Research

U.S. Rig Count Drops Another 5 Rigs, M-U Loses 2 More Rigs

For the third week in a row and the 12th time in the last 13 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. Last week the number decreased by five rigs after falling six rigs the week before (see U.S. Rig Count Drops Another 6 Rigs, Now Lowest Level in 16 Mos.). Both the Marcellus…

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Kimmeridge Report Makes Case for Fewer & Bigger Shale Drillers

Kimmeridge Energy, a private investment firm focused on the energy sector, yesterday published a white paper entitled, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” The thesis of the Kimmeridge report is that there are still too many (and too small) drillers in the shale sector. Kimmeridge believes we need consolidation into fewer, and bigger,…

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800,000 Tons of Drilling, Frack Waste Unaccounted for in NY-PA-OH

Researchers with the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) recently published a study in the journal Ecological Indicators. The study’s intent was to measure whether or not frack waste dumped in local landfills has radiation that is leaking out in groundwater (leachate) from those facilities. Research like this, if legitimate (and accurate), is a good thing. We…

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Gas-Fired Power 70% of PJM Electric Outage During Winter Storm

PJM is the largest electric grid operator in the U.S. It serves 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM came under withering criticism for an almost blackout during the Christmas cold snap last Dec. 23-25. If not for certain gas-fired peaker plants, like that in…

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EIA July DPR: Shale Gas Production Predicted to Drop in August

The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for July issued yesterday (below) shows the EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for August will *decrease* production from the prior month of July. This is the first month-over-month decrease prediction for the combined…

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U.S. Rig Count Drops 6 Erasing Most Gains – M-U Stays Even 2nd Wk

The yo-yo behavior of the national rig count continues. Two weeks ago, the U.S. rig count broke a nine-week-straight decline by adding six rigs (see U.S. Rig Count Goes Up First Time in 10 Weeks – M-U Stays Even). The trend had been pretty dismal for the past several months. Then that ray of sunshine….

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Global Warming Fanaticism Now Infecting the Fine Art World

This one has us laughing our considerably fat rear-ends off. The left long ago corrupted science, turning it from the pursuit of objective facts into forced obedience to political opinions (i.e., global warming is caused by fossil fuels). The left issues mountains of data–graphs, tables, pictures–that supposedly prove they are correct with their opinions and…

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EIA Observes M-U Gas Production Flat, Key PA Counties in Decline

The analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) have been looking at natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica (i.e., Appalachia) for 2022. The M-U is the largest-producing natural gas shale play in the world. Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. after Texas. The EIA looked at PA’s production, specifically…

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IGU World LNG Report: 2022 Most Turbulent Year in NatGas History

Yesterday the International Gas Union (IGU) released its 14th annual 2023 World LNG Report–the world’s most comprehensive public source of information on key developments and trends in the LNG sector (full copy below). With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the gas markets went wild last year. The IGU report calls 2022 the “most turbulent year…

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EIA Predicts NatGas Prices Going Higher in 2H23 – July STEO

Once a month, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. Last month the EIA predicted an average price at the Henry Hub of $2.66/MMBtu for 2023, and $3.42/MMBtu for 2024 (see EIA Slashes…

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U.S. Rig Count Down 9th Week in a Row, M-U Holds, Haynesville -6

The weekly rig count for the U.S. has continued to be anemic for over two months now. With its venerable rig count, Baker Hughes reported last Friday that overall, the U.S. rig count continued to bleed rigs–down another eight rigs to 674 in the week ending June 30. That’s the lowest count since April 2022,…

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PA House Votes 102-101 to Study Marcellus-Busting Severance Tax

Pennsylvania’s Democrat Party is hellbent on driving the Marcellus Shale industry out of the state. They have been for years. That’s just a truthful observation and beyond dispute. The latest evidence is the party’s insistence on adding a severance tax on top of the existing impact fee, PA’s version of a severance tax. The Dems…

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Demand for Natural Gas in U.S. Soars, Up 43% from 2012 to 2022

Domestic consumption and export of natural gas in the U.S. grew a combined 34.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), or 43%, from 2012 to 2022. One of the biggest reasons for the dramatic increase was a mass change from producing electricity with coal plants to using natural gas-fired plants instead. So says the U.S….

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M-U Rig Count Holds Even; U.S. Count Down 8th Week in a Row

The weekly rig count for the U.S. has continued to be anemic over the past two months. Baker Hughes, with its venerable rig count, reported last Friday that overall, the U.S. rig count continued to bleed rigs–down another five rigs to 682 in the week ending June 23. That’s the lowest count since April 2022…

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