US Natural Gas Pipelines -- The AI Connection -- The Large Data Center Build Out Will Depend On Natural Gas -- October 27, 2025

Locator: 49528NATGAS. 

The other day I mentioned with all the interest in natural gas and the large data center build-out, I needed to get re-acquainted with some of the jargon, particularly the US natural gas pipeline system.

Today/tomorrow, RBN Energy has an in-depth review / update regarding the Henry Hub.

Early in the blog:

Established in the 1980s near the now-defunct Texaco Henry gas processing plant, Henry Hub has been used as the basis for domestic gas deals for decades. Since 1990, it’s also served as the delivery mechanism for the third-largest commodity futures trading instrument in the world — the CME/NYMEX Henry Hub natural gas futures contract (behind only WTI and Brent crude). 

When we talk about Henry Hub, we’re really talking about Sabine Pipe Line (SPL) — a small, 150-mile, 235-MMcf/d interstate system in Southern Louisiana — and the 11 pipelines that connect to it in Vermillion Parish, LA. These include: Acadian, Columbia Gulf (CGT), Gulf South, Jefferson Island, Natural Gas Pipeline of America (NGPL), Sea Robin, Southern Natural (SONAT), Texas Gas, Transcontinental Gas Pipeline (Transco), Trunkline, and Bridgeline, an intrastate sister pipeline to Sabine. Most of these interconnects are bidirectional, and all but four (Acadian, Bridgeline, Jefferson Island and Sea Robin) are large-diameter, long-haul interstate pipelines. Depending on the combination of receipt and delivery points, these interconnects total as much as 3 Bcf/d of receipt capacity inside the hub and as much as 2.6 Bcf/d of delivery capacity. (For more on pipeline flows, see RBN’s Arrow Model, which breaks Louisiana and Texas into 11 regions and creates predictions for flows based on internal supply-and-demand fundamentals and the available pipeline capacity from one region to another.)

RBN Energy's "arrow model": link here. 

Over at x: link here.

An early article on this very subject, April 1, 2025: link here. 

Fortunately that April 1, 2025, article has been archived. 

An April 8, 2025, article on the Arrow Model: archived. 

EOG To Acquire Encino For $5,6 Billion— May 30, 2025

Locator: 48720EOG.

Link here.

$8,300 / net acre.

Transaction Highlights

Transforms EOG into a leading Utica E & P — The acquisition of Encino's 675,000 net core acres significantly increases EOG's Utica position to a combined 1,100,000 net acres, representing more than two billion barrels oil equivalent of undeveloped net resource. Pro forma production totals 275,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day creating a leading producer in the Utica shale play.

Accretive financial metrics – The transaction is immediately accretive to EOG's net asset value as well as all per-share financial metrics. Specifically, the acquisition is accretive on an annualized basis to 2025 EBITDA by 10%, and cash flow from operations and free cash flow by 9%.

Immediate returns-enhancing benefits: significantly expands EOG's contiguous liquids-rich acreage, adds premium-priced gas exposure, and increases working interest – The acquisition expands EOG's core acreage in the volatile oil window, which averages 65% liquids production, by 235,000 net acres for a combined contiguous position of 485,000 net acres. In the natural gas window, the acquisition adds 330,000 net acres along with existing natural gas production with firm transportation exposed to premium end markets. In the northern acreage, where the company has delivered outstanding well results, EOG increases its existing average working interest by more than 20%.

Operational expertise and increased scale drive meaningful synergies – EOG expects to generate more than $150 million of synergies in the first year driven by lower capital, operating, and debt financing costs.

Supports return of capital to shareholders with 5% dividend increase, while maintaining industry leading balance sheet – The acquisition's accretion to free cash flow contributes to EOG's commitment to return cash to shareholders. The Board of Directors today declared a dividend of $1.02 per share on EOG's common stock. The dividend will be payable October 31, 2025, to stockholders of record as of October 17, 2025. The indicated annual rate is $4.08. EOG remains committed to a strong balance sheet and expects the acquisition will have no material impact on its long-term target of less than one times total debt-to-EBITDA ratio at bottom cycle prices of $45 WTI oil.

Blue Origin Launch Tonight -- April 14, 2025

Locator: 48474ASTRONAUTS.

Amazon preparing to deliver packages to International Space Station, no doubt.

Van Horn, Texas: link here.

Once a rest stop for mail carriers going between El Paso and San Antonio now plays host to a new kind of traveler jetting to a new frontier: space.

Corn Ranch, link here.

Corn Ranch, commonly referred to as Launch Site One (LSO), is a spaceport owned and operated by Blue Origin which is located approximately 30 miles north of the town of Van Horn, Texas, United States. The 165,000-acre plot of land was purchased by Jeff Bezos in 2004.

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The Energy Page

UK steel, coal, what a mess, link here. And the Brits did this to themselves.

EU, not to be outdone has a Russian energy problem, link here.

ICYMI: EU aims to quit Russian gas by 2027, but has no plan on how.

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The Movie Page

Wellesnet, link here.

Tag: Orson Welles.

Thursday -- March 13, 2025

Locator: 48503B.

Deadline: midnight, Saturday, March 15, 2025 -- deadline to pass spending bill to keep government "open."

National emergency: if the government shuts down, I assume the president can call it a "national emergency," which greatly expands his powers.

Tea leaves: no one cares. In fact, some may welcome it.

• for the GOP, it's a win-win;
• for the opposition, at best, break-even
• unlike other administrations that attempted to minimize the impact of a government shutdown, the current administration my seek areas that need to be shut down ...

Tariffs: link here. California vintners: "we're lovin' it." Ditto: Kentucky distillers.

Investors: remember -- the most important date -- May 31, 2026.

Summit: dead. Link here.

Is this bad? Link here.

Natural gas: link here.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $67.37.

New wells: 

• Friday, March 14, 2025: 36 for the month, 152 for the quarter, 152 for the year,
• 40875, conf, Oasis, Barnes Federal 5202 43-11 3B,
• Thursday, March 13, 2025: 35 for the month, 151 for the quarter, 151 for the year,
• 40876, conf, Oasis, Barnes Federal 5202 41-11 3B,
• 40858, conf, BR, West Kelloggg 4C-UTFH-B,

RBN Energy: long-dormant Alaska LNG project sees renewed interest after support by Trump. 

President Trump’s flurry of executive orders upon returning to office included one titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” which aims to see the realization of the long-dormant Alaska LNG project, a multibillion-dollar plan to bring natural gas several hundred miles from Alaska’s North Slope to Anchorage and Cook Inlet for eventual liquefaction and export. The president’s endorsement renewed interest in a project that has been on the drawing board for more than 30 years. In today’s RBN blog, we look at why there is renewed interest in the project, some of the hefty challenges it would need to overcome, and why many still see it as a long shot. 

The Trump administration’s backing has restarted the conversation about Alaska LNG, with some potential importers showing renewed interest amid U.S. tariff threats. Since its conception, Alaska LNG has focused attention on Japan as a likely buyer. JERA, Japan’s largest LNG buyer and a joint company formed by Chubu Electric and TEPCO, has expressed interest in purchasing increased volumes of LNG as one means of reducing Japan’s trade surplus with the U.S., and trading house Mitsui has said it could consider supporting the Alaska Gasline portion of the project. (More on that below.) Both JERA and Mitsui have experience in U.S. LNG projects, with equity stakes in Freeport and Cameron, respectively. Potential LNG buyers in Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines have also expressed interest in becoming customers if the Alaska LNG project eventually gets off the ground.

Alaska LNG would enable exports of up to 20 million tons per annum (MMtpa; 2.6 Bcf/d) and help meet local demand for gas around Cook Inlet. The concept of exporting LNG derived from Prudhoe Bay gas reserves has been a longstanding objective of the Alaska state legislature, which highly supports the project. But it has long been viewed with significant skepticism, given the inherent challenges of building a massive pipeline several hundred miles across the state’s rugged terrain. Estimates put a final price tag at about $44 billion, with construction taking at least several years. [RBN’s LNG Voyager report tracks LNG terminal projects and ranks them in six categories (online, under construction/FID, probable, and possible tiers 1-3), in order of imminence. Alaska LNG is categorized as Possible — Tier 3, the bottom of the six categories.]

Aside from a shorter sea route to potential customers in Asia, the project’s biggest plus may be its proximity to a large amount of natural gas. Large-scale LNG projects require major gas reserves, preferably gas with little market value in the environment where it is discovered (typically referred to as stranded gas). In the case of Alaska, the Prudhoe Bay oil field — one of the 10 largest in the U.S. — is topped by a gas cap estimated to contain 46 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), with a recoverable gas reserve of 26 Tcf. Then there is the gas dissolved in the oil, which is separated at the wellhead and reinjected at rates up to 7 Bcf/d, helping to maintain reservoir pressure. [Before Prudhoe Bay gas could be piped south it would need to undergo processing to remove NGLs and carbon dioxide (CO₂), which accounts for 5%-18% of the gas present in the cap. This would require reinjection of the CO₂ into a suitable sub-surface reservoir and/or potential use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR).]

Gas for the Alaska LNG project would flow from a gas treatment facility (purple diamond in Figure 1 below) on the proposed Alaska Gasline (dashed aqua line), an 800-mile, 42-inch-diameter overland pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Cook Inlet, where a subsea section would deliver up to 3.3 Bcf/d of gas to the project site at Nikiski (striped purple-and-white diamond), located to the north of the original Kenai LNG export project (gray diamond) that ceased operation in 2016 due to the depletion of reserves in Cook Inlet. The liquefaction facility would comprise three trains, two LNG storage tanks (240,000 cubic meters each) and two jetties. The pipeline would also supply gas to electricity and gas utilities along its path and to Cook Inlet, where demand is expected to reach 200 MMcf/d by 2030. (Cook Inlet stretches 180 miles from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage.) There is also scope for additional gas demand by local industries, such as Nutrien, which has shuttered its fertilizer plant due to declining gas supplies.

Figure 1. The Alaska LNG Project. Source: RBN 

The Renewable Energy Narrative Continues -- Why? Because The US Is Awash In Cheap Natural Gas -- It All Began With The Bakken Revolution -- August 6, 2024

Locator: 48353NATGAS.

I remember when I first started the blog, more than ten yeas ago, Nancy Pelosi recommended that natural gas be considered a) a renewable energy source and not a fossil fuel; and, b) the bridge to future green energy. Absolutely amazing; brilliant woman. If I recall correctly, T. Boone Pickens had the same idea. 

Link here. 

Massive Prisoner Swap About To Be Announced; AI, Large Data Centers, Natural Gas -- August 1, 2024

Locator: 48285GEO.

Massive prisoner swap: international --

• US, Russia and other countries
• Evan (WSJ) and Paul Whelan to be released.
• former president Trump's immediate response: 
• unable to be congratulatory
• unable to be gracious
• unable to show any warmth in his remarks 
• Trump is a hater, narcissistic, delusional, insecure, and a small man by any measure
  

Economic figures:

• productivity: significantly stronger
• unit labor costs: significant lower
• initial jobless claims: 249K vs 235K
• US equity markets response: improve slightly
• Steve Liesman comments
  
• hiring is slowing down
• the numbers are "very good"
• others comments
• yesterday, JPow seemed more concerned about slowing jobs than inflation
  

SRE: flat; trading at $80.06; in the old days, prior to the 2 - 1 split, this was a $140-stock;

INTC: worst Dow stock of the year — CNBC. Down again today in pre-market. Still no mention of fried CPUs. Later: down almost 15% for the day. Wow.

Now, on CNBC: segment on "Natural Gas Saving The Grid?"

• US just set an all-time record for the amount of natural gas used to produce electricity
• first four months of the year
• we've never used this much natural gas before in the history of the US
  
• hydroelectric: fell 20%; wind, natural gas couldn't off set loss of hydro
• concern whether nuclear energy will be sufficient going forward
• California changed course: will pivot on planned nuclear plant shutdown

West Virginia: setting natural gas production records with MVP coming on line.

See RBN Energy today.  

COP: beats. Will add the 20-cent VROC to the regular dividend in the fourth quarter.  See website.

HOUSTON—Aug. 1, 2024—ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) today reported second-quarter 2024 earnings and adjusted earnings of $2.3 billion, or $1.98 per share, compared with second-quarter 2023 earnings and adjusted earnings of $2.2 billion, or $1.84 per  share.  

• reported second-quarter 2024 earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share of $1.98.
• generated cash provided by operating activities of $4.9 billion and cash from operations (CFO) of $5.1 billion
• declared ordinary dividend of $0.58 per share and variable return of cash (VROC) of $0.20 per share payable in the third quarter.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $78.34.

Friday, August 2, 2024: 66 for the month; 66 for the quarter, 392 for the year
40449, conf, Empire North Dakota, Eagle 29 1
40410, conf, CLR, Dahle 5-35HSL,
40385, conf, Neptune Operating, Frederick 3-10 5H,
40305, conf, Stephens Williston, Cabot 15591-0112-2H,
39601, conf, Hess, BL-Iverson B-155-95-0807H-7,

Thursday, August 1, 2024: 61 for the month; 61 for the quarter, 387 for the year
40411, conf, CLR, Anheluk 4-26H,
40263, conf, Stephens Williston, Cabot 15591-0112-3H,
40089, conf, Phoenix Operating, Jean Ferari 26-35-2 4H,
40088, conf, Phoenix Operating, Jean Ferrari 26-35-3H,
39604, conf, Hess, BL-Iverson B-LN-155-95-0807H-1,

RBN Energy: AI, data center power demand and the implication for natural gas. Archived.

Data center power demand is soaring as AI — artificial intelligence — rapidly expands across all sorts of applications. That statement is certainly the top buzz factor in today’s energy markets. These facilities need 24x7, super-reliable power, and there’s only one power generation fuel that has any hope of keeping up with the demand surge: natural gas. While most data center developers would prefer green energy to cover their power requirements, the intermittent nature of wind and solar means that for many facilities, it can't happen, at least for the short-to-medium term hyped-up market we are seeing right now. But how much incremental power are we talking about? And how much natural gas will be needed? That’s what we’ll explore in today’s RBN blog. 

“Ever wondered why your smart speaker keeps asking for more power? It’s not just craving a caffeine boost — it’s trying to keep up with the insatiable demand of AI’s appetite for electricity!” Those aren’t our words. Instead, they’re what ChatGPT gave us (exclamation point included!) when we asked it to write a humorous first sentence for an RBN blog about AI and power demand. Not bad, really, but we’ll stick with human bloggers. (Well, for the time being at least!)

MVP Update -- July 7, 2024

Locator: 48070NG.

Tag: pipeline.

SPGlobal, July 3, 2024: Appalachian Basin gas production hits four-month high as MVP flows rise.

Drilling down deeper, it appears that much of the recent gas production increase is coming from the Marcellus shale of West Virginia, located in the https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/natural-gas/070324-appalachian-basin-gas-production-hits-four-month-high-as-mvp-flows-rise. In July, Marcellus production from West Virginia has averaged nearly 9 Bcf/d, up from about 8.5 Bcf/d during the final week of June.

Recent production gains in Appalachia also come after EQT CEO Toby Rice in mid-June acknowledged publicly that the company had started bringing earlier-deferred production back online – a process that he said would be incremental.

Earlier this year, EQT announced one of the single largest gas production cuts by a US operator, saying it would reduce gross output by 1 Bcf/d in response to low prices. At the time, executives said the curtailment, which started in late February, would lower annual production by at least 30-40 Bcf.

EQT's announcement came just two weeks after Chesapeake Energy announced its own cut of a similar magnitude with a commitment to reduce 2024 output by 15% and lower capital spending by 20%.

Earlier commitments to cut gas production by EQT, Chesapeake and others came largely in response to low gas prices, which were hovering in the mid-$1 area at the time. In early May, though, gas prices rallied back above $2 and kept rising, ultimately topping $3 amid bullish momentum fueled by tighter market fundamentals. Now, with prompt futures prices still hovering in the mid-$2s, it seems likely that production in Appalachia, and elsewhere, could continue rising.

Mountain Valley Pipeline, wiki.

Permits first applied for: October, 2015. Would planning have started ten years earlier? 

Biden got 'er done.

Wiki page needs to be updated: says the "project developer expects the pipeline to be in-service by mid-year 2024."

Biggest Under-Reported Energy Story For Investors -- NG Is Above $3 -- June 11, 2024

Locator: 47816WTI.

While "everyone" is focused on WTI, in fact, natural gas is where the big story is right now for energy investors. It's gonna be a big summer for utilities -- short-term, heat and a/c; long-term: excitement about data center energy requirements.

Got Air Conditioning? Summer, 2024 Is Going To Set All Time Energy Demand Records -- North Of The Equator, Worldwide -- May 20, 2024

Locator: 47140NATGAS.

Is anyone paying attention? 

What fuel is favored for electricity generation (air conditioners)? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

Is anything paying attention?

And This Is What The Least Sharp Knife -- Initials JG -- In The Drawer Wants To Stop -- January 31, 2024

Locator: 46699NG.

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Drawer? The Cabinet -- LOL

Link here.

This is simply incredible.

 And then this, link here.

Does anyone even remember Groningen any more? Wiki.

Three Wells Coming Off Confidential List Today -- Januuary 30, 2024

Locator: 46686B.

Busy, busy day. Lots of earnings, analysis, observations but that will all have to wait.

Cramer: we've moved from disinflation to deflation. For the Fed, the economy is going their way. 

Trans Mountain hits another delay: drilling anomaly. 

Coal: cheaper coal could make Turkey Europe's largest coal-burning nation. It doesn't help that the Red Sea is closed. And it seems the US Navy can't change that. Peter Zeihan wrote about this years ago.  

Cleveland-Cliffs: this is pretty amazing. Record shipping this past year. Great earnings; great guidance, Shares up 4%.

Brazil: fuel imports from Russia surge to record highs. Link here.

But two things were predictable: GM and Amazon.

UPS: implodes; it's a one off but this is huge; miss on revenue; beat on earnings; 12,000 jobs cut. But as noted, it's a one-off: poorly run; loss to FedEx, and, of course, the 600-pound gorilla, Amazon. I'll talk about this again later. It's a big, big deal.

GDPNow estimate, 1Q24: 3.0%. Whoo-hoo. Link here. A reminder:

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $76.12.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024: 59 for the month; 59 for the quarter, 59 for the year
39728, conf, WPX, Bull Moose 28-27HEL,
39112, conf,  Hess, EN-Hegland-155-94-0508H-5, see production data here;
38991, conf, Whiting, Bigfoot 42-26-2TFHU,

Tuesday, January 30, 2024: 56 for the month; 56 for the quarter, 56 for the year
39727, conf, WPX, Bull Moose 28-27HZ,
39538, conf, Hess, EN-Enger-156-94-1423H-7, see production data here;
39111, conf, Hess, EN-Hegland-155-94-0508H-4, see production data here;

RBN Energy: Canada's natural gas market remains mired in oversupply at midwinter.

The current winter heating season in Canada has seen extremes of warmth and cold, but much more of the former than the latter. Given that the Canadian natural gas market was already oversupplied and struggling with record-high gas storage levels as winter approached, even the most intense cold blast in mid-January wasn’t enough to return the supply/demand balance north of the 49^th parallel to anything near normal. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss where the Canadian market stands as the calendar turns to February and what that might mean for end-of-winter gas balances. 

The current heating season across North America has proven to be one of the more unusual in recent years. Blowtorch warmth in November and (especially) December was followed by a bone-chilling cold blast for many of us through about half of January. The crazy swings in Canadian heating loads have left the natural gas market — at just past the halfway point of the heating season — in more of a dazed state than is usually the case. The extreme fluctuations have also greatly affected market balances in such a way that a distinct overhang of gas supply, present since late last summer, seems likely to persist to the end of the current heating season and into the summer of 2024.

Deserves A Stand-Alone Post -- May 20, 2023

Locator: 44784NATGAS. 

From a reader this morning, thank you very, very, very much.

Link to MSN.

My not-ready-for-prime-time reply:

Wow, if that holds up, that's huge (my advice: the developer needs to have equipment in place today, and start laying pipe the minute President Biden signs the bill).

Here's what a lot of folks forget. This debt ceiling deal will probably be a thousand pages thick and that's before we get to all the "spin-offs."

The press can only hit the high points and the press generally only hits the top-line, headline, contentious issues because they have only so much time and "space" to get the story out (and they all have an agenda).

But hidden in those thousand of pages there has to be a lot of goodies to get US congress-people to support it. Imagine what McCarthy got for some of his more recalcitrant GOP MAGA politicos. If they want to go on record to vote against the bill to put social security recipients at risk, let them go for it. [Biden continues to impress me. Don't take that out of context; one needs to know from where "we" started this journey. Seriously: would you rather have Joe and Jill or Harry and Meghan or Barack and Michelle or The Donald and Melania in the White House? For me, the choice is easy and obvious.] 

The "401(k)" is a great example of big, big "things" hidden in massive bills.

I bet a lot of politicos wish the debt ceiling issue would come up more often. LOL. 

US LNG -- Will Leapfrog Rivals With Three New Projects -- February 17, 2023

The link.

It's too bad we -- the party with which I used to be affiliated -- has no deep thinkers -- only US senators that can take pot-shots at the US president -- in the old days this would have been a big deal --

My favorite word in that headline: "leapfrog."

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What Makes A Superstar?

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And No One's Getting Fat
... except Mama Cass

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The Gig Is Over 

Perhaps their best ever .. and their last. What were you doing in 1965?

Cold -- And Expensive -- In New England, New York -- February 3, 2023

Link here.

Link here.

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Happy Valentines Day

Amazing: Four Shots In 25 Seconds -- Including Half-Court Bucket -- $10,000 -- February 3, 2025

Note: I see the comments and am posting them, but the blogger application won't allow me to reply like I used to.

With regard to comment below regarding natural gas reserves / production -- yes, I saw that and posted it earlier. Link here. And, also here.

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Basketball

Link here: KTIV.com.

Here We Go -- ISONY -- Cold -- Natural Gas -- February 3, 2023

Link here.

ISONY.

Texas Breaks Natural Gas Production Record -- January 30, 2023

Earlier this note.

Now, this. And, of all things, by Charles Kennedy. Whoo-hoo!

In a new record for the Lone Star State, Texas produced 11.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2022, with growth expected to trend even higher going forward, according to the latest report from the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association.

TIPRO also noted that Texas supplied the country with 1.83 billion barrels of oil last year.

Texas’ direct oil and gas payroll hit $48 billion in 2022, compared to $11 billion for California and $7.6 billion for Louisiana, the second and third biggest payroll contributors.

In terms of oil production, Texas’ 1.83 billion barrels in 2022 compared to New Mexico, with the second highest at 534 million barrels, and North Dakota, with 393 million barrels.

In the field of natural gas, where Texas broke a new record, the second biggest producer for 2022 was Pennsylvania, which produced 7.6 Tcf.

Gross Regional Product for the Texas oil and gas industry came in at $322 billion for 2022, a figure that represents 16% of the state’s economy. TIPRO, however, notes that the actual contribution to the state's economy is much higher, stating, “Once the typical multiplier for Gross Regional Product is incorporated, the Texas oil and natural gas industry supported 40% of the Texas economy.”

That all earned the state of Texas $24.7 billion in taxes and royalty payments from the oil and gas industry last year.

Elsewhere, from various sources:

"The Natural Gas King" Grew Natural Gas Proved Reserves To A New Record -- 600+ Trillion Cubic Feet -- No Wonder The Elitists Want To Ban Natural Gas Ovens / Stoves -- January 30, 202

See this post: the US remains "the natural gas king."

Now, this today, from the EIA:

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Archived

I wouldn't pay to much attention to any of the numbers below but it helps put things in perspective. The numbers below simply tell me how fast natural gas reserves grew with the "Bakken revolution."

How does this compare to the earlier note, from 2018?

From oilprice, the data comes from BP's annual review, 2017 data.

• US natural gas production (flat over the past three years):
• 2017: 71.1 billion cubic feet per day
• 2016: 71.1 billion cubic feet per day
• 2015: 71.6 billion cubic feet per day

US natural gas reserves, February 13, 2018, EIA:

• 341.1 trillion cubic feet; increased by 5% over 2016
• Pennsylvania: added 6.1 tcf natural gas reserves, the largest net increase of all states in 2016 as a result of the Marcellus)
• next largest net gains, after Pennsylvania: Oklahoma (3.7 tcf); Ohio (3.1 tcf); SCOOP, STACK, Utica
• natural gas from shale as a percentage of total production: increased from 54% in 2015 to 62% in 2016
• additions exceeded consumption by 30%

What about the rest of the world back in 2013?

• Russia: 6,000 trillion cubic feet 
• another 11 TCF discovery, 2018; the Arctic
• Iran: 1,000 trillion cubic feet
• Qatar: 900 trillion cubic feet
• Turkmenistan: 600 trillion cubic feet
• US: 350 trillion cubic feet
• #11: Australia: 152 trillion cubic feet (as of January, 2014). (See this post.) 
• Beetaloo Basin could add 500 trillion cubic feet (2019)
• Pakistan: 10,000 trillion cubic feet (highly unlikely, something tells me we are mixing apples and oranges, reserves vs technically recoverable.

North Dakota Posts Record Natural Gas Production, Capture Rates; TC Eyes Northern Border Expansion -- November 19, 2022

From Geoff Simon this week, top North Dakota energy stories:

Link here.

Note the URL: https://www.naturalgasintel.com/north-dakota-posts-record-natural-gas-production-capture-rates-tc-eyes-northern-border-expansion/.

This is such an important article I've archived it. 

I still feel strongly that this is a Trojan horse. North Dakota does not need coal-generated electricity from Colstrip, Montana. North Dakota needs to figure out what to do with all that natural gas or North Dakota is going to have a real problem, as soon as two years from now. 

From the linked article with regard to TC's expansion hopes:

On TC’s third quarter earnings call earlier this month, Vice President Stanley Chapman, who is in charge of U.S. and Mexico natural gas pipelines said Northern Border “is a critical part of our unparalleled asset footprint across the U.S. 

The fundamentals still remain very strong and support the need for an expansion.” He said that flows on Northern Border were up quarter/quarter during 3Q2022, and that the firm has closed a nonbinding open season to expand capacity.

“We are still negotiating with our customers to get to definitive agreements,” Chapman said, “and while it’s taking a little bit longer to get that done, our in-service date of early 2026 and our capital estimate to get that project done hasn’t moved.”

WTI Slips Below $79; Thirty-four Active Rigs; Three Wells Coming Off Confidential List -- January 10, 2022

EPD: announces a $3.25 billion acquisition of Navitas Midstream. Accretive in 2023.

• provides an entry point into the Midland Basin for EPD
• 1,750 miles of pipeline; 1 billion cubic feet/day of cryogenic natural gas processing capacity with the completion of the Leiker plant, expected to be completed 1Q22;
• should be immediately accretive to distributable cash flow
• DCF accretion in the rand of 18 cents to 22 cents / unit in 2023
• EPD just announced a 3.3% dividend increase; has the highest credit rating within the midstream sector according to at least one analyst;

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$78.44	1/10/2022	01/10/2020	01/10/2019	01/10/2018	01/10/2017
Active Rigs	34	55	66	53	36

Monday, January 10, 2022: 11 for the month, 11 for the quarter, 11 for the year

• 37234, conf, Bruin, Wm Polar 157-101-24C-13-7B,

Sunday, January 9, 2022: 10 for the month, 10 for the quarter, 10 for the year

• None.

Saturday, January 8, 2022: 10 for the month, 10 for the quarter, 10 for the year

• 38351, conf, Resonance Exploration, Resonance Wilmot 8-27H,
• 27002, conf, CLR, LCU Reckitt Federal 5-22H1,

RBN Energy: US LNG feedgas demand looks primed to build on record highs. 

Global natural gas prices went through the roof in December, and while prices are back down from those highs, they remain incredibly strong compared to years past and the economics for U.S. 

LNG exports are riding high. LNG exports have been in the money for quite some time, but feedgas deliveries to U.S. export terminals throughout the spring and summer of 2021 were somewhat lackluster as maintenance and operational issues at terminals and nearby pipelines kept feedgas from hitting its full potential. 

Gas deliveries to those terminals began climbing in the fall, first back to full utilization levels, and then beyond. 

Much of the record feedgas demand has been from commissioning activity at Sabine Pass Train 6, which produced its first LNG in December and is on track to begin full service early this year. But beyond that, operators have been pushing the existing fleet of terminals to operate at peak levels and produce additional cargoes, likely for sale in the spot market or on short-term contract, an extremely profitable endeavor given the prices in Europe, where most if not all destination-flexible cargoes have headed. In today’s RBN blog, we look at what’s driving LNG feedgas demand to its recent highs and how much higher it could go.