In its short-term energy outlook released last week, U.S. Energy Information Administration said U.S. benchmark Henry Hub spot price for natural gas is forecast to stay below $2 per million British thermal units in second quarter.  The price averaged an inflation-adjusted low of $1.72 per MMBtu in February.  EIA said March 12, “We expect natural […]

U.S. oil and gas drillers added the biggest number of drilling rigs for a week in six months since September, according to the weekly report of March 15 from Baker Hughes.  There were 629 rigs in U.S. – up from 622 the previous week, down from 754 a year ago.  Also, there were 316 rigs […]

Crude oil production in Permian Basin is forecast to increase by 8,000 barrels per day in April to 6.112 million b/d after 6.104 million b/d in March.  In its drilling productivity report Monday, U.S. Energy Information Administration said oil production overall in seven major producing regions is forecast at 9.769 million b/d for April – […]

U.S. Energy Information Administration this week raised its forecast for spot price of Brent crude oil to $88 per barrel for the second quarter of 2024.  That’s up $4 per barrel from Feb. 6 forecast.  And EIA said Tuesday the forecast price for fullyear 2024 is $87 per barrel compared to $82 per barrel as […]

U.S. Energy Information Administration said this week the U.S. produced more crude oil in 2023 than any nation ever for the sixth straight year.  Crude oil production in the U.S., including condensate, averaged 12.9 million barrels per day in 2023 – breaking the previous U.S. and global record of 12.3 million b/d in 2018.  Average […]

Operators are drilling a new type of well in east Texas, where carbon dioxide pipelines, top-tier geology and industrial emissions are combining to spark a race to take advantage of incentives fueled by climate change.  Houston Chronicle said Monday Chevron started drilling test wells in February for its 142,000-acre carbon storage project in Jefferson County […]

Midland-based Kinetik Holdings said recently it completed the third of three strategic growth projects in its 2023 capital program when it placed online gathering system expansion into Lea County, N.M.  Kinetik said the expansion was placed online Jan. 18 (two months ahead of schedule) and under budget. Jamie Welch, president and CEO, said Feb. 28, […]

Calgary-based Enverus Intelligence Research released a report last week on U.S. emissions for the oil and gas sector to evaluate industry progress based on data from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Enverus analyzed trends in the upstream and gathering sections in 2020-22 – highlighting where operator efforts are paying off and which sources are more difficult […]

U.S., Texas and Permian Basin reported declining counts of active drilling rigs for the past week, but New Mexico added 3 rigs for a 2024 new high of 106.  Houston-based Baker Hughes said as of March 8 there were 313 rigs in Permian Basin (315 previous week, 343 year ago), 291 in Texas (299 week […]

Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy recently reaffirmed its 2024 production forecast of about 650,000 boed, but Devon said it expects first quarter production to be down about 2 percent because of curtailments caused by severe winter storms.  The storms shut down refineries on the Gulf Coast in Texas and limited production in North Dakota to about […]