WTI Falls Below $72 Despite Mideast Tensions -- But, Then Again, It's Monday -- February 5, 2024

Locator: 46748B.

Focus on fracking: weekly update posted. Wow, wow, wow -- the numbers really seem to shock -- certainly not supporting the narrative with regard to US economy. Lede:

Refinery utilization rate is lowest in 56 weeks; refinery throughput is lowest in 55 weeks; distillates production is lowest in 56 weeks; US gasoline​ supplies at a ​new 35 month high; gasoline​ ​imports at a 2 year low.

**********************************
Back to the Bakken

Locator: 46748B.

WTI: $72.01.

Tuesday, February 6, 2024: 7 for the month; 66 for the quarter, 66 for the year
38325, conf, EOG, Liberty LR 56-2320H,
38324, conf, EOG, Liberty LR 119-2320H,

Monday, February 5, 2024: 5 for the month; 64 for the quarter, 64 for the year
40046, conf, Resonance Exploration, Resonance Stratton 16-12H Inj
30594, conf, EOG, Liberty LR 29-2320H,
30593, conf, EOG, Liberty LR 29-2320H,

Sunday, February 4, 2024: 2 for the month; 61 for the quarter, 61 for the year
39154, conf, Hess, RS-F Armour-156-92-1224H-4, ,

Saturday, February 3, 2024: 1 for the month; 60 for the quarter, 60 for the year
None.

RBN Energy: Williams acquires gas storage near the heart of LNG export demand.

Natural gas storage — especially well-sited storage with lightning-fast deliverability rates — is taking on a new significance (and value) as LNG export facilities and power generators seek to manage their often-volatile gas demand. But developing new gas storage capacity is costly and, with only a few exceptions, it’s hard to make an economic case for greenfield projects. That reality has spurred a lot of interest among midstream companies in acquiring existing storage assets and, where feasible, expanding that storage. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss one of the biggest storage-acquisition deals to date: Williams Companies’ recent purchase of six facilities with a combined working gas capacity of 115 Bcf in Louisiana and Mississippi. (It’s not all that Williams has been up to on the gas-storage front.) 

As we said  last year, storage has long been a critically important balancing mechanism in the Lower 48 natural gas market. In the Pre-Shale Era and the early days of the Shale Revolution, the storage market was driven primarily by the intrinsic value of capacity — i.e., the need to sock away gas in the lower-demand summer months for use in the peak winter months. More recently, the value of storage is being driven almost exclusively by extrinsic economics — i.e., how flexible and responsive capacity allows market participants to manage supply and demand during short-term market swings. This flexibility and responsiveness have become more important criteria for ensuring reliability as LNG export terminals and an increasingly renewables-heavy power sector navigate frequent gas-demand fluctuations day to day — or even intraday — as well as high-stakes, extreme weather events like 2021’s Winter Storm Uri and the cold snap that gripped Texas in mid-January.