Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog

Newfield Exploration has reported that it is drilling horizontal wells with "super extended laterals" in the Woodford Shale in Oklahoma -- wells with laterals exceeding 5,000 feet. Newfield has so far drilled 14 super-extended lateral wells, with an average length of 9,000 feet. Those wells had an average gross initial production rate of approximately 9 MMcfe/day.

ConocoPhillips reported that it has completed the drilling of four horizontal wells in the Eagle Ford shale play, in its "liquids-rich" core. The first of these wells was put on production in March and flowed at an initial rate of 3.8 mmcf/day and 1,200 barrels/day of condensate.

All of the new shale gas production continues to put downward pressure on gas prices. Natural gas futures for June delivery fell 36.8 cents, or 8.5 percent on Thursday, April 29 on NYMEX. So far this year, natural gas futures have fallen 29 percent. The Energy Information Administration reported that the supply of gas in storage increased  by 83 Bcf for the week ended April 30. Gas in storage is 315 Bcf above the 5-year average.

The information below is from the Energy Information Administration.  Note the wide variation in City Gate and Wellhead Prices among different states:

 

Below is the same information in graph form.  Why would average residential gas prices in Texas be $12.88 per mcf, while residential prices in California and Minnesota -- far from natural gas production -- be less than $10 per mcf? Why such variations in Residential prices?

 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) issued a forecast of world energy consumption and use, and for the first time included a scenario projecting the impacts of taking steps to stabilize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at about 450 parts per million by 2030. This "450 Secnario" would limit overall temperature increases to 2 degrees C., versus a rise in global temperature of as much as 6 degrees if no efforts to curb carbon dioxide are made. The report compares this 450 Scenario to its "reference scenario," its projections of energy production, prices and consumption assuming no policy changes are enacted.

Its conclusions:

Under the reference scenario, oil prices would increase to $87/bbl in 2015, $100/bbl by 2020, and $115/bbl by 2030 (in 2008 dollars). Under the 450 Scenario, the oil price would level off at $90/bbl by 2020.

Natural gas prices would grow 17% by 3020 under the 450 Scenario, or an average of 0.7%/year.  In 2030, gas prices would be 17% lower than under the reference scenario.

Although significant additional investment would be necessary to meet the 450 Scenario, this investment would be more than offset by fuel cost savings. Oil and gas import costs for OECD countries would be much less. Oil and gas import costs for China and India would be 30% lower in China and India in 2030 than in the reference scenario.

Momentum appears to be gaining to increase use of compressed natural gas in vehicles in the U.S., both to decrease the nation's dependence on foreign oil and as a "bridge fuel" to fight global warming.

• Last Week, the Potential Gas Committee issued a report estimating that the toal U.S. natural gas resource base at year-end 2008 was 1,836 trillion cubic feet, an increase of 39% from its 2006 estimate. Most of this increase comes from newly discovered shale reservoirs. Boone Pickens said that the new estimate "is the equivalent of nearly 350 billion barrels of oil, about the same as Saudi Arabia's oil reserves."
• Boone Pickens' energy plan includes greatly expanding the use of natural gas as fuel for transportation.
• At current natural gas prices, compressed natural gas is about $1.00 cheaper than gasoline.
• Natural gas is clean-burning: greenhouse gas emissions are 20 to 22 percent lower than comparable gasoline or diesel vehicles. Natural gas vehicles (NGVs) are the cleanest-emission vehicles now on the road. In tests conducted in metropolitan areas that have been designated by EPA as non-attainment areas for air quality, exhaust from NGVs has sometimes tested cleaner than the ambient air. Natural gas produces about half of the carbon dioxide emissions as coal for the same amount of heating energy.
• The biggest obstacle to use of NGVs is lack of available refueling stations. The map at the following link shows compressed natural gas fueling stations in the U.S.: http://rpm.nrel.gov/transatlas/launch/ . Most are in California and along the east coast.
• In the rest of the world, natural gas is a major transportation fuel. In Italy, there are more than 800 CNG stations. In Germany, NGVs are expected to increase to 2 million vehicles by 2020. Worldwide, there are more than seven million NGVs on the roads, with the largest numbers in Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan, Italy, India, China, Thailand and Iran.
• Many manufacturers make bi-fuel vehicles, capable of burning either gasoline or compressed natural gas. Major manufacturers of NGVs include Fiat, Opel, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda and others. The Honda Civic GX is the only CNG-powered car currently sold in the U.S, mostly in California. Fiat's expertise in NGVs is expected to be imported into U.S.-made Chrysler vehicles.
• Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake, drives a bi-fuel Chevrolet Tahoe and says that CNG has cost him on average about 95 cents per gallon.
• Many state and federal incentives are being enacted to encourage construction of NGV fueling stations.  For example, Oklahoma passed a new law that will allow the State to provide a refueling structure for fleet services used by schools, county and municipal governments, and sets up a fund to provide money to state agencies and political subdivisions to lease or buy NGVs.
• "Compressed Natural Gas" and "Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles" have their own entries in Wikipedia.

So when are you going to by your first NGV?

 

 

Boone Pickens' efforts to promote natural gas as an alternative to gasoline in vehicles seems to be gaining momentum. In a column published by the Huffington Post, Pickens said that the recent advances in extraction of natural gas from shales is a "game-changer." "One study estimates that we have enough natural gas to satisfy current demand for the next century."  Pickens reports that H.R. 1835, the NAT GAS Act, has strong bipartisan support in Congress. the NAT GAS Act provides incentives for installation of compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations and use of CNG in large trucks and fleet vehicles.

Natural gas gives off 25% less carbon dioxide than oil for the same amount of energy produced. About 1/3 of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions come from burning of gasoline in internal combustion engines. For a good summary of the use of CNG, go to the U.S. Department of Energy's website on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 

Although Texas leads the nation in natural gas production, it is behind ten other states in the number of CNG fueling stations.

 

 Louisiana is considering its own legislation offering incentives to convert existing vehicles to natural gas and the installation of CNG fueling stations. Chrysler's recently announced plan to sell its best assets to Fiat may present a major opportunity to increase sales of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) in the U.S. Fiat plans to sell 120,000 NGVs in Italy this year. Only one NGV passenger car, the Honda Civic GX, is sold in the U.S. and there are only about 130,000 NGVs of all types currently on U.S. roads.

Below is an interesting chart published by the U.S. Energy and Informaton Administration, showing how the U.S. used energy in the U.S. in 2007:

The sources of energy are on the left, the sectors of the economy that consume energy are on the right. The lines connecting supply sources and demand sectors show which sectors use which sources of energy. For example, petroleum represents 39.8% of the total supply of energy in the U.S. Seventy percent of that petroleum is used for transportation. Petroleum is the source of 96% of all sources of energy for the transportation sector. The transportation sector consumes 29% of all energy consumed in the U.S.

The chart reveals how natural gas is used in the U.S.: 34% in the industrial sector, 34% in the residential and commercial sector (as fuel to heat and cool homes and buildings), 30% to generate electricity. Most electricity is used by residential and commercial buildings, so in reality electricity is an intermediate demand sector. If it is eliminated as a demand sector, 61% of total demand would show as consumed by residential and commercial buildings. Natural gas would supply 14.8% of total energy used in residential and commercial buildings, either directly for heating and cooling or indirectly through its use to generate electricity. 

Unlike coal and petroleum, demand for natural gas is spread among three demand sectors -- industrial, residential and commercial, and electric power. Today demand for natural gas is depressed, principally because of increased supply and low demand in the industrial and electric power sectors. If natural gas' share of the transportation sector could be increased by conversion of vehicles to burn it, domestic supplies of natural gas could supplant imported petroleum as a source of supply for the transportation sector. For an excellent article on the use of natural gas as an alternative fuel for transportation, see Seeking Alpha's article.