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Reports make it official: Oil and gas are booming
Fuel Fix ^ | April 4, 2013 | Jeannie Kever

Posted on 04/04/2013 8:46:36 AM PDT by thackney

In case you had any doubts, two reports released this week confirm that the oil and gas economy in Texas is still hot.

Drilling permits issued in January and February were up 10 percent over the same period in 2012, according to economist Karr Ingham, who created the Texas Petro Index.

The number of permits issued in February actually slipped by about 3 percent over 2012 numbers, Ingham noted.

But the Railroad Commission issued 3,722 permits during the first two months of the year, “the strongest start to a year in the entire history of the TPI,” he said.

Karr developed the index a decade ago to track trends for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. He reported in January that Texas oil production rose by almost 100 million barrels in 2012 over the previous year, to the highest level in two decades. It was the fifth consecutive year with an increase.

This week he reported a “stunning” increase in oil and gas industry employment in Texas indicated in an annual revision in state employment data, which was concluded in March.

After the revision, the Texas Workforce Commission estimated that 267,000 people worked in the upstream oil and gas industry at the end of the year, he said. That includes drilling and service companies.

The Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association released a similarly upbeat report looking at trends in employment, wages and other economic factors.

Its State of Energy Report counted total oil and gas industry employment in Texas at 379,800 during the first half of 2012. Nationally, the industry employed 971,200 people in the first half of 2012, the report said.

While the Texas Petro Index relies on the Texas Workforce Commission for its employment data, the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association report drew its employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, spokeswoman Kelli Way said.

The average national industry wage was $107,200 in 2012; that compares with an average private sector wage of $48,900, according to the report.

“Texas continues to lead the country in oil and gas production, innovation and employment, due in part to our favorable business and regulatory climate,” Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association, said in a statement.

Among other highlights that Ingham noted in the February installment of the Texas Petro Index:

Crude oil production totaled an estimated 50.6 million barrels, about 8.3 percent more than in February 2012. Crude oil wellhead prices averaged $91.90 a barrel, 7 percent less than February 2012. Natural gas production was about 528.7 billion cubic feet, a year-over-year monthly decline of 12.5 percent. Natural gas prices averaged $3.27 per thousand cubic feet, up about 26.3 percent. The Baker Hughes rig count averaged 833, down 8.9 percent.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: energy; naturalgas; oil; pipeline
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To: Arrowhead1952
My sisters and I got a notice that a geological survey for gas and oil will be done on our land in Lee county soon. Hoping for good news.

Do you have an lease agreement already, or is this being done in advance of a lease? No problem if you don't want to share that much of private business. We recently leased but have no activity on property south of the Haynesville shale.

21 posted on 04/04/2013 10:47:06 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney

Thack I’ve got buddie in Haynesville and he said it’s really died down, gas from the Haynesville shale was to dry. Out here in the permian Basin we’ve got some really wet gas and they are going after it and oil, starting to see a couple of horizontals being drilled in our area.


22 posted on 04/04/2013 10:59:54 AM PDT by Dusty Road
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To: woodbutcher1963
I hear holding backing drilling up in ND is just the lack of storage/pipeline to put the oil.

More oil currently moves out of North Dakota production on rail than on pipeline.

Oil Train Revival: Booming North Dakota Relies on Rail to Deliver Its Crude
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/11/121130-north-dakota-oil-trains/
November 30, 2012

Crude oil take away capacity continues to be adequate with a majority of North Dakota’s oil now shipped by rail to east coast, gulf coast, and west coast destinations.
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas/directorscut/directorscut-2013-03-15.pdf
3/15/2013

23 posted on 04/04/2013 11:04:12 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: Dusty Road

Haynesville is quite dry and has had the deep drop in interest as you would expect.

Our lease is depth limited and specifically excludes the Haynesville formation, even though we are likely 5~10 miles too far away to be commercial at today’s technology even if the prices doubled.

My understanding is they are after the James Lime, but it would be wildcatting in our area. There is production from that layer both east and west of us but quite a few miles away.

The family has had leases on the property going back ~80 years but never a commercial producers. A few dry holes were drilled shallow in the 60’s.


24 posted on 04/04/2013 11:08:46 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney
We have a five year lease on the properties and have mineral rights included. We were notified that there was a survey crew that would be in our area in the near future. There is an area on my property that has had several exploration lines that are within a 200 foot circle. The first one were when they drilled the 250 foot deep (or something like that) holes and shot off dynamite with sensors on land lines picking up the seismic waves.
25 posted on 04/04/2013 11:09:32 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (For Jay Carney - I heard your birth certificate is an apology from the condom factory.)
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To: TexasFreeper2009
I am aware that you would need a huge infrastructure with power lines, huge gas industral generators, but ? it's a shame to just burn that gas into the air and not use it for some purpose.
Instead use that flaring gas to run generators and make avalible to small towns near by electric.
Yes, I know the cost and major understaking it would be to bring that electric to small towns, or even oil rigs, the cost would out weigh the benefits.

Still, it's a shame to just burn it into the air.

Has any of those natural gas companies who flare that gas into the air thought about piping it to some huge gas turbine generator to produce electical power either to the gas & oil rigs or some small town near by ?
26 posted on 04/08/2013 11:48:49 AM PDT by American Constitutionalist
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To: American Constitutionalist

sure, if you pay for the pipeline :)

and I am 100% sure they will gladly use it to ship the gas to where it is needed, for a reasonable charge.

the problem is the lack of infrastructure, and the high cost of alternative methods of shipment.


27 posted on 04/08/2013 12:31:18 PM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama lied .. the economy died.)
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To: American Constitutionalist
Still, it's a shame to just burn it into the air.

What else would you propose doing with it, if it isn't economical to bring to market and sell?

A separate pipeline system is necessary to collect and distribute natural gas production from an oil well. If the gas production is insufficient to warrant the construction of the infrastructure, it's going to get flared off at the wellhead.

Note that when the situation is reversed -- when a gas well is also producing some liquids -- the liquids are captured at the wellhead and stored in tanks at that location. Then trucks run regular routes to pick up the liquids. In this case, the required infrastructure is economical, so the by-product is collected and marketed.

28 posted on 04/08/2013 12:48:05 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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