Natural gas is at $2.92/MMBtu, well down from last month’s price of $3.11, and down from a high of $3.30 in the last month.
Gas storage is at 2,983 Bcf, just under 2,998 one year ago, and well above the five-year average of 2,798.
Drilling rigs are at 581, up from 563 a month ago.
The data center out in Mason County, currently being developed by NSCALE, is requesting a permit for a 14 mile pipeline.
Seneca Resources has found an impermeable barrier, called a seismite, in the Utica Shale formation up in north-central PA. Unfortunately, the only article I can find about it so far (three weeks later) is behind a paywall at Hart Energy. It’s interesting because the seismite prevents fracking fractures (is that redundant?) from propagating through it vertically. That means they can run two horizontals through the Utica in that area. It may not double the production from any given acre, but it will certainly increase it compared to just one horizontal. Now, this is probably a local phenomenon; a seismite probably doesn’t exist in the Utica here in West Virginia. However, you’d better believe EQT, Antero, and Expand have this info and are going to test it.
WVU’s Research Farm has been given two tractors which are powered by CNG.
EQT has drilled the longest oil and gas well to date (someone will drill one longer within a year or so) at 37,610 feet total depth, with 29,070 feet being the horizontal leg. That’s 5.5 miles for the horizontal and just over 7.1 miles for the total. Sheesh. It happens to be in West Virginia, too.
Certarus, a North American company, has ordered trucks from Hexagon Agility in Norway which will be used for a “mobile pipeline”. In other words, the trucks will haul CNG or LNG from one place to another. Guess if you can’t have pipelines you can have trucks.
Toby Rice, CEO of EQT, thinks natural gas will overtake petroleum as the majority of energy produced and used in the United States by 2030.
U.S. exports of crude oil and petroleum products reached an all-time high in April, at 13.6 million barrels per day.
The United States imports less than 1% of its oil from Saudi Arabia, but the oil market is a world market, so lower supply drives prices for everyone up.