Natural gas prices are at $3.58/MMBtu, having hit a low of $3.20 and a high of $3.78. That’s a pretty good price range.
Drilling rigs are at 555. That’s a steady drop from the 576 we were at a month ago. I think that signifies a pullback in drilling rather than an improvement in efficiency. We’ll probably start to see less production by fall.
Gas storage is at 2,707 Bcf. That puts us just a little above the five-year average of 2,568 BCF, but quite a bit below where we were last year at 2,963 Bcf.
The State of Ohio has shut down a fracking operation in Noble County after a series of four small earthquakes over the course of ten days were recorded by seismic sensors and even felt by people. Previously, only wastewater injection wells were connected to earthquakes. I suspect that longer laterals, as well as susceptible geology, are in play here. It’ll be interesting to see what shakes out in the upcoming investigation.
Governor Morrisey has signed a bill into law that regulates and encourages microgrids. This should make West Virginia an attractive place for data centers to locate. He has also signed a bill that should make it easier and cheaper to plug abandoned wells. Here’s another article about the new law in WV that should make it cheaper and quicker to plug abandoned wells.
The Washington Post published an article about three people shaping the future of AI in Western PA. The suggestion is that the future of AI is Western PA. In part, it’s because of all the natural gas that’s available in the area. That area includes West Virginia.
The LNG export permit pause is officially over.
Prices for natural gas at the Waha Hub (where gas from the Permian Basin is priced) have gone negative four times so far this year. It’s weird to think about, but the fact is, natural gas is a byproduct in the Permian, so when they produce their main product (oil) they sometimes over-produce the byproduct. They need more pipelines for the natural gas. Interestingly, here in the Marcellus/Utica area we also need more pipelines, but since natural gas is the main product we don’t over-produce to the point of driving prices negative at our hubs.
With that in mind, here’s some analysis of what’s driving the oil market these days, thanks to Rigzone.
The blackout in Spain was probably caused by a lack of the right kind of equipment to go with the solar farms they were using. Since the blackout, they’ve been using a little more natural gas.
The Marcellus is a cheap place to produce oil and gas. This makes me wonder why we can’t get better bonuses and royalty percentages from oil and gas companies around here.
This one is for the truly detail oriented. MPLX does a lot of the transportation and processing of Marcellus shale natural gas, and here is their 1Q25 earnings call.
PHMSA is taking public comments about pipeline regulations, if you’re interested.
Here’s an article by Forbes that explains some of the reasons why oil and gas companies are not projecting increased capital expenditures this year, but are still projecting increased production.
Here’s a reasonable opinion piece from northeast PA about the enormous data centers being built there. The long and short of it is–the economic benefits are obvious, but we’re not sure what the downsides will be.
OPEC+ is now targeting U.S. oil production. Didn’t they learn their lesson the last time? I can’t think of anything that has changed that should lead OPEC+ to think they’ll be any more successful this time. Here’s an article at Reuters that expresses the same opinion. An article at oilprice.com goes into quite a bit more detail, but comes to the same conclusion.
That mess left by the fracking waste disposal company in Martins Ferry has finally gotten cleaned up.
EQT has signed 10-year deals with Southern Company and Duke Energy to sell them 1.2 Bcf of gas per day. That’s a lot.
The West Virginia Supreme Court has sided with royalty and mineral owners again. Twice in a week, in fact.