One of the biggest stories in the energy world right now is the rise of data centers and the massive amounts of electricity they require. Today, we zero in on their rise in the Northeast and preview our latest Drill Down Report on the changing dynamics in the regional gas market.
Data center development is booming across the country. But power and water supplies, fiber connectivity, and regulatory environments differ across states. Today’s RBN blog compares seven leading states for data centers on the key factors that help determine development outcomes.
In newly announced deals, Antero Resources and Antero Midstream will expand their holdings in northern West Virginia and divest non-core assets in eastern Ohio.
Data centers are a buzzy topic in the energy industry, and while there is still a lot of fuzziness about what will actually get built and how much natural-gas-fired power will be needed to support these projects, there’s no doubt that major technology companies are well along in planning a number of massive data centers across the country. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll offer a snapshot of the plans announced by tech giants Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook).
The Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) has been transformative. Originally built as a west-to-east pipeline, its main job was to give Rockies natural gas a way to reach premium markets in the Midwest and the Northeast. But by the time it was constructed, surging production in the Marcellus and Utica shales had overwhelmed the need for Rockies gas in the East, and REX evolved to become a major outlet for Appalachian gas to the Midcontinent. Now, REX has moved beyond its first two incarnations, and its owner, Tallgrass Energy, has announced plans to build a greenfield pipeline that would connect REX and the markets it serves with the prolific Permian Basin, 900 miles south of the existing mainline. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss REX’s history, where it stands today, and how a new pipeline connection with the Permian might fit into its evolving strategy.
There’s been a surge in E&P interest in the Utica Shale’s volatile oil window the past couple of years, and EOG Resources has been particularly optimistic about its potential for producing large volumes of condensate, the lightest of superlight crude oils. A few days ago, EOG — known for growing its business organically, not via M&A — announced one of the largest acquisitions of the year so far: the planned purchase of Encino Acquisition Partners (EAP), the Utica’s #1 condensate producer by far, for $5.6 billion, including the assumption of EAP’s debt. As we discuss in today’s RBN blog, the deal will give EOG its third “foundational” focus area (the others are the Eagle Ford and the Permian's Delaware Basin) and supports the view that the Utica really is an up-and-comer.
Wells operated by a half-dozen E&Ps in eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale are now churning out more than 100 Mb/d of superlight crude oil — aka condensate — more than twice as much as they were just three years ago, and there’s talk that condensate production in the play’s “volatile oil window” could increase significantly over the next few years. This surge in condensate output raises three relevant questions: (1) how is the condensate being transported to market, (2) where is it headed and (3) what is it being used for? In today’s RBN blog, we continue our series on Utica condensate with a look at the approaches used to transport the commodity to refineries and others in the Midwest and points beyond.
Condensate production in the Utica Shale’s volatile oil window in eastern Ohio has more than doubled over the past three years, and plans by the handful of E&Ps that focus on the super-light crude oil suggest that output will increase further this year and next. Who are these producers, why do they see such promise for condensate growth in the Utica, and how are they measuring their success? In today’s RBN blog, we continue examining rising condensate production in eastern Ohio with a look at the leading E&Ps in this space.
The Marcellus/Utica is a natural-gas-and-NGLs play, right? Almost entirely, yes. But a handful of dogged, innovative E&Ps have been producing fast-rising volumes of superlight crude — better described as condensate — in the Utica Shale’s “volatile oil window” in eastern Ohio. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss recently ramped-up drilling-and-completion activity in that swath of the Buckeye State, the potential for more growth through the second half of the 2020s, and the impact of increasing output on Midwest midstreamers and refiners.
As U.S. E&Ps deal with a slew of shorter-term challenges such as broken supply chains, labor shortages, and infrastructure constraints, they’re also paying increasing attention to a longer-term concern: “inventory exhaustion.” There is a growing chorus of analysts asserting that oil and gas producers’ inventory of top-tier drilling locations has been significantly depleted as the nation’s major unconventional resource plays mature. Many producers have continued to rein in their capital spending and husband their current resources and several have boosted inventories through bolt-on acquisitions. Premier E&P EOG Resources has taken a different approach, emphasizing organic exploration that has led to the discovery of two new significant plays over the past two years, including the recent announcement of a new Utica Shale combo play that it describes as being “almost reminiscent” of the early Delaware Basin. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss EOG’s dramatically different approach to building inventory and dive into the details of its new Utica discovery.
