Free Republic

Renewable energy advocates like to point out that the cost of renewable fuels, like solar power, have dropped substantially in the last few years. The cost of solar power for instance has fallen by more than two-thirds since 2009. Yet for all the excitement about renewable power, the reality is that the entire energy sector has essentially been in a state of deflation for the last decade. The notable drop in oil prices over the last two years aside, costs of producing oil both in the U.S. and in many parts of the world have fallen dramatically. The phase out...

Standard and Poor's said Tuesday it had cut or was considering cutting the investment-grade credit ratings at 20 oil and gas giants, including Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. The ratings actions, which spanned integrated and independent producers, are an acknowledgement that $30 oil could shake the credit worthiness of even the largest oil and gas companies. Chevron's credit rating was cut one notch from AA to AA-. Exxon Mobil, which remains at the agency's highest credit rating of AAA, was put on notice its long-term credit rating was up for review. "We anticipate Chevron will significantly outspend internally generated...

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG) is planning a $1.6 billion investment in new gas-fired projects in the coming years. PSEG Power President and COO William Levis tells Reuters the company is taking advantage of the "low gas-price environment" by building combined-cycle plants in Maryland and New Jersey. The company is also looking into building a new 500-MW gas-fired facility by summer 2019 at the site of its 383-MW coal plant in Bridgeport, Connecticut - the state's only coal facility - which PSEG has agreed to close in 2021.

Today is Harry Styles' 22nd birthday, and accordingly the crude complex is heading in one direction. (Down). We burst into February today, and get hit by a wave of global manufacturing numbers, as well as the ongoing debate re 'will-they-won't-they' cut production. (they won't). China kicked things off overnight, setting a cautious tone with its worst official manufacturing print since August 2012. The Caixin manufacturing release also showed ongoing contraction from the sector, but in contrast was better than consensus. Eurozone manufacturing was in line with consensus, boosted by Germany and Spain, held back by Italy and France. Japan was...

Royal Dutch Shell is switching its trucking fleet to more liquefied natural gas-fueled vehicles in Houston and Louisiana as more companies increasingly move away from dirtier diesel fuel. The use of LNG and compressed natural gas -- another new CNG fueling station opened Thursday in Houston -- in commercial vehicles has rapidly expanded because of the nation's cheap and bountiful supply of natural gas. Shell said Thursday it partnered with Miami-based Ryder transportation company for 15 new, heavy-duty LNG trucks to support its oil and gas logistics operations in Houston and Lafayette, Louisiana. The 15 new trucks will replace diesel-fueled...

A number of recently completed and upcoming natural gas infrastructure projects are expected to increase the reach of natural gas produced in the Marcellus and Utica regions of the Northeastern United States (see map). These projects are intended to transport natural gas from production centers to consuming markets or export terminals. Over the past several years, natural gas production in the Marcellus and Utica areas has grown significantly: their combined growth of 12 billion cubic feet per day since 2011 accounts for 89% of the United States's total growth in natural gas production. The Marcellus and Utica shale plays are...

Iran is pushing to find new ways to extract and export its vast natural-gas reserves, including developing facilities to liquefy the commodity and ship it to Europe in two years, now that Western sanctions have lifted, according to a top Iranian official. Iran holds the world's largest reserves of natural gas, but has long lacked the export infrastructure of competitors such Russia and Qatar. They have networks of international pipelines as well as liquefied-natural-gas facilities that enable them to export gas by ship. Tehran is exploring several options to help the country "join the international LNG club," said Alireza Kameli,...

Natural gas spot prices around the United States are often compared to prices at the Henry Hub in Louisiana. At trading points in and around the Marcellus and Utica shale plays in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, natural gas prices consistently trade below the Henry Hub national benchmark price. However, the difference between these pricing points and the Henry Hub has narrowed in recent months as new pipeline projects have come online. Most of the natural gas produced in the region is consumed in other areas of the country. With limited infrastructure to deliver natural gas to consumers, the Marcellus...

A historic low in natural gas prices should ease over the next two years, according to a forecast released Monday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Following a December average of $1.93 for the Henry Hub benchmark, federal analysts predict gas prices will average $2.65 per MMBtu this year and $3.22 in 2017. Oil and gas drillers across the United States have struggled under collapsing commodity prices, driven in part by a boom in domestic shale drilling that has transformed the industry. But the U.S. gas surge is now beginning to taper off. This year U.S. production is only expected...

The U.S. Forest Service has rejected the latest proposed route of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline because of the 42-inch natural gas pipeline's potential damage to the habitat of sensitive animal species protected by two national forests in Virginia and West Virginia. In a letter to the Dominion-led pipeline company on Tuesday, the Forest Service said the proposed route is "inconsistent" with Forest Service plans and commitments to protect the habitats of the Cow Knob salamander, Cheat Mountain salamander and West Virginia northern flying squirrel, as well as the red spruce forest ecosystem in which they live. Consequently, the pipeline project...

The big fall-off-your-chair moment during President Obama's State of the Union address came when he proclaimed: "We've cut our imports of foreign oil by nearly 60 percent and cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth. Gas under two bucks a gallon ain't bad, either." Sure, Mr. President. Take a bow for the smashing success of the very domestic oil and gas industry that you have tried to destroy. Even Obama couldn't carry this off. The smirk on his face as he sang the praises of the oil and gas industry was unmistakable. Right after Obama boasted...

The Jacki Daily Show starts at 2pm ET / 1CT on Glenn Beck's TheBlazeRadioNetwork Today! Congressman Pete Sessions, member of House GOP Leadership, gives us our energy update from Washington DC, including the outlook on natural gas exports. Then, Rob Henneke of TPPF talks about Texas Governor Abbott's new effort to unite the states to hold a Constitutional Convention, with nine proposed Constitutional amendments to return power back to the states. Then, energy economist Bud Weinstein of the Maguire Energy Institute talks about the geopolitics of oil exports. Listen at theblaze.com/radio or on demand on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Stitcher.com where...

Cheniere Energy has delayed the first export of liquefied natural gas from its Sabine Pass plant by about one month until late February or early March, the company announced Thursday. The shipment, which was originally secluded to depart near the end of January, is still slated to be the first cargo of liquefied gas to sail from the continental United States. While Cheniere remains ahead of its competitors, the international markets it's racing to serve have been roiled by a crush of liquefaction capacity due online in 2016 and sluggish demand for the fuel. A one-month delay isn't likely to...

he US moved one step closer to becoming a global natural gas exporter on Monday as the 160,000 cu m Energy Atlantic LNG carrier began its final approach to Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass export facility, Platts trade flow software, cFlow showed Monday. While US LNG exports from Kenai, Alaska, began as early as 1969, Cheniere's newly minted export facility will be the first to send gas produced from the Lower-48 states to consumers across the globe. Much of the newly available US gas comes from hydraulic fracking that has lifted monthly production by more than 66% over the last decade...

U.S. shale oil production is expected to fall for a seventh month in a row in February, declining at about the same rate as the month before as drillers manage to eke out a few more barrels from each new well, U.S. data showed on Monday. Total output was set to decline by 116,000 bpd to 4.8 million bpd in February compared with January, a U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) drilling productivity report said. Production was estimated to have fallen by about the same margin in January, despite some expectations that the decline rate would begin to quicken as companies...

Air Products and Chemicals Inc. formally signed on Technip to engineer and build its $400 million hydrogen plant in Baytown, the companies announced Friday. Pennsylvania-based Air Products is planning for the world-scale steam methane reformer plant in Texas to produce 125 million cubic feet a day of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, much of which will ship through its Gulf Coast pipeline that runs from the Houston Ship Channel to New Orleans. Paris-based Technip touted its work with Air Products as the longest and best hydrogen alliance in the world supporting the oil and gas industry. Hydrogen is used in the...

California Governor Jerry Brown finally declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, concerning the ongoing, currently unstoppable methane gas leak spewing from Aliso Canyon that has created a nightmare for residents of Porter Ranch. “I will tell you, this goes well beyond Porter Ranch. We’ve had complaints from as far as Chatsworth, Northridge, and Granada Hills,” emphasized Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander during a Porter Ranch town hall meeting on December 28. “Apparently this plume of toxic chemicals and whatever it might be, doesn’t know zip codes […] This is the equivalent of the BP oil spill on land,...

Moody's Investor Service hiked its measure of economy-wide financial stress to the highest level since 2010 on Tuesday and warned that more defaults are coming among oil and gas companies this year. The debt rating agency raised its oil and gas liquidity stress index, a gauge of how easily companies can access capital markets, from 19.3 percent in November to 19.6 percent in December. A higher reading indicates companies are having a harder time raising money. For the wider economy, Moody's bumped the liquidity stress index up to 6.8 percent in December, up from 6.5 percent in November. The hike...

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. co-founder James "Jim Bob" Moffett's last big gamble as head of the world's largest copper miner was a $1.2 billion wrong-way bet six miles beneath the Louisiana coastline. Bloomberg reports Moffett, a legendary wildcatter and geologist whose credits include the gigantic Grasberg copper deposit in Indonesia, is stepping down as chairman and director at Freeport as the minerals, oil and gas producer turns to cutbacks and cash preservation amid a deepening commodities meltdown. The 77-year-old Moffett in 2007 staked much of the company's future on an obscure cluster of gas-soaked rocks, hidden beneath coastal Louisiana oil fields, that...

Natural gas spot prices in 2015 at the Henry Hub in Louisiana, a national benchmark, averaged $2.61 per million British thermal unit (MMBtu), the lowest annual average level since 1999. Daily prices fell below $2/MMBtu this year for the first time since 2012. Henry Hub spot prices began the year relatively low and fell throughout 2015, as production and storage inventories hit record levels and fourth-quarter temperatures were much warmer than normal. Natural gas prices at key regional trading hubs ended the year lower than their starting point. At northeastern locations, where natural gas transmission infrastructure is often constrained, prices...