Facts & Rumors # 547
March 23, 2024
Latest facts and rumors from the Marcellus, Utica, and Permian, Eagle Ford Plays
April – NatGas Production Down; Oil Production Up. Thanks, MDN. The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for March, issued yesterday (below), shows EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for April will decrease production from the prior month of March. This is the ninth month in a row that EIA has predicted shale gas production will decrease for the combined seven plays. However, it won’t decrease everywhere. Gas-focused plays like the Marcellus/Utica and the Haynesville will see the biggest drop in production. In contrast, the oily Permian play will boost the production of “associated” natural gas — the gas that comes out of the ground along with oil. The Permian is also boosting oil production in April.
FERC Not Designed to Push Biden Climate Goals. 3 takeaways from the FERC confirmation hearing. E&E News. President Joe Biden’s three nominees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission got their taste of Capitol Hill scrutiny Thursday, and their responses did not exactly quell environmental group concerns about the agency “rubber-stamping” natural gas projects. Democratic nominees David Rosner and Judy Chang and Republican pick Lindsay See told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee they don’t see FERC as an agency equipped to push Biden’s climate goals.
LNG Pause Will End Within a Year. Granholm says LNG pause will end within a year. Politico. The Department of Energy’s pause on liquefied natural gas exports will wrap up well within a year, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told E&E News in an interview Monday. “By the time we meet here at this place next year, it’s going to be long in the rear-view mirror,” Granholm said at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in downtown Houston. Her comments mark the first time the secretary has publicly firmed up timing for the pause announced in late January. The pause has sparked a fierce backlash among U.S. producers and global buyers.
TotalEnergies Moving into TX. TotalEnergies sees Texas as a prime location to grow in oil and gas, renewables. Houston Business Journal. France-based TotalEnergies SE (NYSE: TTE) is looking to Texas as a place to grow in oil and gas and renewables. The company’s CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, said at CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston that TotalEnergies has made a deal to grow its position into the Eagle Ford Shale to support its liquefied natural gas investments, which notably includes Houston-based NextDecade Corp.’s (Nasdaq: NEXT) Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville, Texas. The company also owns 5 gigawatts of renewable energy in Texas, and recently acquired three gas-fired power plants in Texas from Houston-based TexGen Power LLC. “The last step will be to nominate a country chair,” Pouyanné joked. TotalEnergies’ U.S. headquarters are in Houston.
PA Electricity Up. Emissions Down! Thanks, MDN. PA’s emissions decrease as Marcellus-fired power increases. Thanks to abundant, clean Marcellus shale gas, Pennsylvania remained the country’s top electricity exporter in 2023 while simultaneously reaching a new low for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from electricity generation, according to the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office’s (IFO) latest analysis. Yes, you read that right. PA is producing more electricity than ever, yet CO2 emissions from electric generation are lower than ever. How can that be?
SPR to Be Restock by Year-End. U.S. aims to restock strategic oil reserves by year-end. Oil Price. The Biden Administration aims to have crude in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) back up to the levels before the massive sales of 180 million barrels in the past two years, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. The U.S. saw the stockpiles of crude oil in the SPR fall from 638 million barrels at President Joe Biden’s inauguration to just 347 million barrels by the summer of 2023 as the Administration tried to bring down gasoline prices for consumers.
TX Yanks $8.5 from BlackRock. Texas yanks $8.5B from Larry Fink’s BlackRock in ‘massive blog against the scam of ESG’. Fox Business. The State of Texas is terminating a massive $8.5 billion investment with trillion-dollar asset manager BlackRock over the state’s determination that the firm is engaged in a boycott of energy companies. In an announcement first shared with FOX Business, Texas State Board of Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey said the so-called Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) had delivered a notice to BlackRock on Tuesday, informing the New York City-based firm of the action. Also covered by Washington Examiner.
CERA Week Highlights. Thanks, Bloomberg. There’s been plenty of discussion at CERAWeek about the Biden administration’s pause on new liquefied natural gas terminals.
On stage and in interviews, fossil-fuel industry leaders are united in their opposition to the move. That’s hardly surprising, since the moratorium hinders their plans to boost exports of US gas and secure the higher prices available overseas.
But as the gas lobby is only too keen to point out, more LNG on the global market likely displaces more coal, a dirtier fuel. Plus, US supplies are a key foreign-policy tool — witness the way American shipments kept the lights on in Europe after Russia invaded Ukraine.
With this in mind, producers have been on the offensive at this week’s conference in Houston.
Freeport LNG boss Michael S. Smith lambasted environmental supporters of the pause as “zealots.”
Despite the administration’s stated concern about the impact on the Gulf Coast from new export terminals, Smith said the LNG industry is welcomed by local communities because of the jobs it creates.
Toby Rice, chief executive officer of US gas giant EQT Corp., framed the issue as an electoral liability for President Joe Biden. He pointed to bipartisan pushback in Congress and cited recent polling of Pennsylvania voters that showed opposition to the move.
Pennsylvania, of course, is a battleground state in November’s presidential election. It’s also home to EQT, which extracts gas from the Marcellus Shale and would jump at the chance to get more of those molecules to the coast and onto tankers.
But is the LNG terminal debate really going to be a hot-button election issue, or is CERAWeek just an echo chamber, with protestations coming too late?
Amy Andryszak, head of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, said in an interview that the industry could have been better equipped to tout the benefits of energy security and supply back when the pause was announced in late January.
“The administration foreshadowed this,” she said. “And yet it still feels like the industry was caught unprepared.”
Sinopec Board Director Zhao Dong sees Chinese oil demand peaking in 2026 and then fading through 2030. Natural gas use in the world’s No. 2 economy will grow until 2040, he said.
Details of Texas’s $5 billion energy fund will be released Thursday, the state’s Public Utility Commissioner Jimmy Glotfelty said. He’s heard there are 12 to 15 developers looking to build more than 5,000 megawatts of capacity.
Argentine billionaire Paolo Rocca said the Vaca Muerta basin has the potential to pump more than 1 million barrels a day within seven years, up from about 300,000 a day now — with the right government support.
Artificial intelligence will eat up 3% of global power supplies by decade’s end, but could be deployed to cut energy use in buildings by a quarter before then, Schneider Electric SE CEO Peter Herweck said.
Trans Mountain pipeline executive Mark Maki affirmed that a massive expansion known as TMX will start service in the second quarter.
PA Permits March 11, to March 21, 2024
County Township E&P Companies
1. Clearfield Girard PPG
2. Clearfield Girard PPG
3. Clearfield Girard PPG
4. Clearfield Girard PPG
5. Clearfield Girard PPG
6. Susquehanna Franklin SWN
7. Susquehanna Springville Coterra
8. Susquehanna Springville Coterra
9. Susquehanna Springville Coterra
OH Permits March 3, to March 9, 2024
County Township E&P Companies
1. Belmont Warren Ascent
2. Belmont Warren Ascent
3. Belmont Warren Ascent
4. Belmont Warren Ascent
5. Belmont Warren Ascent
WV Permits March 4, to March 8, 2024
1. Marshall SWN
2. Marshall SWN
3. Marshall SWN
4. Marshall SWN
5. Marshall SWN
6. Marshall SWN
7. Marshall SWN
8. Ritchie Ante
9. Ritchie Antero
10. Ritchie Antero
11. Ritchie Antero
12. Ritchie Antero
13. Ritchie Antero
14. Ritchie Antero
15. Ritchie Antero
16. Ritchie Antero
17. Ritchie Antero
18. Tyler Jay-Bee O&G
19. Tyler Jay-Bee O&G
20. Tyler Jay-Bee O&G
21. Tyler Jay-Bee O&G
22. Tyler Antero
23. Tyler Antero
24. Wetzel EQT
25. Wetzel EQT
