Don’t Confuse Drilling & Rig Counts with O&G Production
Riddle me this: Why is oil and gas production rising when rig counts are falling? The U.S. is poised to set new oil and natural gas production records in 2023. Yet the rig count crashed this year! And the rig count continues to stay loooooow. So, how do we square these two seemingly contradictory facts? Robert Rapier, a chemical engineer in the energy industry for 25 years, tackles that question and answers it in an article on the Forbes website.
Read More “Don’t Confuse Drilling & Rig Counts with O&G Production”
Free speech, the freedom to say (and think) what you want, is the bedrock, the foundation of a free society. The founders of the United States understood this and enshrined it in the U.S. Constitution under the First Amendment. Unfortunately, due to a lack of education (or worse, miseducation) in our country, many of our fellow citizens no longer believe in the First Amendment and its right to free speech. Free and open ideas are a threat to the left, especially when free speech contradicts their views. For example, we have the God-given right to believe that mankind is NOT catastrophically warming the earth into a cinder, and to say so publicly. And to offer evidence to support our beliefs. But if the left gets its way, they will take that right away. Preparatory to denying you your free speech rights are attempts to brainwash you. Hey, if they can get you to believe in global warming without having to resort to violence, so much the better. To that end, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have developed and tested six “psychological interventions” on nearly 7,000 participants from twelve countries, designed to make people believe in man-made, catastrophic global warming.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Gov. Shapiro wants unilateral power to commit state to RGGI; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: ExxonMobil pushes back timeline for startup of Golden Pass LNG; Japan energy companies seek US approvals for CP2 LNG; Leftists petition Bidenistas to block Calcasieu Pass 2 LNG; NATIONAL: Turning the problem into the solution in natural gas power plants; US helps forge global group to measure natgas emissions.
Spanish-owed Repsol owns (at last check) around 214,000 net acres of leases in the Marcellus Shale, primarily located in northeastern Pennsylvania in Bradford, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties. Early last year (in January 2022), Repsol closed on a deal to buy Rockdale Marcellus out of bankruptcy for $222 million, adding Rockdale’s 66 producing wells on 42,897 net acres to Resol’s extensive Marcellus portfolio (see 
At the end of October, MDN told you about a company called 
A press release issued yesterday by UGI Corporation, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations in the Marcellus and one of PA’s largest utility companies, opens this way: “UGI Corporation announced today that Mario Longhi, incoming Chair of the Board of Directors, has been named interim Chief Executive Officer. Roger Perreault has stepped down as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board, effective immediately.” What the press release doesn’t mention, but we discovered in a company filing with the SEC, is that “The Board treated Mr. Perreault’s departure from the Company as an involuntary termination other than a Termination for Cause.”
The Energy Workforce & Technology Council, based in Houston, TX, is the national trade association for the global energy technology and services sector. The Council reports jobs in the O&G sector increased in November, adding 1,286 jobs. The O&G industry employs 652,398 jobs across the country, just 54,130 jobs away from returning to pre-pandemic levels. And how much do those jobs pay? The average hourly earnings for frontline oil-and-gas workers rose 1.3% in October from the previous month to $44.11, according to a Labor Department report released last week.
Yesterday, the Republicans who sit on the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee got work done while the Democrats tried to block work. The committee advanced legislation to establish an Independent Energy Information Office by a party-line vote, with Republicans supporting. There was also a party-line vote advancing Paul Bruder, an environmental attorney nominated by Gov. Shapiro for the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) after Democrats failed to table the nomination. That’s right, the Dems tried to block a Shapiro (one of their own) nominee!
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is reporting there are eight natural gas pipeline projects either currently under construction or in advanced planning, totaling 20 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of capacity to carry natural gas to LNG export facilities either up and running or planned for the Gulf Coast. Considering the country currently produces around 95 Bcf/d in total for all purposes, adding another 20 Bcf/d (nearly 20%) is huge!
According to powerhouse consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY), it’s been a successful 2023 for the oil and gas industry. In 2023, O&G continued to win back investors and position itself as a key player in the so-called energy transition. Looking ahead, 2024 will be full of opportunities and challenges as everyone looks to “decarbonize” and supposedly move away from fossil fuels. EY offers four trends to watch in O&G for 2024.
Last Tuesday, Dec. 5, a tractor-trailer hauling a trailer with CNG (compressed natural gas) canisters traveling eastbound along Interstate 88 near Albany “exited the road and traveled down a steep ravine” shortly before 3 a.m. It crashed, ripping the top of the trailer off the frame (the part connected to the wheels). The driver was extracted from the cab and transported to the nearby Albany Medical Center, where, at last word, he was in critical condition. The New York State Police closed I-88 in both directions between Exit 24 and Exit 25 for a period of time. It was reopened by evening.
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May 2021 with a new board and top management. In January of this year, the company appointed a new CEO, John Reinhart, the former President and CEO of M-U driller Montage Resources Corporation before Southwestern Energy gobbled up that company (see 
The commodity price for natural gas, as expressed by the NYMEX Henry Hub futures contract (for January), fell 10.5% in early trading yesterday before finally closing at $2.43/MMBtu, down 15 cents (6.17%) from the previous day. Why the big drop when prices are already low? Lack of demand due to warm weather. In fact, according to the National Weather Service, the entire continental United States will be warmer than average for the period of Dec. 19-25. Plump storage numbers, coupled with the weather, had natgas traders heading for the exits.
Williams is a powerhouse pipeline company. Williams operates more than 33,000 miles of pipelines in the U.S. and flows approximately one-third of the natural gas used in our country through those pipelines. Massive! The CEO of Williams, Alan Armstrong, is (or was) in Dubai for the United Nations COP28 climate meeting. He was there to preach the gospel of natural gas as the best way, the near-term way, to lower carbon dioxide emissions across the planet. He has proof to back up his claims. The U.S. is the only major country on earth to lower CO2 emissions since 2005. How? By switching from coal to natural gas for power generation.