Natural gas prices are at $4.37/MMBtu, with a high of $6.27 when it was really cold, and a low of $3.80 before it got really cold. There are 635 drilling rigs, up from 601. That’s a pretty big increase compared to what we’ve seen previously, but not absolutely crazy. We’re still hoping investors will keep the industry from going crazy with drilling. Opening things up just a little bit right now wouldn’t be a bad thing, though. Storage levels are a bit below average, at 2,101 billion cubic feet. It’s not hard for the industry to bring production back up, so being a bit below average isn’t seriously affecting prices.
West Virginia has chosen to no longer use BlackRock investment Fund for banking purposes. This is in response to BlackRock urging companies to embrace investment strategies that would be detrimental to coal, oil, and natural gas development. This sounds like a bit of drama that could drag out for a while.
Natural gas production from the Marcellus region has fallen off and prices have, of course, risen. It’s likely a temporary thing, though.
A ban on exporting natural gas has been discussed in Washington DC in the past, and a few politicians are talking about one, but it is not seriously being considered.
Schlumberger provides services to producers. In fact, there’s not a bigger services provider. Schlumberger’s earnings announcement includes their expectations for 2022, and they expect to be providing more services to the industry.
The EIA is predicting growth in 2022 and 2023.
Shelly Moore Capito is suggesting that the Build Back Better bill is not dead, and that it includes money for a hydrogen/ethane storage hub that has been proposed for the Marcellus/Utica area.
Good news. Bad news. Good news. Bad news. The Mountain Valley Pipeline has lost its permit to cross the Jefferson National Forest. What’s next? Good or bad? Your guess is as good as mine.
This Forbes article suggests it’s time for investors to open up their wallets with respect to oil and gas producers. I’m not of that opinion myself, as producers will overspend any chance they get. Of course, a little more production would be a good thing. Slow growth is good.
The price of natural gas spiked on day last week, but it was due to a short squeeze, not supply/demand fundamentals. Well, it was supply/demand, but not the supply of natural gas. It was the supply of trading contracts that was in play.
The United States is the world’s leader in natural gas exporting.
Oilfield services companies are predicting increased drilling this year, and have already scheduled up their completion crews for the year.
West Virginia could receive as much as $141 million in federal grant money to plug orphaned wells. The article notes that there are over 4600 eligible wells in West Virginia, but the actual number of abandoned/orphaned wells in West Virginia is much higher than that.
OPEC+ agreed to increase oil production by another 400,000 barrels per day in March, but the price of oil didn’t really move.
A number of large companies have signed on to work on a carbon capture and hydrogen storage hub in Ohio, PA, and WV. This is a very long term project, but worth keeping an eye on.
The legislature seems to be giving the State Tax Department a do-over on that tax assessment rule the Department botched last year. Let’s see if the Legislature does a better job of directing the Department on what do do this time.
Investors are still pushing oil and gas companies to make profits, not drill. Interestingly, not drilling seems to be making profits. It’s taken an outside influence to force oil and gas companies to do what they should have done all along.
Dominion is selling Hope Natural Gas, a West Virginia natural gas utility, to a company called Ullico. Presumably everything will stay the same except the owner.