WTI: $115.20 -- NDIC Website Update; Still Down -- May 18, 2022

NDIC website: all my bookmarks to various NDIC websites have been changed -- by the source, not by me -- to the new NDIC website. Still no data but seeing some change. 

Active rigs: 40, or thereabouts.

WTI: $115.20

RBN Energy: hydrogen and natural gas are back in the news (and in the pipeline). Natural gas, okay. Hydrogen. Yawn.

Hydrogen has been touted as a zero-emissions vehicle fuel, as a clean power generation source and, more generally, as a big part of the move toward decarbonization. Much of the current interest in hydrogen is its possible role as a grid-scale energy storage solution — one that might help support the growth of wind and solar renewable power generation. However, if we convert renewable energy to hydrogen, how do we store it? And how do we get it to end-use markets? As appealing as a hydrogen solution may be, these questions require thoughtful answers given some of hydrogen’s unique characteristics. With this in mind, a new set of stakeholders are beginning to take an interest in the natural gas pipeline network with an eye toward repurposing it to include hydrogen blends. In today’s RBN blog, we look at some reasons why hydrogen blending is being discussed and even being implemented on a limited basis in Europe and North America. 

The U.S. has an extensive network of about 300,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines (not counting distribution systems) but only about 1,600 miles of dedicated hydrogen pipelines. Most of the latter are on the Gulf Coast. 

Nearly all of these hydrogen pipelines serve the major industrial gas companies that produce hydrogen using natural gas in a process called steam methane reforming. But these days the renewed focus on hydrogen primarily stems from the potential of “clean hydrogen” produced either by running water through a renewables-powered electrolyzer (a.k.a. “green” hydrogen) or by using old-school SMR combined with carbon capture (a.k.a. “blue” hydrogen). Or, if you’re wary of the proliferating hydrogen color wheel, we’ll use the word “clean” hydrogen to denote low- or zero-carbon hydrogen generation.