled “IHS Markit Conventional Exploration Results in Early 2018 Through 2019: No Rebound in Activity or Results.” Although we don’t have a copy of the full report, we do have IHS Markit’s excellent summary of the report. Here’s how we summarize their summary: Conventional (vertical only) drilling for oil and gas is pretty much dead and will remain dead–and shale killed it.
Our good friend Charlie Schliebs, managing director of 
Last week MDN published a post from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (based on EIA data) that points out worldwide energy use over the next 30 years will increase another 50%, and most of it will still be provided by (yep), fossil fuels (see 
The Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) is calling attention to the “great untold story” in Ohio and across the nation, a story intentionally ignored over the past week of faux climate change protests by kids playing hooky from school. What is the untold story? That the United States in general, and Ohio in particular, is “leading the world in environmental stewardship and emission reduction.” How? Because of shale energy–specifically because of shale gas.
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), published an article yesterday in which their expert number crunchers predict the world will use 50% more energy than it does today by 2050–in 30 short years. While so-called renewable sources of energy (which include hydro as well as solar and wind) will see a big jump up in supplying that increased need, the very sobering observation is that then, as today, fossil fuels will continue to supply the lion’s share of energy worldwide. How much?
According to the EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration, our favorite government agency), in the coming month of September, the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce a combined 82.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas, and 8.8 million barrels of oil per day–a brand new record high for each. However, the rate of growth for both is finally starting to slow from the previous blistering pace we’ve seen over the past year or so.
The Potential Gas Committee (PGC), a private non-profit organization loosely affiliated with the Colorado School of Mines, performs a comprehensive study of potential supplies of natural gas in the United States every two years. The latest biennial study has just been published and finds natural gas supplies in the “Atlantic” area, which includes the Marcellus/Utica (is primarily the M-U), once again leads the country–now with the highest supplies ever.
9/5/19 NOTE: ODNR’s original percentages were incorrectly calculated. A day after releasing the wrong numbers, ODNR fixed the wrong numbers in their 2Q19 update. Frankly, we should have noticed the original error, and didn’t. The raw production numbers were right there before our eyes, yet we simply relied on ODNR’s incorrect percentages and drew the wrong conclusions. See below for the corrected numbers.