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Tuesday, 9/30/2025
Monday, 9/29/2025
It’s well understood today that the U.S. natural gas market turned from potential domestic shortages to major LNG exports thanks to the Shale Revolution. What is not so well remembered is that the dramatic shift in the U.S. gas market wasn’t widely understood at the time and took several years to be accepted by the energy industry. In today’s RBN blog, we turn our attention to the beginnings of the Shale Revolution and how it allowed the U.S. to evolve into the world’s largest LNG exporter.
Analyst Insights
Analyst Insights are unique perspectives provided by RBN analysts about energy markets developments. The Insights may cover a wide range of information, such as industry trends, fundamentals, competitive landscape, or other market rumblings. These Insights are designed to be bite-size but punchy analysis so that readers can stay abreast of the most important market changes.
By John Abeln - Monday, 9/29/2025 (3:30 pm)
Report Highlight: NATGAS Permian
Dry natural gas production in the Permian Basin averaged 22 Bcf/d for the week ended September 29, down slightly from the week prior, with small changes across most pipelines in the basin last week. The past few weeks, El Paso Pipeline has been the primary driver of lower supply.
By Martin King - Monday, 9/29/2025 (2:15 pm)
For the week of September 26, Baker Hughes reported that the Western Canadian gas-directed rig count was unchanged at 60 (blue line and text in left hand chart below), five less than one year ago and is holding at its highest point since mid-March.
Daily Energy Blog
Monday, 11/05/2012
Category:
Natural Gas Liquids
We’ve talked a lot here about NGL storage in Mont Belvieu and Conway. Those are the big underground storage caverns washed out of salt formations thousands of feet below the surface. But those are not the only places where NGLs are stored in underground salt caverns. Two important facilities, especially for West Coast NGL markets are located in the seemingly unlikely locations of Bumstead, AZ and Adamana, AZ. Today and in a later follow up we’ll look at why these facilities are in Arizona, how they got there, and the unique niche they fill in the NGL marketplace.
Sunday, 11/04/2012
Category:
Crude Oil
NYMEX WTI is the most liquid commodity future in the world. So far this year the exchange traded an average 125 MMb/d in the prompt contract alone. The NYMEX crude price is so ubiquitous that it also underpins the domestic US crude spot market. Differences between futures and physical trading as well as the delivery mechanism that links the two markets, make pricing physical WTI complicated. Today we begin a two-part look at US spot crude pricing.
Thursday, 11/01/2012
Category:
Natural Gas Liquids
Growing propane production from the NGL surge is building up inventories and pushing down prices because it can’t reach markets where demand is increasing. That story probably sounds familiar to crude and natural gas producers actively looking for opportunities to export their way around production overhangs. However, unlike crude and natural gas (or condensate) there are no regulatory barriers to prevent US propane exports. Today we look at how exports will balance growing supplies in the propane market.
Wednesday, 10/31/2012
Category:
Natural Gas
Northeast regional interstate pipeline companies are coming to terms with significant supply growth expected between now and 2017. Companies that traditionally delivered natural gas to the Northeast from outside the region are busy reconfiguring their assets.
In two previous postings in this series we examined the major infrastructure projects being developed by interstate natural gas pipelines in response to the growth of Northeast natural gas production in the Marcellus shale. We reviewed projects developed by Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP), and then Spectra Energy (see TGP and Spectra). This time we look at the projects being pursued by Williams Companies through it Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company (Transco) and its Master Limited Partnership (MLP) Williams Partners.
Tuesday, 10/30/2012
Category:
Natural Gas
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who lost their lives to Hurricane Sandy and to those dealing with the aftermath of the storm. |
On Monday as record setting Hurricane Sandy was plowing into the East Coast, another record was quietly being broken. That record was all time U.S. natural gas production. According to Bentek numbers it increased to 64.9 Bcf/d (total natural gas production less NGLs and other shrinkage, lower 48 states). It is kind of spooky that this occurred just before Halloween. That’s because back in August we noted that Halloween could be an important date for natural gas production. It turns out that is true, but not for the reasons we thought at the time. So today we return to our original analysis to see what has changed and examine the consequences for the upcoming natural gas heating season.
Monday, 10/29/2012
Category:
Crude Oil
US domestic crude oil production took off in the past year. Most of the production growth is coming from three shale oil plays – the Bakken, Eagle Ford and Permian basins. A number of factors have combined to allow rising production to continue. Today we review what sustains increased crude production and whether it can continue.
The chart below shows total US domestic crude production since the start of 2009. Around August 2011, the level of production started to ramp up dramatically. Despite a brief respite when crude prices fell below $80 / Bbl earlier this year, production is rising again. The latest data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that between September 2011 and July 2012, production increased from 5.6 MMb/d to 6.3 MMb/d - that’s a 62 Mb/d production increase every month.
Sunday, 10/28/2012
Category:
Energy
The specialized corporate structures called Master Limited Partnerships (MLP’s) have become part of the landscape for midstream energy companies. They have helped provide efficient access to investment capital to build out infrastructure that is now delivering new shale basin natural gas and oil production to market. MLP investors have enjoyed high yield returns from these tax-advantaged companies with low risk toll road income. Newer MLP structures appear to be moving away from the safety of toll road income into riskier commodity price exposure. Today we investigate this trend in the MLP market.
Thursday, 10/25/2012
Category:
Crude Oil
The gasoline market has become highly regionalized with the country apparently divided into areas of feast and famine. Shortages, low margins and declining refinery capacity have plagued the Northeast and California. Increased gasoline exports have rewarded Gulf Coast refiners. Midwest and Rocky Mountain refiners have profited from strong refining margins.
Wednesday, 10/24/2012
Category:
Crude Oil
Growing condensate supplies from tight oil shale plays are sloshing up at Gulf Coast refineries and being discounted by refiners that don’t need more of the ultra-light crude. Meanwhile there are established international markets for condensate. The resolution seems obvious – just export the surplus condensate and import the kinds of crude oil needed by Gulf Coast refineries. That’s likely okay if the export destination is Canada for use as bitumen diluent, but there is a finite limit to that market. However exporting raw condensate to destinations outside North America is particularly tricky under U.S. crude-oil export restrictions. Today we delve into the nuances of what the export rules say and what the market is doing to deal with these regulations.
Monday, 10/22/2012
Category:
Crude Oil
Last week we introduced a blog series from contributor Ann Davis Vaughan on condensates – the hydrocarbon mixture that is now being produced from tight oil shale plays in increasing quantities. That production surge is causing refiners and traders to scratch their heads figuring out the best uses and markets for condensate. We quickly found that our efforts to understand the condensate market were being hampered by definitions as varied as Lady Gaga’s outfits.
Sunday, 10/21/2012
Category:
Crude Oil
On Friday (October 19, 2012), West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for delivery at Cushing, OK closed at $90.05/Bbl – some $20 below the price for the similar grade Light Louisiana Sweet (LLS) crude sold at the Gulf Coast. We believe that price differential will fall as new supplies of domestic and Canadian crude find their way to the Gulf Coast next year (2013). Supplies of South Texas Eagle Ford are already arriving at the Gulf and a new Platts Marker price shows them being priced against LLS. Today we look at the Eagle Ford marker price and what it means for the status of LLS versus WTI.
Thursday, 10/18/2012
Category:
Energy
A couple of weeks ago RBN’s Sandy Fielden attended the Platts Master Limited Partnership (MLP) Symposium in Las Vegas and listened to a number of presentations about the performance of these specialized corporate structures and the rivers of investment capital that their high income yields are attracting. You can’t turn your head in the energy midstream business without bumping into an MLP. Today we explain what MLPs are and why they dominate today’s energy midstream business.
Before we start – a quick disclaimer. RBN Energy does not advocate investment in in MLPs. We are not an investment advisor. The purpose of this article is not investment advice or endorsement.
Wednesday, 10/17/2012
Category:
Energy
Coal is having a tough year. Producers must be wondering what else can go wrong. In spite of everything, coal continues to play an invaluable role in supplying US energy and as a raw material in steel manufacture. Today we take a closer look at where coal comes from and how it is used.
By now nearly everyone knows the US coal industry is on the ropes. In “Old King Coal is Down in the Hole” we learned how coal producers were hurting to the point of closing mines and restructuring. NYMEX Central Appalachian Coal prices have fallen 22 percent so far this year from $69.67/ short ton (ST) on January 3, 2012 to $54.60/ST on Wednesday (October 17, 2012). As natural gas prices fell below $2/MMBtu in April, power generators switched from using coal as a baseload fuel to natural gas on an unprecedented scale (see Talkin ‘Bout My Generation). Since over 90 percent of coal demand comes from power generation, coal consumption fell as a result. World demand for more valuable metallurgical coal has also slumped as China reduced steel output and the European economies continued to court recession. On top of all that, environmental legislation threatens future coal plant construction as well as the life of legacy plants that have to be retro fitted with expensive pollution control hardware to meet higher Clean Air standards.
Tuesday, 10/16/2012
Category:
Natural Gas
Faced with 7 Bcf/d of new Marcellus production over the past couple of years and possibly another 10 Bcf/d of production growth coming from the Northeast region between now and 2017, the interstate pipeline companies that traditionally delivered natural gas to the Northeast from outside the region have found it necessary to completely o reconfigure their assets. In effect, gas supplies that traditionally have originated from the Gulf Coast are being displaced by Marcellus production. The resulting pipeline projects are expanding capacity and redirecting flows to provide new shippers with competitive access to existing markets. Today we look at the types of pipeline projects going on and then zero in on Tennessee Gas Pipeline.
Monday, 10/15/2012
Category:
Natural Gas Liquids
Natural gas processing plants are being built or expanded at a feverish pace. At least 90 projects are in the works around the U.S., expected to add more than 15 Bcf/d of capacity according to the latest Bentek NGL Facilities Databank numbers. How do the economics of these investments work? We know that it is a lot more complicated than a simple frac spread. But does that mean the calculations must be exclusively the purview of engineers armed with gas plant optimization models? Heck no. Anybody, even an MBA with a spreadsheet, a few standard factors and a gas analysis can figure out how a gas processing plant makes money. So to prove that point today we’ll dive one more time into natural gas processing economics to understand how the composition of an inlet gas stream is converted to outlet streams of natural gas liquids and residue gas.