RBN’s Daily Energy Blog and Insights sharpen your energy IQ through fundamentals-based analysis that makes sense of North America’s energy market dynamics.
Crude oil — often mistakenly described as a single, standardized commodity — is anything but uniform. Every stream has its own chemical fingerprint, including differences in density and sulfur content. Today, we’ll dig into why crude quality matters and how it can make a real difference to the bottom line.
One of the seminal energy-related controversies of the past decade was the construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline, but much of its capacity is unused in the shoulder season. Now, three projects aim to debottleneck MVP: Transco’s Southeast Supply Enhancement as well as MVP Southgate and MVP Boost.
NATGAS Permian is a weekly natural gas fundamentals analysis focusing entirely on the key market drivers within the Permian basin. The report contains details and forecasts around natural gas production, demand, pricing, and a summary of pipeline outflows and capacities from the Permian to neighboring regions.
It’s unusual for an acquisition valued at “only” $1.25 billion to be transformational. But that’s surely the case with Expand Energy’s newly announced purchase of Twin Eagle Holdings, which will make Expand — the U.S.’s largest natural gas producer — the #1 gas marketing and optimization firm as well.
Geopolitical developments have resulted in perhaps the most chaotic and unstable energy market in the last 50 years, but sharply lower global crude oil prices and a rollback in U.S. production could be just ahead, two forecasts at the heart of our newly available Future of Fuels report.
Each of Louisiana’s three refining regions has its own sources for crude oil and its own way of delivering that oil to refineries. Today, we look at crude oil flows and supply/demand balances in the southwestern and northwestern parts of the Bayou State — and how the status quo may be in for changes.
The first half of 2026 was a tale of two commodity markets as crude oil prices surged during the spring while natural gas prices retreated after an exceptionally strong winter rally. Today, we examine which oil and gas producers outperformed and why investors rewarded certain business models over others.
Natural gas-fired generation is king in the realm of data center development, at least for the near term. Still, hyperscalers are taking a variety of steps to mitigate the climate impact of their expanding gas use. These include adding CCS, building renewables and supporting new nuclear.
NATGAS Permian is a weekly natural gas fundamentals analysis focusing entirely on the key market drivers within the Permian basin. The report contains details and forecasts around natural gas production, demand, pricing, and a summary of pipeline outflows and capacities from the Permian to neighboring regions.
Several projects in the works would expand crude oil pipeline takeaway capacity out of Western Canada. But, given the pace of production growth there, will enough takeaway space come online in time to prevent pipeline capacity shortages and the price dislocations that come with them?
Natural gas prices in the Permian spent the first half of the year in the red. Then, in mid-June, Kinder Morgan flipped a switch and now Waha prices are back above zero. The “switch” was a compression expansion on Gulf Coast Express, which added a desperately needed 570 MMcf/d of takeaway capacity.
Over the past 18 months, Gulf Coast dock capacity capable of handling either LPG or ethane has grown significantly. It’s something relatively new called “flex capacity,” and it’s a darned good thing it’s online. Without it, both LPG and ethane export capacity would already be maxed out.
