EIA Annual Report Says U.S. O&G Use Will Grow Each Year Thru 2050
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), released its “Annual Energy Outlook 2022.” One of the main findings of this latest look forward is that the use of oil and natural gas will grow steadily and gradually from now until 2050–over the next 30 years. Renewables (solar and wind) will grow too, but fossil energy will remain completely dominant for the next generation (and likely longer). Surprised? We’re not.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: RGGI still divides Pennsylvania; Utica Shale Academy beneficiary of $75K donation; NATIONAL: US weekly LNG exports climb by six LNGCs; Blackrock says Russia-Ukraine war will ‘accelerate’ green energy transition; INTERNATIONAL: How high could oil go?; JPMorgan says $185 oil is in view; Russia’s Yamal-Europe westbound gas pipeline flows stopped on Friday; Sweden proposes a ban on extraction of coal, oil and natural gas.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, is in a grumpy mood. The cause? The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Manchin is meeting with FERC commissioners tomorrow and he plans to take them to the proverbial woodshed for a good thrashing. Two things are on Manchin’s mind: FERC’s new rules that use global warming as a standard for reviewing pipeline projects, and ongoing delays with finishing the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.
Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil, and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in several unconventional shale plays, including the Marcellus and Utica. Last week Summit issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2021 update. The company’s Marcellus/Utica segment (now called Northeast) continued to be the star performer. Flows through the company’s pipeline system are down for both 4Q and 2021 versus the prior year. Revenues were down from the same period a year ago as well.
It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on Canadian energy company Enerplus Corp, which currently owns some 32,700 acres of Marcellus Shale leases in northeastern Pennsylvania. The company doesn’t drill any wells in the region but it does participate by funding the drilling programs of others. Last week Enerplus issued its 4Q and full-year 2021 update, which shows the company’s Marcellus production averaged 161 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in 4Q21, up 5% from 3Q21.
According to Rystad Energy’s senior oil market analyst, market panic is officially here. Because of the ongoing war of invasion, with Russia invading and attempting to annex Ukraine, world oil markets are unhinged. After the market closed yesterday, Brent crude surpassed $115/barrel to touch its highest level since 2008. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) closed yesterday at $110.60/barrel. The war and its associated chaos and uncertainty is affecting other commodities too, like natural gas (NYMEX up 4% yesterday), agriculture, and precious metals. Supply disruptions are expected. Everyone is hitting the panic button.
We love a good contrarian point of view. We brought you news today of the market in a panic with the price of oil and natural gas heading higher based on fears over the Russian invasion and war against Ukraine. But right on cue, we spotted an article/analysis on the Seeking Alpha investors’ website that makes the case that natural gas prices will soon head much lower–back down to the $3/MMBtu range. At least here in the U.S. Why?
Elsevier, a Dutch company founded in 1880, is a huge publishing and data company. Elsevier publishes over 2,000 scientific journals and thousands of science and engineering books. BIG company. Important company. Among Elsevier’s published journals are titles for climate cultists, including Lancet and Global Environmental Change. Elsevier also publishes journals for the fossil fuel industry, like Upstream Oil and Gas Technology and Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources. Climate cultists are having a hard time with the fact Elsevier is an actual business that wants to make money and doesn’t care if its journals benefit the crazies or benefit fossil energy. So the cultists are now attempting to pressure Elsevier into dumping their journals and books that “promote” or somehow “benefit” fossil energy. It’s the Attack of the Climate Clones…
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia are all scrambling to form working groups or other alliances in an attempt to be THE state chosen for one of four regional hydrogen hubs funded by the recently passed so-called Biden infrastructure bill. The new law provides $8 billion for four regional hubs. It’s a safe bet one of those hubs will be located in either PA, OH, or WV. The race is now on to attract that investment money. On Friday, WV’s new Hydrogen Hub Working Group held its first meeting to plot a strategy to snag the project. However, PA and OH are in the hunt too, with their own dedicated groups.
On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a lawsuit filed by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and the attorney generals from 20 states that seek to limit the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and their misinterpretation of the so-called Clean Air Act in order to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power plants. The justices heard more than two hours of arguments over whether to limit the EPA’s power to regulate CO2 emissions from electric utilities. Based on the questions and comments by the justices, anti-fossil fuel cultists are VERY nervous that they may lose one of their favorite tools to limit oil and gas development.
In June 2020, during the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), published final rules to allow LNG to be safely transported by special rail cars (see 
According to the Toronto Financial Post, the Ukrainian crisis has put East Coast (Canada) LNG export facilities “back on the map.” The article says at least two companies are exploring LNG export options on Canada’s East Coast–to send natural gas to Europe. Our interest has been and remains the fact that if Canada does sanction one or even two LNG export facilities on the country’s East Coast, there is an excellent chance for Marcellus/Utica molecules to help feed it.
A former wind lobbyist and friend of Chuck Schumer, Richard “Dick” Glick, took over as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under Joe Biden. Glick is a radical leftist, a swamp-dwelling D.C. Democrat. Under his oversight, the five-member FERC board (three Democrats, two Republicans) voted 3-2 in February to begin using global warming factors when reviewing new natural gas pipeline projects (see 
Just ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech last night, the American Petroleum Institute (API) released the results of a nationwide survey. The poll results may astonish you. Given the constant drumbeat of Democrat mainstream media that fossil fuels are almost dead and the renewable nirvana future is dawning, the survey finds a completely different take on energy by the American public–both Democrats and Republicans (and Independents). The survey says the vast majority of Americans *want* more oil and gas drilling–right here at home. And that includes a majority in the Democrat Party.