Facts & Rumors # 587
March 1, 2025
PA NatGas Production Down 3.7%. Thanks, MDN. Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for October through December 2024 (full copy below). There were 84 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 4Q24, a decrease of 26 wells (-24%) compared to 4Q23. However, 4Q’s spud number increased from the 63 drilled in the prior quarter, 3Q24. Natural gas production volume was 1,869 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 4Q24, up 30 Bcf (1.6%) from 1,839 Bcf produced in 3Q24. There were two pieces of big news in this report: (1) Production for all of 2024 went down 3.7% from 2023; (2) 310 wells were drilled in 2024, less than any year since 2008.
U.S. Crude Oil Inventories Drop. Rigzone. U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 2.3 million barrels from the week ending February 14 to the week ending February 21, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. It showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 430.2 million barrels on February 21, 432.5 million barrels on February 14, and 447.2 million barrels on February 23, 2024.
Coterra Bringing 2 Rigs back to Susquehanna in August. Higher NatGas prices has Coterra resuming drilling in PA. Coterra also has some senior leaders retiring. Will this impact drilling in PA? We’ll be monitoring this situation.
Range to Drill 44 Wells. Range Resources Corporation, the very first company to drill a shale well targeting the Marcellus Shale layer in Pennsylvania (in 2004), issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 update yesterday. Range produced 2.20 Bcfe/d in Q4. For all of 2024, the company averaged 2.18 Bcfe/d, approximately 68% natural gas. The company reported completing (bringing online to sales) 44 shale wells in all of 2024. While Range did not specify how many wells it drilled during 4Q24, using data from the 3Q24 update when it had completed 30 wells at that point, Range brought an additional 14 new wells online during 4Q.
Global LNG Demand to Climb 60% by 2040, Shell Says. E&E News. Worldwide demand for liquefied natural gas could increase about 60 percent by 2040, according to oil major Shell, mainly fueled by economic growth in Asia and demand for LNG-powered ships. In an outlook issued Tuesday, London-based Shell said China’s LNG imports for 2024 dwarfed those of India — 79 million to 27 million metric tons — while Europe’s LNG imports fell by 23 million metric tons.
Archaea Energy Testing Viability of CCS in Landfills in NE PA. Gas plant in Pennsylvania explores underground carbon storage. Bay Journal. The ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it somewhere else is a relatively new advancement in the U.S. But it’s one companies are now putting to work for its potential to slow global warming. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the technology is taking root in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Archaea Energy, a Houston-based company that specializes in extracting methane from landfills to produce natural gas, is testing the viability of capturing the carbon dioxide in the extraction process and injecting it deep underground at its Assai Energy operation at a pair of landfills near Scranton, PA.
Toby Rice Identifies NatGas Role in AI Data Center Power. Thanks, MDN. EQT President and CEO Toby Rice joined CNBC’s ‘Mad Money’ host Jim Cramer on Friday to talk about the state of the energy sector, natural gas prices, energy development, and more. Rice claimed that natural gas will be a major source of power for the burgeoning AI boom. “We firmly believe that natural gas is going to take the lion’s share of power demand to meet this growing AI demand need,” Rice said. “And people need to understand, this is not just a luxury item, this is not just going to make our apps better, this is absolutely critical that America wins the AI race.”
Diamondback Looking for Partner for Gas-Fired Power Plant for AI Data Centers. Diamondback looks to partner on gas-fired power plant in Permian. Bloomberg. Diamondback Energy is in talks to form a power joint venture that would solve some of the shale giant’s own needs in the Permian Basin while also selling electricity to artificial intelligence data centers in West Texas. Diamondback says it’s looking for an equity stake in a gas-fired power plant that would be built on some of its 65,000-surface acreage to supply electricity primarily to data centers.
NRG Building 4 NatGas Power Plants for AI Data Centers. NRG Energy to build four natural gas power plants to supply data centers in Texas, elsewhere. Houston Chronicle. NRG Energy, a Houston-based power generation giant, plans to build four new natural gas power plants to supply data centers in Texas and elsewhere, according to a Wednesday announcement. It’s the latest initiative from energy companies rushing TX as much electricity as some cities or even entire states. Texas has become a hub for new data centers as Big Tech companies race to develop artificial intelligence technologies.
Coal and NatGas Power Plants Closing. Thanks, MDN. U.S. power generators plan to retire about 8.1 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power generation capacity this year, roughly double the amount that was retired in 2024, the Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday. In addition, power generators plan to retire 2.6 GW of U.S. natural gas capacity, representing 0.5% of the natural gas fleet in operation at the end of 2024. The natural gas plants are older (less efficient) simple-cycle plant Texas pipeline company’s $300M lawsuit against Greenpeace heads to trial. ABC News. A Texas pipeline company’s lawsuit seeking potentially hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace was set to advance with opening statements Wednesday in a trial the environmental organization calls an effort to silence critics of the oil industry. Jury selection took place earlier in the week and the estimated five-week trial now will get underway in Mandan, North Dakota.
Tokyo Gas to Sell Stake in Eagle Ford Shale for $130 million. Oil and Gas 360. Tokyo Gas Co. will offload its stake in a Texas shale project, amid scrutiny from activist shareholder Elliott Investment Management, which has called for the utility to streamline its portfolio. The company will sell all the interests held by its subsidiary in the Eagle Ford shale gas project to Shizuoka Gas Co. for $130 million, the two firms said on Friday. Japan’s largest gas utility has been under Elliott’s scrutiny since last year, when the activist investor revealed it held a 5% stake in Tokyo Gas and called for it to sell down its multi-billion-dollar real estate portfolio. The company has since said it is considering various measures to unlock value of assets with low capital efficiency, in all areas of its business portfolio.
TX Pipeline Company Case Against Greenpeace Goes to Trial. Texas pipeline company’s $300M lawsuit against Greenpeace heads to trial. ABC News. A Texas pipeline company’s lawsuit seeking potentially hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace was set to advance with opening statements Wednesday in a trial the environmental organization calls an effort to silence critics of the oil industry. Jury selection took place earlier in the week and the estimated five-week trial now will get underway in Mandan, North Dakota.
Trump’s Energy Czar ‘Map, Baby, Map’. Trump’s Energy Czar has plan to ‘map, baby, map’ U.S. oil bounty. Bloomberg. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum touted a plan for mapping deposits of oil, gas and critical minerals on US federal lands, casting it as an opportunity to catalyze development of the energy resources, reduce dependence on foreign suppliers and pare the nation’s debt. Burgum’s vision suggests a more muscular role for the agency analyzing the economic potential of a range of mineral development across federal lands.
PA February 17, to February 27, 2025
County Township E&P Companies
1. Bradford Springfield Blackhill Energy
2. Bradford Springfield Blackhill Energy
3. Bradford Springfield Blackhill Energy
4. Bradford Springfield Blackhill Energy
5. Bradford Springfield Blackhill Energy
6. Bradford Springfield Blackhill Energy
OH February 16, to February 22, 2025
County Township E&P Companies
1. Belmont Wayne SWN
2. Belmont Wayne SWN
3. Belmont Wayne SWN
4. Belmont Wayne SWN
5. Belmont Wayne SWN
WV Permits February 17 to February 21, 2025
1. Brooke SWN
2. Brooke SWN
3. Doddridge Antero
