Uncategorized

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry makes a number of important points about domestic natural gas and oil production, hydraulic fracturing and U.S. energy exports in a piece for CNBC: The United States is shedding dependence on imported energy. U.S. energy exports are helping friends and allies overseas. Natural gas is helping the U.S. lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Perry notes that thanks to technologically advanced hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling,…

Withdrawals from storage in the Pacific and South Central regions contributed to another underwhelming injection this week, as the EIA reported a build of 35 Bcf that once again came up short of the market expectation, which came in around 45 Bcf. Last year’s build of 18 Bcf was blown out of the water, but the five-year average of 42 Bcf for this same period corroborates the narrative of a…

Early Morning Update The Sep18 natural gas contract is trading up $0.01 at $2.77. The Sep18 crude contract is down $0.31 at $67.35. Summary The September NYMEX natural gas futures contract continued it’s descent for the third straight day yesterday, settling at $2.758/MMBtu after losing 2.4 cents. The 2020 calendar strip reached its lowest level ever on Wednesday, as well, settling at $2.60.  Normal temperatures have been creeping into weather…

With another triple-digit heat wave scorching the Southwest this week, fears of widespread outages are back. California’s grid operator has urged homes and businesses to crank up thermostats and avoid running power-hungry appliances during evening peak hours – all in an effort to avoid disruptions like the ones we saw earlier this month. The dangerous and expensive outages that left 80,000 Los Angeles residents in the dark then may have been limited…

Another week of below average natural gas injections continues to widen the storage deficit against the five-year average as the EIA reported a bullish 24 Bcf build that fell noticeably short of the market expectation of 36 Bcf. This sparse injection somehow managed to exceed last year’s build of 19 Bcf, but it has yet again compared poorly to the five-year average during the same timeframe, which is reported at…

The New Midstream Transactions – A recent trend in the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry is for midstream services providers to offer certain forms of additional compensation to oil and gas lessees / operators (i.e., upstream asset holders) in exchange for providing acreage dedications and entering into long term services agreements, including mainly agreements for gathering, processing, transportation and the sale and marketing of hydrocarbons, and water sourcing…

The natural gas storage deficit grew yet again as this week’s injection of 46 Bcf came up noticeably short of the 56 Bcf market expectation. This build may be more robust than last year’s value of 31 Bcf, but it pales in comparison to the five-year average of 62 Bcf, which more accurately reflects the state of the thin storage levels that the market is currently experiencing. On a regional…

Offshore energy development works for the states – all of them. The U.S. Interior Department recently announced that $61.6 million in revenues from offshore oil and natural gas will be distributed to all 50 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia – via grants that support state conservation and outdoor recreation projects. Ponder that: You don’t have to be a coastal state; you don’t have to be a producing state. Under…

The heat over the holiday last week took its toll as the EIA reported a 51 Bcf injection into storage, which ended up being a bullish value that fell short of the market expectation of 56 Bcf, last year’s build of 59 Bcf, and the five-year average of 77 Bcf. The Northeast and Great Lakes regions were hit the hardest with hot weather over the course of the week, and…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 15 projects to receive nearly $8.8 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development (R&D) projects to develop innovative technologies that enhance fossil energy power systems. The newly selected projects fall under DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy’s Crosscutting Technology Research Program, which advances technologies that have a broad range of fossil energy applications. Specifically, the program fosters innovative R&D in…