Important Marcellus/Utica Primer Available to Download – for FREE
MDN editor Jim Willis has once again partnered with NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) to bring you a great (and FREE) opportunity to learn more about everyone’s favorite twin shale plays: The Marcellus and Utica Shales. NGI produces a mountain of data and information as part of their research and development efforts, publishing it in a Shale Plays Factbook, which costs $179. However, because of MDN’s special partnership with NGI, they have agreed to combine the Marcellus/Utica sections from the Factbook into a special primer, available free for MDN readers only. Here’s what’s in the Marcellus/Utica Shale Primer, a few sample pages, and how you can get a copy instantly…
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Each year the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) issues an annual Winter Outlook assessment of the wholesale natural gas market. Yesterday the NGSA issued its 17th such report. Among their predictions: demand for natural gas will hit an all-time high this winter, even outstripping the infamous Polar Vortex from two years ago. However, production, Canadian imports and existing natural gas in storage (in record numbers) will be able to meet the demand, therefore prices will remain steady–no huge ups, no huge downs. NGSA’s forecasts are based on weather forecasts. They assume this winter will be an average of 13% colder than last winter. We don’t like the sound of that, since we live in the cold northeast! Bottom line from NGSA: “The picture that emerged for the upcoming winter is of a natural gas market experiencing substantial growth in both demand and supply.” Below is the NGSA press release/overview, a copy of the full report, and a copy of the NGSA PowerPoint slide deck, with lots of pretty charts and graphs…
Last Friday the U.S. Energy Information Administration, our favorite government agency, released its Natural Gas Annual 2016 report (full copy below). Weighing in at 214 pages, this report is full of data. It is a datamonger’s dream come true. A few highlights: In 2016, U.S. dry gas production actually FELL from the previous year, the first time that has happened since 2005. Texas saw the biggest dry gas production decline (10%), while Pennsylvania had the biggest increase in production (10.2%). This is the fourth straight year PA production has gone up–thank you Marcellus Shale! Natural gas consumption across the country reached a new record high–for the seventh year in a row. Imported natural gas went down again–for the ninth year in a row. Here’s the full report, and a few bullet point highlights to feed your inner datamonger…
We’ve written in the past about silly nutters who stay awake at night worried that the earth is going to fry to a crisp–any decade now. Often the oil and gas industry (i.e. fossil fuels) are blamed for an increase in methane in the atmosphere. But the reality, as we’ve written many times before, is that agriculture–cows and rice paddies–are the real culprit. In Oct. 2013, we wrote this article: 
MDN is once again attending the Shale Insight event–in Pittsburgh. Yesterday was the first day of the event. The crowd was definitely smaller than last year when then-candidate Trump spoke to attendees. However, Day One saw a number of heavy-hitting speakers, including Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, XTO Energy President Sara Ortwein, Chevron Appalachia President Stacey Olson, and People’s Natural Gas CEO Morgan O’Brien. Marcellus Shale Coalition President Dave Spigelmyer served as master of ceremonies and seemed to be everywhere-present during the event (how does he DO that?). From the opening session to the exhibit floor to attending the breakout sessions, MDN editor Jim Willis made the rounds–and took lots of notes. In the coming days he will write up those notes and share them. For now, we have links and extracts of articles from other publications attending and reporting on this year’s Shale Insight…
One of the big announcements coming from Shale Insight 2017 on the first day was the release of a new study tag-team researched by Chevron Appalachia and People’s Natural Gas. As People’s CEO Morgan O’Brien explained it–everyone assumes “someone else” has a master plan, a statewide strategy for how to develop this phenomenal resource. But when you look around you come to the realization that no one has such a plan. So Chevron Appalachia CEO Stacey Olson approached People’s CEO O’Brien and asked for help to research and author a study that would provide such a plan–a plan to unlock what they believe is a $60 BILLION opportunity for Pennsylvania that will create 100,000 new jobs statewide. The result is a study called “Forge the Future: Pennsylvania’s Path To An Advanced, Energy-Enabled Economy” (full copy below), released yesterday. We now have, according to Chevron’s Olson and People’s O’Brien, the road map. What we need is for people in the industry to step up and seize the day and take action to create that amazing future…
As enormously productive as the Marcellus/Utica wells are, did you know that the best wells only recover perhaps 20% of the available gas trapped in shale rocks? Often it’s more like 10%, or 5% recovery. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Morgantown, WV is trying to change those numbers. In a research program NETL calls “mastering the subsurface,” researchers are learning what happens at the smallest level of fracturing shale–so they can improve recovery rates using new processes and materials. In addition to improving recovery, they’re also looking for ways to cut down on water use. Since there’s a fair bit of water already trapped in shale, NETL is experimenting with carbon dioxide foam, as a way of using less water. (Don’t tell Al Gore. He HATES carbon dioxide, calling it a “pollutant” and saying it causes Mom Earth to toast). NETL is also using natural gas itself to frack rock. A lot of very important research is happening at NETL–research that may one day change the way we frack…
Flowback (water that comes back out of the well after fracking) and produced water (naturally occurring water from the depths that comes out the well for months and years after it’s drilled) have long been a “problem” drillers have to deal with. The choices are to: (1) haul it away to an injection well, (2) haul it to a centralized recycling facility, or (3) recycle it on location and reuse it for more drilling/fracking. That third option is really the brass ring for drillers. If only there were an economical way to recycle the water on location and reuse it. Researchers at Rice University (in Texas) believe they have made a breakthrough in option #3. Using a ceramic membrane with microscale pores, Rice researchers have found a way to clean flowback and produced water, removing 90% of hydrocarbons, bacteria and particulates in a single pass through the filter. The Rice discovery is aimed particularly at flowback–the 10-15% of fluid pumped down the hole to frack a well. Rice researchers published their research online, today, in Nature magazine’s open-access Scientific Reports. We have a copy of the paper, titled “Superhydrophilic Functionalization of Microfiltration Ceramic Membranes Enables Separation of Hydrocarbons from Frac and Produced Water,” below…
MDN’s favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR), yesterday. The DPR is the EIA’s best guess, based on expert data crunchers, as to how much each of the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce for both oil and natural gas in the coming month. Last month EIA combined the Marcellus and Utica plays into a category they call Appalachia–a big change in the report (see 
Last week our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), released its annual “International Energy Outlook 2017” (full copy below). What does the report show? EIA predicts energy consumption is set to increase 28% from 2015 levels by 2040–in a little over the next 20 years. To meet this huge uptick in energy, EIA predicts fossil fuel use–led by natural gas and oil–will continue to account for about 77% of energy consumption through 2040. So much for the renewable nirvana future we’re always just a year or two away from (according to Al Gore). Fossil fuels will remain the #1 fuel of choice by the world for the next generation, and almost certainly the generation after that, and the one after that. Do you now see why drilling for oil and gas in shale is so vital to the future of not only our country, but the world? According to EIA, most of the growth in energy consumption (and fossil fuels) will come from China and India. Here’s the lowdown on what’s just around the corner…
Finally the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has had enough shenanigans from the corrupted New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). In a historic, precedent-setting decision, on Friday FERC overruled DEC’s denial of a water permit for Millennium Pipeline’s tiny 7.8 mile pipeline spur from the main Millennium Pipeline to a natural gas power plant under construction in Orange County, NY. On Wednesday, Aug. 30, the DEC issued a denial letter to FERC and Millennium. In it, they claim that FERC’s review of the power plant project (that the pipeline will feed) is deficient based on a recently-decided court case about a pipeline project in Florida (see 
MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of visiting France in 2006. It is a breathtakingly beautiful country. Jim found the French people to be personable and easy to deal with, contrary to the popular myth they are arrogant and hate Americans. But hey, that was just one guy’s experience. Maybe you have had a different experience? We’ve written about France’s on again, off again frack ban over the years (
The New York-based Manhattan Institute, a non-profit think tank with a mission “to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility” recently released a new report titled, “The Energy Bottleneck: Why America Needs More Pipelines” (full copy embedded below). The 16-page report says that while America is enjoying an energy renaissance thanks to fracking, there is a growing energy bottleneck that is forcing oil and gas companies to turn increasingly to more “accident-prone and more expensive shipping alternatives, such as trucks, railroads, and tankers.” The report says to maximize the benefits of America’s energy renaissance, the Trump administration, Congress, and federal and state regulators should “prioritize expanding and upgrading the country’s inadequate pipeline infrastructure.” We agree! Here’s the latest from the MI calling for more pipelines…
In June 2016 MDN told you about a sham “study” on the way from an anti-drilling “researcher” from Yale University, funded by Big Green groups (see 
Two weeks ago the U.S. Dept. of Energy released a 187-page study called “Electricity Markets and Reliability” (full copy below). Often referred to as “the grid study,” it is the result of a directive in April by the then-new Secretary of DOE, Rick Perry, to develop a report including an assessment of the reliability and resilience of the electric grid and an overview of the evolution of electricity markets. Perry called it “long overdue.” Radical environmentalists predicted the study would take aim at so-called renewable sources of energy and promote more coal use. What did the study actually find? (1) The shale gas revolution had a bigger impact on the decline of coal than did the federal government propping up renewables. (2) The electric grid is in pretty good shape, even though it flows a lot more electricity than it did eight years ago. (3) Lawmakers should not be too eager to force the use of more solar and wind as sources of electricity–not if you want a reliable grid that doesn’t crash when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Natural gas plays a big part in the report…
In January 2016 Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his now-fired Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley, introduced an awful four-point plan to supposedly reduce methane emissions by 40% over the next five years (see