EIA: O&G Production Jobs Today are 26% Lower Than 2014
Last week MDN highlighted a survey from Evercore ISI looking at attitudes and behaviors of displaced workers in the oil and gas industry (see Laid Off Workers Say “No Thanks” to New Oil & Gas Jobs). Many laid off workers have already found jobs in other industries, and they aren’t tempted to return to an oil & gas job due to the cyclical nature of the industry. We quoted a number we spotted from Evercore that there have been over 300,000 layoffs in recent years. We thought that a bit high, but they’re the experts. On Friday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), our favorite government agency, ran an article saying the job loss is closer to 142,000. We suppose it’s all in how you count jobs directly or indirectly related to the o&g industry. There are many jobs (hotel workers, restaurant workers, etc.) that can be highly dependent on the o&g industry, yet aren’t actually an o&g job. But when drilling gets cut, so too does eating at restaurants, staying in hotels, etc. The EIA is looking at direct jobs–those related to oil and natural gas production. What have (below) is the EIA’s reckoning that direct employment in the o&g industry today is down 24% from its high in 2014, just prior to the collapse of oil prices. That’s a drop of 142,000 and any way you slice it, it’s a lot of lost jobs…
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On Tuesday MDN brought you what we thought was the very first Annual Oil and Gas Annual Report from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (see 
One of NGI’s ace reporters, Carolyn Davis, got her hands on a new report/survey conducted by Evercore ISI that looks at attitudes and behaviors of displaced workers in the oil and gas industry. The results are quite interesting. You may recall that something like 300,000+ o&g workers were laid off over the past several years. Many of them worked for oilfield services companies (OFS), like Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger. In fact, our back-of-the-envelope tally says the vast majority of those layoffs came from just a handful of companies, namely those three. The Evercore survey found that many (most?) workers are not returning to the oil and gas industry, now that hiring has begun again. And that’s a problem. It means that there aren’t enough bodies to do the work. It seems the laid-off workers didn’t appreciate getting canned, tossed overboard like a piece of trash at the first sign of trouble–and many of them have gotten jobs in other industries. Who can blame them?! Here’s a few highlights from the survey…
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued what we believe is the first-ever Oil and Gas Annual Report, covering last year (2015). We’ve never seen one of these reports before (full copy below). [UPDATE: MDN subscriber Michele W. wrote to tell us the DEP has been producing annual o&g reports since 2013. Thanks Michele!] Our hat is off to the DEP. This is an EXCELLENT report! It’s chock full of very cool graphs and tables and useful information–in particular about the unconventional (shale) drilling industry in the state, but also about the conventional oil and gas industry in PA. At a very high level, we learn that total production of natural gas in PA for 2015 was 4.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), versus 4.05 Tcf in 2014–and that’s with less drilling! Most of the production came from the Marcellus Shale layer, but the Utica and Point Pleasant formations are showing a noticeable uptick in production. Among the many charts and graphs is a table showing the Top 25 producers of natgas in the state (see our separate post today on that); the number of shale and conventional well permits issued, by year; number of permits issued by county in 2015 (and a table with the Top 5 counties); number of wells drilled by year for both shale and conventional; number of wells drilled by county in 2015; the list goes on! Take time to read through this fascinating report about the most productive natural gas shale play in the second highest-producing natgas state in the country…
Below is a chart from the just-released 2015 Oil and Gas Annual Report for Pennsylvania, from the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). The report is full of great charts and graphs and useful details about both the shale and conventional drilling industry in the state (see today’s lead story, PA Releases 2015 Oil & Gas Annual Report (Very Cool)). It’s hard for us to select a favorite chart/graph from the report, there’s so many of them! However, the table below is on the short list. It is a table showing the Top 25 natural gas producers, along with the amount of natgas produced, for 2015. It may or may not surprise you to learn that the #1 natgas producer in PA for 2015 was….Chesapeake Energy! It certainly didn’t surprise us to see the company in the #2 slot–Cabot Oil & Gas. Here’s the full table…
In May MDN highlighted news that Penn State University had set up a seismic monitoring system throughout Pennsylvania to track earthquakes in the Keystone State (see 
In November 2014 MDN told you that West Virginia University and Ohio State University received an $11 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy for a joint five-year study of Marcellus/Utica fracking and shale drilling (see 
The anti-frackers at the Johns Hopkins-Bloomberg School of Public Health are out with another bought-and-paid-for (by anti-drillers) “study” that implies the presence of fracking in Pennsylvania leads to causing or making worse asthma attacks. You may recall the same group of antis pushed out a study last October that supposedly shows fracking leads to premature births (see 
In the past we’ve been pretty critical of the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO). It claims to provide revenue projections for use in the state budget process along with “impartial and timely analysis of fiscal, economic and budgetary issues to assist Commonwealth residents and the General Assembly in their evaluation of policy decisions.” It’s been our observation the IFO is populated with partisan Democrats. However, we have to acknowledge their prediction of impact fee revenue from 2015 was spot on. Earlier this year the IFO predicted that when the dust had settled, the impact fee would generate $185.5 million (see “Independent” Fiscal Office Says PA Impact Fee Revenue Drops 17%). When the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) finally reported the actual numbers, it turned out to be $188 million (see 
The amount of natural gas that gets produced, and the amount that actually gets traded (bought and sold) are two different numbers. Don’t try to figure out–just accept it on faith. The companies that buy and sell (i.e. trade) natural gas are required to file “Form 552” with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) once each year, to inform FERC of the volume of gas they’ve traded. Form 552 says right on it that its purpose is: “FERC Form No. 552 collects transactional information from natural gas market participants. The filing of this information is necessary to provide information regarding physical natural gas transactions that use an index and transactions that contribute to, or may contribute to gas price indices.” Cornerstone Research, an economic and financial consulting company, does a yearly deep dive into all of those Form 552 filings, producing a report of their findings (full copy of the report below). What did Cornerstone find from the 552 filings for 2015? The big news is that the volume of gas traded in 2015 went up 4% over 2014. It’s big news because the the volume of gas traded has gone down each year since 2011. Here’s what else they found…
A study funded entirely by the National Science Foundation (no Big Green money involved, no oil and gas money involved) has found that fracking operations in Colorado have not led to an increase in methane migration into groundwater supplies. The study, titled “Groundwater methane in relation to oil and gas development and shallow coal seams in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado” (full copy below) was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and is significant. The research examined methane levels going back 25 years, long before any horizontal fracking took place in the state. It focuses on an area of Colorado where there has been a great deal of drilling and fracking over the past 16 years. In looking at levels of dissolved methane in groundwater both before and after fracking began, the researchers found, “The rate [of groundwater methane] did not change after the introduction of horizontal drilling combined with high-volume hydraulic fracturing in 2010.” We predict you’ll hear crickets in mainstream media–with no coverage of this very important finding…
In November 2015 MDN brought you a list of 36 North America drillers that had, as of that time, declared bankruptcy (see 
Last week MDN reported that a previously trumpeted so-called research study of air quality near fracking sites in Ohio had been retracted (see