Category: Natural Gas Supply

Rodney White is wrapping up a lengthy career with Platts today, and he has watched up close the battles over developing the Marcellus and Utica shales, among other areas. Not only that, he lives in West Virginia, home to part of the Marcellus. Here are some of his departing thoughts for The Barrel. ——————— Most of the people, if not all, the people in the oil and gas industry I have worked with, have been professional and spoken truthfully about the issues that mean so much to folks who live in and around the Appalachian oil and gas fields. Some companies have gone the extra mile to make things right when things go wrong. They fix roads, clean up streams and try to be good neighbors. It isn’t easy for anyone. The Appalachian terrain is not easy to work in. The terrain is steep and narrow, hence the reason we have rock […]

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Sliding oil prices have been hurting natural gas. Will the ongoing oil-price rout cause further damage to master-limited partnerships that focus on natural gas? MLPs have already gotten clobbered in recent months as the price of oil has plunged, but analysts have been quick to note that MLP performance isn’t necessarily directly correlated with oil-price trends, and that many MLPs should hold up pretty well , particularly if they’re focused on non-oil energy sources like liquefied natural gas. But Reuters reports today that the oil-price drop has claimed its first LNG-project casualty, saying Excelerate Energy’s plan for an offshore Texas liquefied natural gas terminal has been put on hold. Oleg Vukmanovic reports for Reuters: A halving in the oil price since June has upended assumptions by developers that cheap U.S. LNG would muscle into high-value Asian energy markets, which relied on oil prices staying high to make the U.S. supply […]

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The argument of the EIA and UT/BEG that their projections of shale gas production from the plays mentioned in the Nature  article are fundamentally similar is untrue, given the publicly available data. The implications of the EIA being wrong on its projections of cheap and abundant gas for decades are considerable, given that investment decisions are now being made based on these projections— including construction of infrastructure for LNG exports, gas-fired generation and even crude oil exports. Hence it is worthwhile to examine the EIA’s optimistic projections in more detail in light of the projections available from UT/BEG and the  Drilling Deeper  report (DD). Three Methodologies The two  published   UT/BEG studies  are indeed complex, focusing on myriad estimated and measured variables and the development of a tiering of sections utilizing well productivity and other data from which they infer cost of production and future production profiles. They limit […]

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — While environmental groups are doing a victory dance over New York’s decision to ban fracking, farmers such as apple grower David Johnson are grieving for dashed hopes and dreams. "I’m devastated," Johnson said after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s health and environmental commissioners announced Wednesday that they were recommending a fracking ban. "I have concerns about how to continue this farm that’s been in the family for 150 years." Energy companies denied the chance to drill in New York can simply raise their rigs in other states. That’s what they’ve done since the Marcellus Shale gas drilling boom began in 2008 and New York launched an environmental review that effectively put a moratorium in place. But landowners in the state’s Southern Tier region who had hoped to reap royalties from gas production don’t have that option. "Frankly, my heart breaks for all those families in the Southern […]

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Chesapeake Energy Corp. has completed a sale of West Virginia and Pennsylvania assets to Southwestern Energy Co. for $4.975 billion. The properties sold include about 1,500 wells overall. The companies said in October that 435 of these are in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. The price, originally $5.375 billion, was adjusted for certain items including Southwestern’s waiver of future claims related to title defects and environmental liabilities. The sale was expected to help Chesapeake reduce a substantial amount of debt accumulated under former CEO Aubrey McClendon . Chesapeake said the transaction “solidifies our strong financial position.” The company “has a liquidity position of approximately $9 billion, putting Chesapeake in an advantageous position to enhance shareholder value in this volatile commodity price market.” Chesapeake also authorized a stock-buyback plan of up to $1 billion. Chesapeake shares, which fell more than 7% during the regular session, rose 3.15% to $19 […]

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Scientific community debating studies examining the longevity of the U.S. shale natural gas boom. Photo by Steve Oehlenschlager/Shutterstock The U.S. Energy Information Administration took issue this week with an article published by Nature, in which Texas researchers said a detailed analysis of U.S. shale plays may be "bad news" for forecasters. Policymakers on Capitol Hill have said the glut of natural gas means the United States should transform itself as a major exporter of liquefied natural gas , arguing such deliveries may contribute to the rise of the country as an "energy superpower." Tad Patzek, director of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, said in the Nature report EIA assessments of shale were setting U.S. policymakers up "for a major fiasco." In a Dec. 15 retort, EIA countered the Nature article was filled with "inaccurate and distorting reporting." It further questioned Patzek’s role in the research […]

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