Ascent Resources Buying Back $25 Million of Its Own Units (Stock)
Corporations have two primary ways of enriching the owners (shareholders): issuing periodic dividends (cash payments) to shareholders or buying back shares, which reduces the number of outstanding shares, thereby increasing the value of each share (which can be sold for a higher profit). How do privately held companies like Ascent Resources make their owners/investors richer? Pretty much the same way. Ascent issued a press release yesterday to announce it is conducting an “unmodified reverse Dutch auction” to buy back shares (units, in the case of Ascent). The company will spend up to $25 million to buy back units. Our question is, why is Ascent doing this now? Read More “Ascent Resources Buying Back $25 Million of Its Own Units (Stock)”
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The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released its 2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment (LTRA) yesterday. The LTRA highlights *critical* reliability challenges that the power industry is facing over the next 10 years, including satisfying escalating energy growth, managing generator retirements, and removing barriers to resource and transmission development. The LTRA concludes that well over half of the continent is at elevated or high risk of energy shortfalls over the next 5 to 10 years. 
“The science is settled on climate change” is not so settled after all. Researchers in Spain have found that global emissions of a sulfur gas produced by marine life have a previously unknown cooling effect on temperatures. It has long been known that oceans capture and redistribute the sun’s heat. However, there is more to the story. A study published Nov. 29 in the journal Science Advances noted that oceans, notably in the Southern Hemisphere, produce gases known as marine sulfur. And one of these gases, methanethiol, influences the climate in a way that has gone unnoticed. Until now. The study finds that our fear over the planet’s health may be “greatly overestimated” given the cooling effects of methanethiol. 
NATIONAL: How much crude oil is the USA producing?; Trump is ready ‘within seconds’ to issue orders spurring drilling; INTERNATIONAL: Kazakhstan bucks OPEC+ production cuts extension; Oil drops as equity market weakness and Chinese data weigh on prices; What to watch in oil in 2025. 
The left can no longer hide the truth, as they have tried to do for years. The truth is, with the advent of data centers and artificial intelligence and their enormous demand for new electricity, there is only one solution that will work, at least in the next 10-20 years: natural gas power. A Democrat-controlled panel from the Virginia legislature commissioned an independent study of how to power data centers. Northern Virginia has the highest concentration of data centers globally and remains the fastest-growing market for data centers in the country. The state must plan for how to get power to operate all of those installations. The independent study concluded that the only practical solution is to use natural gas-fired power plants. 
Oil wildcatting is the process of drilling exploratory wells in areas with little to no history of oil and gas production. Wildcatting is a high-risk activity that involves drilling in unproven or fully depleted areas. Wildcat wells are often drilled far from other wells and without the use of well logs or other geological data. Wildcatting can be profitable—or spectacularly unprofitable. A recent Hart Energy article reports that “wildcatting is back.” The very first part of the article focuses on wildcatting that is happening in the Ohio Utica Shale. 
MDN reported that in early October that Infinity Natural Resources (INR) filed an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hoping to raise $100 million (see 
Iroquois Gas Transmission’s Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project would increase horsepower at three compression stations — two in New York and one in Connecticut — by an extra 125 MMcf/d, to flow more Marcellus/Utica gas into New York City and New England. The two NY compressors include one in Dover and one in Athens. The CT compressor is located in Brookfield. The left, via the odious Food & Water Watch, has made a concerted effort to block the two NY compressor station upgrades (see 
You can go crazy trying to forecast where the price of natural gas is heading—and why. Lately the price has stayed above $3/MMBtu. That’s always a happy thing. Will the price stay continue to stay above $3? Will it go up even more? Or fall below $3? Are the “bulls” (those who think the price will go higher) or the “bears” (those who believe the price will go lower) in charge at this point? These are all great questions, and the answer is, “It depends on who you read and listen to.” 
In January, Joementia announced a “pause” on any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people pretend to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve a project (see 
The Baker Hughes national rig count dramatically increased two weeks ago, adding seven rigs for a national count of 589 (see 
We’ve brought you the news (a number of times) of how Encino Energy was the first driller to figure out how to coax large quantities of oil from the Ohio Utica Shale (see 
The Kosciusko Junction Pipeline Project, led by Gulf South Pipeline Company, LLC (a subsidiary of Boardwalk Pipelines), involves constructing approximately 110 miles of 36-inch natural gas pipeline. The project has an estimated cost of $1 billion and is supported by a 20-year agreement with an anchor customer. It is designed to transport up to 1.16 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) initially, with potential for expansion to 1.58 Bcf/d. The pipeline aims to connect gas supplies from key basins, including the Marcellus/Utica, Haynesville, and Fayetteville, to power markets in the Southeastern United States. Last week, Boardwalk pulled the trigger and made a final investment decision (FID) to move forward with the Kosciusko Junction project.