Shale Gas News – April 17, 2021

Bill desRosiers
External Affairs Coordinator, Cabot Oil & Gas

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The Shale Gas News, heard every Saturday at 10 AM on 94.3 FM, 1510 AM, 1600 AM, 104.1 FM and Sundays on YesFM, talked about FERC, natural gas exports, DiamondBack Energy Inc. and much more last week.

The Shale Gas News has grown again to the Williamsport area on stations WEJS 1600 AM & 104.1 FM. The Shale Gas News is now broadcasting in Bradford, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wayne Counties, as well as in greater central PA and now the Williamsport area. The Shale Gas News is aired on Saturday or Sunday depending on the station.

Every Saturday Rusty Fender, Matt Henderson and I host a morning radio show to discuss all things natural gas. Our friends held a conference week ago and had a great panel discussion about the petrochemical opportunities in northwest Pennsylvania. We played the panel discussion from Lance Hummer, of the Keystone Community Education Council, as he talked with the local workforce development folks.

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the April 17th show (click above), we covered the following new natural gas territory (see news excerpts below):

• North American Fracking Activity Soars To Near Pre-Pandemic Levels. Fracking in North America has almost recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with the count of started frac jobs reaching a 12-month high in March 2021, a Rystad Energy report shows. The number of completed wells in the Permian basin during the first quarter of 2021 exceeded the required output maintenance level, so oil production is set to rise in the current quarter – but will likely slow again later in the year.
• U.S. shale oil output to rise 13,000 bpd to 7.61 million bpd in May -EIA. U.S. oil output from seven major shale formations is expected to rise for a third straight month, climbing by about 13,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May to 7.61 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Monday. The biggest increase is set to come from the Permian, the top-producing basin in the country, where output is expected to rise by 52,000 bpd to about 4.47 million bpd, the highest since April 2020, the EIA said in a monthly forecast.
• ‘Seismic shift’ at FERC could kill natural gas pipelines. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision to assess a proposed natural gas pipeline’s contribution to climate change could have major implications for gas infrastructure, analysts say, including nearly unheard-of project rejections.  “Once one starts to look at the impact of the pipelines on the climate, it won’t be business as usual,” said Jennifer Danis, a senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. “FERC took a really important first step in a long overdue process.”
• Topsy-Turvey Trade World Strikes Again: New Top 2021 Export? Natural Gas. The United States has a new most-valuable export: Natural gas.  For most of the time I have been writing about U.S. export-import trade, there was only one No. 1, aircraft. Boeing basically has dominated U.S. exports for years and years, its only competitor globally the European consortium Airbus. There was a brief interlude, from 2011-2013, when gasoline and similar petroleum products surpassed the aircraft category, but it was short-lived.
• Big Oil Aims To Win Back Investors With Green Oil. Last month, the Biden administration dealt the fossil fuel industry yet another blow after it proposed the introduction of a carbon tax in a bid to address the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy went to great lengths to make it clear that the Biden Administration is not fighting the oil and gas sector, but rather wants to deploy emissions reduction technologies to create union jobs, fuel the American economy and strengthen American manufacturing.
• Court urged to restore Dakota Access permit on NEPA grounds. The developer of the Dakota Access pipeline is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision not to reinstate a key permit for the crude oil conduit.
• DiamondBack Energy raises production futures as oil prices rise. DiamondBack Energy Inc stated they raised their full-year production outlook as the shale oil and gas producer accounted for its acquisition of rival QEP Resources and benefited from a recovery in crude prices, as reported by Reuters. Commodity prices are picking up as the global roll-out of vaccines against COVID-19 gains momentum, after a year where the health crisis decimated demand in the energy sector and hammered debt-laden shale companies.

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation