Shale Directories Conferences
FALL 2022 Hydrogen & Carbon Capture Conference IV
November 10, 2022
Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe
Canonsburg, PA (near Pittsburgh)
Latest facts and a rumor from the Marcellus, Utica, and Permian, Eagle Ford Plays
Manchin Has Had Enough! Frustrated Manchin to nudge Haaland on drilling leases Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin will urge Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to move forward with onshore and offshore oil and gas drilling leases during a hearing today, according to comments reviewed by E&E News. The West Virginia Democrat will use his opening statement to vent his frustration with the administration’s limited efforts to restart leasing after President Joe Biden enacted a moratorium early in the administration. “Almost a year and a half into the administration, and as the world begs for North American oil and gas, we still have no new leases,” Manchin will say. The Bureau of Land Management is moving forward with a lease sale next month, the first under Biden. But Manchin, echoing industry comments, suggests the sale is too limited and is acting in response to a court order.
Shale Contains Lithium. It might seem paradoxical, but producing oil and gas from shale reservoirs could actually help the world transition to cleaner energy sources.
One of the keys to a successful energy transition will be enough lithium to make the lithium-ion batteries needed for electric vehicles, energy storage projects and other energy-efficient devices that will power the low carbon future of the world.
While there might not be a shortage of lithium available in the world, there is currently a shortage of lithium available in the global marketplace and its price has fluctuated significantly in recent years. At the beginning of this year, lithium from China, one of the major countries supplying lithium globally, was priced at $40,000 per ton. Compare that to early 2020 when Chinese lithium was just $6,000 per ton at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, lithium on the spot markets is trading at $70,000 a ton.
The shortage can be attributed to a few factors, including supply chain bottlenecks caused by the pandemic and unstable international affairs, increased demand from businesses, along with governments hesitant to green light lithium mines because of the environmental costs.
That’s where the research of Kyung Jae Lee, an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering comes into play. In a paper published in Energy Reports, Lee lays out the potential of petroleum-based rock brines as a new source of lithium.
Through her research of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale play, Lee found that highly concentrated lithium was found in the produced water (water produced as a byproduct during the extraction of oil and natural gas) along with produced natural gas and oil.
“We found lithium in the petroleum-based rock brines, which opens new pathways to address the shale plays as a substantial source of lithium, given that they are ubiquitous in the U.S.,” Lee said.
She is working with a Pennsylvania-based lithium processing company that is purchasing the produced water from the oil and gas companies operating in Marcellus Shale and extracting lithium from it.
“The U.S. has only one active brine mine to produce lithium so there’s a push to get critical minerals like lithium from unconventional or existing sources, that’s what we’re trying to figure out, so it’s timely research,” Lee said.
As a petroleum engineer, Lee is concerned about climate change and wants to use her academic and professional background to help with the energy transition.
“Multifaceted efforts should be made for the clean energy transition to mitigate the impact of climate change,” she said. “We want to use our knowledge of petroleum engineering to contribute to the clean energy transition by providing creative new solutions such as the one that we are pursuing in our research—harnessing critical minerals from natural petroleum systems.”
“Butane has always been relied upon as a historically cost-effective way to blend gasoline during periods of supply disruptions in the summer,” the authors Dave Callahan, Ryan Watts, and Charlie Burd write. “Most recently, the Biden Administration issued a waiver in the spring of 2021 when the Colonial Pipeline was offline, allowing gasoline blenders to utilize butane to increase supply and lower costs for the consumer.”
According to Callahan, Watts, and Burd, butane is less than half the cost of ethanol per gallon, and all 150,000 U.S. gasoline stations and vehicles on the road can handle butane-blended fuel. Permitting butane blends, they said, would be an effective strategy for further driving down the costs at the pump.
“We would respectfully request that the oil and gas industry be given the same opportunity as the ethanol industry and issued an RVP waiver through the summer,” the energy leaders wrote. “We believe that this is the most effective way to help lower fuel prices and would advocate that the Administration use all resources available to help lower prices, which includes the use of both butane and ethanol as blending agents.”
Now Sand in Short Supply. Short sand supplies will slow growth of US oil output. Journal of Petroleum Technology. Shale oil producers in the US and Canada are likely to stick to their slow growth plans this year because they lack the sand, steel, drilling rigs, and pressure-pumping capacity required to grow faster. Demand outstrips supply in those four key sectors and is expected to remain the case into 2023 because service companies are not able, or willing, to pick up the cost of rapid growth. “The supply chain issues we are seeing now are one of the main limiting factors in US shale growth” said Ryan Hassler, senior analyst covering US and Canadian shale for Rystad. What is limiting growth is that adding capacity is costly, and it “is like every oilfield service company has run out of cash,” said Richard Spears, vice president of Spears and Associates.
Kinder Morgan Expanding in the Permian. Kinder Morgan takes another step to expand Permian gas pipes. Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI.N) added another project to the list of proposed pipes seeking to move growing amounts of natural gas from the Permian shale in Texas with its announced open season for an expansion of the Gulf Coast Express pipe in Texas. If the solicitation generates enough interest, Kinder said in a release on Monday that Gulf Coast Express will increase the pipe’s capacity by nearly 0.570 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd). Kinder said the Gulf Coast Express project will involve primarily compression expansions to increase gas deliveries from the Permian to South Texas markets.
Permian Growth Outlook Brightens. Permian growth outlook brightens as brownfield gas pipeline expansions advance. Permian Basin producers are breathing a collective sigh of relief after developers of the three newest intrastate gas transport pipelines recently announced a series of respective brownfield expansions that promise to lengthen the runway for oil and gas production growth in West Texas. On May 16, Kinder Morgan was the most recent to declare the start of an open season for an expansion, this time on its Gulf Coast Express Pipeline, which will run through June 6. The open season announcement for Gulf Coast Express comes just days after the developer wrapped up an earlier open season for a separate brownfield expansion on its 2.1 Bcf/d Permian Highway Pipeline, which has promised expand the pipe’s capacity by some 650 MMcf/d, or by more than 30%.
New Permian NatGas Pipeline Matterhorn Express Take FID. The race is heating up for building natural gas pipeline takeaway capacity out of the Permian. Associated gas production from the crude-focused basin is at record highs this month and gaining momentum, which means that without additional pipeline capacity, the Permian is headed for serious pipeline constraints — and potentially negative pricing — by late this year or early next, which would, in turn, limit crude oil production growth there. Midstreamers are jockeying for the pole position to move surplus gas from the increasingly constrained basin to LNG export markets along the Gulf Coast. One of the contenders, Matterhorn Express Pipeline (MXP), a joint venture (JV) between WhiteWater, EnLink Midstream Partners, Devon Energy and MPLX, announced its final investment decision (FID) late yesterday. In today’s RBN blog, we provide new details on the greenfield project.
TX Oil and Gas Production Drops. Texas oil and gas production drops month on month. Texas crude oil and natural gas production dropped from January to February, according to the latest preliminary figures from the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC). The preliminary reported total volume of crude oil in Texas in February was 99.07 million barrels, equating to 3.53 million barrels per day, the RRC highlighted. The preliminary reported total volume of natural gas in February was 718.31 billion cubic feet, equating to 25.65 billion cubic feet per day, the RRC revealed. Back in April, the RRC outlined that the preliminary reported total volume of crude oil in Texas in January was 118.05 million barrels, equating to 3.80 million barrels per day.
Exxon Selling More Assets. Exxon to sell north Texas gas assets to BKV for $750 million. Reuters. Exxon Mobil Corp on Thursday said it signed a deal to sell North Texas natural gas properties to producer BKV Corp for $750 million, as part of a wider move to shed unwanted assets. Exxon, the top U.S. oil producer, set a goal three years ago to sell by last December $15 billion in assets to pay down debt and focus on lower cost oil production. But it has achieved about half its goal as sales stalled during the pandemic. This year’s rebound in oil and gas prices has brought renewed interest in its properties, Senior Vice President Neil Chapman told analysts in March.
PA, States Struggle to Replace Fossil Fuel Tax. In US, Pennsylvania and other states struggle to replace fossil fuel tax revenue. Government budgets are booming in New Mexico: Teacher salaries are up, residents can go to an in-state college tuition-free, moms will get medical care for a year after childbirth, and criminal justice initiatives are being funded to reduce urban violence. The reason behind the spending spree — oil. New Mexico is the No. 2 crude oil producer among U.S. states and the top recipient of U.S. disbursements for fossil fuel production on federal land. But a budget flush with petroleum cash has a side effect: It also puts the spotlight on how difficult it is to turn state rhetoric on tackling climate change into reality.
Diversified Energy Strengthening Well-Plugging Capacity. Why Diversified Energy is beefing up its well-plugging capacity and expertise. At the end of last year, Diversified Energy had one well-plugging crew. Now, through two high-profile acquisitions and its own internal expansion, the big Appalachian natural gas producer has eight and will have nine working by the end of June. Diversified is one of the largest gas producers in Pennsylvania, although its portfolio is a lot different than Marcellus and Utica Shale drillers. Instead of drilling for natural gas, Diversified has amassed thousands of wells in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia in a series of acquisitions of legacy oil and gas wells. The attention that Diversified gives not only creates a stream of low-flow but scalable natural gas and oil but also cleans up emissions from the wells, some of which are decades old.
Poland Buying U.S. LNG. Poland’s PGNiG secures LNG supply from U.S. firm Sempra. U.S. energy firm Sempra Energy said on Monday it would sell three million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) each year to Poland’s PGNiG, in another sign of rising interest in U.S. supply following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The United States this year is expected to surpass Australia and Qatar as the world’s largest LNG exporter, delivering more than 12.2 billion cubic feet per day. Sempra will provide PGNiG (Polish Oil & Gas) with LNG for 20 years under the deal. About two million tonnes of LNG per annum will come from Sempra’s Cameron LNG Phase 2 project in Louisiana, while the rest would come from the Port Arthur LNG project in Texas.
U.S. LNG Makes Russian War Winnable. Without American LNG, the fight against Russia would be worse. Hand-in-hand with rapidly growing energy production, America’s investment in liquified natural gas (LNG) infrastructure over the past several years has proved not just to be a boon, but a necessity. The lower 48 states only began exporting LNG in February 2016. Just over five years later, the United States officially became the world’s leading LNG exporter, surpassing Russia. And once again, it is Texas energy that made it possible. The coasts of Texas and Louisiana have become home to our country’s largest LNG export terminals, and more than 85 percent of the additional planned U.S. LNG export capacity will be located in the Gulf of Mexico and supplied largely by Texas natural gas.
Is Gas Rationing in our Future? Biden’s road to record-high gas prices may soon lead to rationing. Gasoline prices at the pump have always fluctuated within a regular epicycle of global oil prices, but the Biden administration’s every policy choice from its first day in office has contributed significantly to this week’s news that gas prices exceed $4 a gallon in all 50 states. President Biden and the Democrats seem determined to repeat every policy mistake of the 1970s, and it might not end until Biden attempts to impose price controls and rationing. Start with Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline on Inauguration Day. This act was more shocking than merely the loss of unionized jobs and an insult to our largest trading partner; it is the first time to my knowledge that any president has canceled a private-sector project that was already under construction.
Centennial and Colgate to Merge. Centennial, Colgate Energy combine to create $7 bln oil producer. Centennial Resource Development Inc (CDEV.O) and Colgate Energy Partners III LLC have agreed to a merger of equals, the companies said on Thursday, creating a $7 billion Permian Basin-focused U.S. oil and gas producer. The deal comes when global crude prices have surged after sanctions on big producer Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, helping create attractive corporate valuations after years of financial underperformance. Reuters reported in December that the private equity owners of Colgate Energy were preparing to float the shale oil producer on the stock market at a valuation approaching $4 billion.
$10 Gasoline!! Gas stations in Washington reprogram pumps to prepare for $10-a-gallon fuel as Bidenflation sends average price soaring to $4.57 – almost twice the $2.41 during Trump’s final month. Daily Mail. A national gas station chain is reprogramming its pumps in Washington state to accommodate $10-a-gallon fuel, it has been revealed. The move by 76 comes as the nation’s average gasoline price soars to $4.57-a-gallon, almost twice the $2.41 average during Trump’s last month in office. A spokesperson for ’76’ gas stations confirmed that the national chain has begun reconfiguring its pumps to ‘make room’ for the possibility of double-digit prices, The Post Millennial reported. The spokesperson for ’76’ did not comment on whether the company is expecting prices to reach $10.00-a-gallon, The Post Millennial said. Meanwhile, other gas stations in the state have begun running out of gas as supplies become crunched, with reports saying at least 10 stations have run dry.
Biden’s Becoming More Irrational. The American Petroleum Institute (API) today released the following statement from Senior Vice President of Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs Frank Macchiarola in response to the Department of Interior’s (DOI) proposed 5-Year Program for federal offshore leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf:
“Today’s announcement from the Department of the Interior confirms they are significantly behind in this multi-year process and will release a proposed program by June 30 – the day they should be finalizing it. The practical effect of this is that it is unlikely there will be offshore lease sales before the end of 2023. This is one more example of the disconnect between the administration’s political rhetoric and policy reality. As energy prices and geopolitical volatility continue to rise, we urge the administration to end the continued mixed signals on energy policy and remove regulatory hurdles that are hindering American producers’ ability to increase supply and meet the growing energy demand.”
API and NOIA released an analysis recently explaining how a lapse in the 5-year program could jeopardize American energy security, cost thousands of jobs and billions in lost state and local revenues. View the fact sheet here.
API represents all segments of America’s natural gas and oil industry, which supports more than 11 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. Our nearly 600 members produce, process and distribute the majority of the nation’s energy, and participate in API Energy Excellence®, which is accelerating environmental and safety progress by fostering new technologies and transparent reporting. API was formed in 1919 as a standards-setting organization and has developed more than 800 standards to enhance operational and environmental safety, efficiency and sustainability.
PA Permit April May 9, to May 19, 2022
County Township E&P Companies
1. Bradford Columbia Repsol
2. Bradford Columbia Repsol
3. Bradford Columbia Repsol
4. Bradford Columbia Repsol
5. Indiana Armstrong INR OPR LLC
6. Lycoming Gamble Seneca
7. Lycoming Gamble Seneca
8. Lycoming Gamble Seneca
9. Lycoming Gamble Seneca
10. Lycoming Gamble Seneca
11. Lycoming Gamble Seneca
12. Lycoming Gamble Seneca
13. Lycoming Gamble Seneca
14. McKean Sergeant Seneca
15. McKean Sergeant Seneca
16. McKean Sergeant Seneca
17. McKean Sergeant Seneca
18. Susquehanna Bridgeport Coterra
19. Susquehanna Bridgeport Coterra
20. Susquehanna Bridgeport Coterra
21. Westmoreland Hempfield Apex
22. Westmoreland Washington CNX
OH Permits May 8, to May 14, 2022
County Township E&P Companies
1. Belmont Wayne Gulfport
2. Guernsey Washington Ascent
3. Guernsey Washington Ascent
4. Guernsey Washington Ascent
5. Guernsey Washington Ascent
6. Guernsey Washington Ascent
7. Guernsey Washington Ascent
WV Permits May 9, to May 13, 2022
1. Marshall Tug Hill
2. Marshall Tug Hill
3. Marshall Tug Hill
4. Marshall Tug Hill
5. Marshall Tug Hill
6. Taylor Arsenal
Joe Barone 610.764.1232
