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Marcellus, Utica provide 85% of U.S. shale gas production growth since start of 2012

graph of natural gas production in selected regions, as explained in the article text The productivity of natural gas wells in the Marcellus Shale and the neighboring Utica Shale is steadily increasing because of ongoing improvements in precision and efficiency of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing occurring in those regions. Since January 2012, natural gas production in the Marcellus and Utica regions has accounted for 85% of the increase in natural gas production reported in EIA’s Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) and has driven recent growth in total U.S. natural gas production. The DPR provides a month-ahead projection of both oil and natural gas production for the seven most significant shale formations in the United States. Although the DPR regions are grouped according to the name of the predominant shale formation, the report analyzes all drilling and production within each geographic area. In practice, this means natural gas production activity […]

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2 injection wells shut down, 1 curbing activity after quakes

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Corporation Commission says two oil and gas wastewater injection wells are shutting down and one is reducing operations in the Crescent area following several earthquakes. The commission said Tuesday that Stephens Production and Devon Energy are each voluntarily closing one well. Also, Stephens is reducing operations at another well by 50 percent. Earthquakes in the area recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey on Monday and Tuesday include two of magnitude 4.5 and one of magnitude 4.1. The commission recently announced plans to place more than 200 disposal wells under scrutiny as it investigates whether they are triggering earthquakes in the state. An Oklahoma Geological Survey report in April says it’s "very likely" most of the state’s recent earthquakes were triggered by the injection of wastewater from the wells.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Keystone Backer Hoeven Says Obama Will Reject Pipeline in August

A leading congressional supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline predicted President Barack Obama will reject the project when Congress is set to be out of town in August. Senator John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, cited “sources” Tuesday as he discussed the pipeline in a Senate floor speech without identifying where his information came from. “He’ll wait until Congress is out of session for August,” Hoeven said, according to Bloomberg BNA. The $8 billion Keystone XL project proposed by TransCanada Corp. has become one of the most contentious energy issues of Obama’s presidency. Environmentalists oppose the pipeline because it would promote development of the Alberta oil sands, which releases more greenhouse gases than conventional drilling. Hoeven supports the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have the capacity to carry about 830,000 barrels of oil a day to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. Obama vetoed a bill the Republican-led Congress passed this […]

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Russia Calling Off Dollar Buying Bolsters Ruble as Oil Slides

The ruble ended five days of losses as the Bank of Russia said it was stopping daily purchases of foreign exchange, signaling policy makers don’t want to add impetus to the currency’s decline before an interest-rate decision this week. While the ruble strengthened as much as 1.4 percent after the central bank said it was suspending a program of buying as much as $200 million daily, the exchange rate quickly gave up most of those gains as Brent crude slid toward a six-month low. The move by the Bank of Russia followed a five-day rout that almost ended this year’s appreciation and weakened the ruble beyond 60 to the dollar for the first time since March. “The ruble pushing above 60 was a tipping point,” Daniel Hewitt, an analyst at Barclays Capital Plc in London, said by e-mail. “Foreign-currency purchases were using up foreign exchange available on the market […]

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Vladimir Putin’s most effective weapon is gas – but not the poison kind

The logo of Gazprom is pictured at the 26th World Gas Conference in Paris, France, June 2, 2015. At face value, Russia’s $400 billion deal to supply natural gas to China National Petroleum Corporation, via the state-controlled energy behemoth Gazprom, sounds like a coup for Moscow. But according to recent analysis, the deal is strongly tilted in China’s favor. Gazprom will be lucky to break even on the contract and may even lose substantial amounts of money. While the deal may not make economic sense for Gazprom, it does fit with Vladimir Putin’s broader geopolitical “tilt to Asia” strategy, and represents “a desperate geopolitical gambit trumping all economic rationale,” according to analysis by the Chatham House, a UK policy institute. In fact, the CNPC deal is just one example of how Gazprom operates more as an instrument of Putin’s political ambitions and Russian state power than as a rational […]

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Oil Prices Dipped to Four-Month Low on China Stock Market Rout

LONDON—Oil prices fell on Tuesday touching a four-month low as a rout in Chinese stock markets added to the already bearish investor sentiment. China’s shares fell for a third straight day on Tuesday in a second wave of heavy selling this month. The selloff is seen as a symptom of a wider economic malaise which could depress demand from the world’s second biggest consumers of crude oil. “Supply excess and disappointing Chinese demand are the common denominators that have pulled the price rug from underneath oil prices,” said David Hufton of PVM brokerage. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 1.4% to $52.73 a barrel in midmorning trading on London’s ICE Futures exchange, having touched $52.28 a barrel earlier in the session, its lowest level since mid-March. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading down 0.9% at $46.98 a barrel. Oil prices rallied earlier […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil prices fall to near six-month lows, rattled by China

A customer prepares to fill the tank of her car at a fuel station in Sint Pieters Leeuw December 5, 2014. Oil prices fell for a fifth straight session on Tuesday to their lowest in almost six months, as a rout in Chinese equities cast further doubt over the outlook for crude demand in the world’s top commodities consumer. China’s already-volatile benchmark stock index, with a combined market capitalization of $4.6 trillion, has lost 10 percent in the last two days of trade. Most household debt is linked to real estate rather than the stock market, but with Chinese economic growth struggling to stick at 7 percent, analysts say demand for crude may not be enough to help mop up a global supply glut. "Typically, equity markets do have a high correlation to quarterly GDP growth," Deutsche Bank strategist Michael Lewis said. "Naturally, there is some risk that this […]

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Oil Prices Fall to Four-Month Low Amid Chinese Stocks Rout

Oil prices fell to a four-month low Monday on concerns about a selloff in Chinese stock markets and increased oil drilling in the U.S. U.S. oil prices have slumped 20% this month as the global glut of oil shows no signs of abating. Production remains near multidecade highs in the U.S., Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and analysts say demand could decline in the second half of the year after the busy summer-driving season ends. Light, sweet crude for September delivery settled down 75 cents, or 1.6%, at $47.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since March 20. Brent, the global benchmark, fell $1.15, or 2.1%, to $53.47 a barrel, the lowest level since March 16. Brent prices have fallen 21% from a recent high reached in May, meeting the common definition of a bear market. Diesel futures lost 3.46 cents, or 2.1%, to $1.5956 […]

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Oil prices fall on oversupply worries; investors await Fed meeting

A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. Oil prices fell on Monday after closing the previous session at their lowest levels since March on renewed oversupply concerns from the United States and Iraq, although a weaker dollar helped to limit deeper losses. Investors are looking to the U.S. Federal Reserve for direction this week. The central bank starts a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday that could result in a September interest rate hike that would strengthen the greenback. "The markets are looking for price guidance from Janet & Co," said Ben Le Brun, market analyst at Sydney’s OptionsXpress, referring to Fed Chair Janet Yellen and the bank. "There is scope for the dollar bulls to be disappointed this week (which) might be a driver for oil prices and the commodities complex overall," Le Brun said. A weaker dollar makes dollar-denominated commodities, including oil, […]

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Hedge funds are most bearish on U.S. oil since 2010: Kemp

A service truck drives past an oil well on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, November 1, 2014. Hedge funds are more bearish about the outlook for U.S. oil prices than at any time for almost five years, according to data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Hedge funds and other money managers had a net long position in WTI-linked futures and options equivalent to just 118 million barrels of oil on July 21, down from a recent high of 294 million barrels 11 weeks earlier ( link.reuters.com/pug35w ). The net position was the smallest since September 2010. Money managers interested in oil have a long bias (there has been no net short since the current time series began in 2006). So the small net long indicates an unusually high level of bearishness among hedge funds. Sentiment has turned bearish as a series of negative factors […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple