Range Releases 4Q Production & Pricing Numbers, Proved Reserves
Two days ago, Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus shale well (back in 2004), issued fourth-quarter 2023 expectations for production and pricing along with details about the company’s proved reserves. Range doesn’t issue its official 4Q update until later this month (Feb. 21). The preliminary numbers show the company, when converting all production to gas equivalent, produced 2.2 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) during 4Q23. The company received an average of $2.68 per Mcf (thousand cubic feet) for its gas.
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Although oil and natural gas output is still increasing ever-so-slightly, according to experts like Rystad Energy, the rate of production growth has slowed. And because production is slowing, “investments in the shale patch are not expected to grow in 2024, keeping activity and output relatively flat” this year. How does slowing activity in 2024 affect employment in O&G in 2024? Rigzone asked a couple of experts. One comment in particular caught our attention because it has implications not only in the Texas oil patch, but also in the M-U gas patch.
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security held a hearing on Tuesday to challenge Joe Biden’s so-called pause on new LNG permits to non-free-trade partners as it “studies the impacts,” including on climate change, of LNG use. Republicans blasted the Bidenistas for the havoc they have created with the announcement. Democrats on the subcommittee defended Biden’s pause (go figure), arguing now is the time to reevaluate new LNG exports. The Dems are oblivious to the tangible harm this pause is causing (see 
Politicians on Capitol Hill aren’t the only people taking aim at Joe Biden’s pause on LNG export approvals (see today’s companion story, Repubs Attack, Dems Defend Biden LNG Pause at House Hearing). Some 23 “red” state Attorneys General wrote a letter to President Biden and the nutty Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, to inform them that this LNG approvals pause violates federal law. The not-so-subtle threat is that unless Biden “changes course” and reverses the pause, he’s facing a lawsuit by half of the states in the country.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai in December to participate in the COP28 confab, where he released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions by using budget-busting new technologies and onerous (frequent) inspections (see 
Do you remember those Ball mason jars your mom used for canning when you were growing up? Well OK, maybe we’re dating ourselves. Trust us, it’s a thing (see the image to the left). Here’s the interesting bit: Ball Corporation not only makes mason jars and other packaging solutions for beverage, personal care and household products customers, it also has an aerospace division that manufactures satellites! Ball is a $14 billion company. One of the company’s projects was to manufacture and deliver a satellite that would sniff out fugitive methane. The satellite was just delivered to Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, and will launch next month.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian explores sale of Haynesville upstream assets; Venture Global, Grain LNG ink storage, regasification deal; New bill helps Florida ports with greater access to natural gas; NATIONAL: Oil swings higher amid mixed data signals; We have the cleanest natural gas in the world; World’s largest carbon removal plant is about to open; How fractures nucleate, propagate and stop.
For climate change catastrophists and “peak gas” proponents who read MDN, please tell us yet again how natural gas (and oil) are on the way out. Remind us of how unreliable renewables are taking the country by storm and that pretty soon (any year now), we won’t need natgas anymore. We need a good laugh! Here’s the reality: On January 16, 2024, the U.S. Lower 48 states consumed 141.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas, exceeding the previous record set on December 23, 2022. That is a new, all-time, record-high natural gas consumption record in this country for a single day. So yes, tell us again how natgas is quickly fading away (LOL)…
U.S. natural gas and power prices hit multi-year highs in mid-January with the prospect of frigid temps and snow storms in various portions of the country (see 
Once a month, the analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months or so. We sometimes poke good-natured fun at the EIA because their predictions go up in one month, and in the next month, they go down, etc. What about the latest STEO dart board, published yesterday? It won’t surprise you to read that due to warmer weather, the EIA prognosticators believe the average Henry Hub natural gas spot prices will remain “subdued” around $2.40/MMBtu in February and March. What about for the entire year?
Peregrine Energy Partners, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, continues a program to buy royalty rights in the Marcellus/Utica and elsewhere. We have chronicled a number of Peregrine’s M-U purchases since 2019 (
Last November, MDN brought you the news that pipeline giant Williams had given the green light to proceed with a new Transco pipeline expansion project called the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (see 
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled a whopping $48.3 billion budget that threatens to bankrupt the state. Among the line items in Shapiro’s bizarre spending plan is a $1.1 billion increase in funding for K-12 public schools, and just $10 million to help the state’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) try to fix its broken permitting system. Yes, the DEP gets an extra $10 million, which amounts to 0.0002 (or two one-hundredths) of the overall budget, to help fix the broken permitting system. Meanwhile, teachers’ unions (who voted for Shapiro) get a bribe of an extra $1.1 billion (0.0227 or 2.3%) of the bloated budget.
Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Last summer, Duke announced plans to build a new gas-fired power plant in Person County, NC. The company recently announced it wants to double it — build a second big gas-fired plant at the same location (see 