Category: News

November 15, 2022 — Members of the Texas Legislature have filed their first energy-related bills for the new biannual session beginning in January, four of them covering petroleum- and renewable energy-related issues.

District 81 Rep. Brooks Landgraf‘s House Bill 33 attempts to restrict Texas agencies from contracting with federal agencies over O&G laws: “An agency of this state or a person employed by an agency of this state may not contract with or in any other manner provide assistance to a federal agency or official with respect to the enforcement of a federal statute, order, rule, or regulation purporting to regulate oil and gas operations if the statute, order, rule, or regulation imposes a prohibition, restriction, or other regulation that does not exist under the laws of this state”…
 

November 15, 2022 — An emerging company that uses Earth- and air-based measurements of climate gases and air pollution says it will launch in January a balloon equipped with methane-detection sensors over the Permian Basin.

Waverly, Tennessee-based Scepter says it plans to move up to attaching sensors to satellites to be placed in low-Earth orbit to monitor emissions globally, in cooperation with some oil companies, including Exxon.

The company says it’s the first time balloons carrying hyperspectral sensors operating in short-wave infrared have been commercially deployed to obtain detailed level of data, measuring down to 50 kg methane per hour and lower—a moderate-sized industrial leak….
 

AEP Third-quarter 2022 GAAP earnings of $1.33 per share and $1.62 per share operating Company reaffirms narrowed 2022 operating earnings (non-GAAP) guidance range of $4.97 to $5.07, raised midpoint of $5.02, and 6% to 7% long-term growth rate $40 billion, five-year …

The following statement can be attributed to Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association:

“The E3 report released today by the Public Utility Commission (PUC) recommends the implementation of a forward reliability market—a capacity market for the ERCOT system. Total system cost, cost to consumers—industrial and residential—and timeframes of implementation remain of great concern for the Texas oil and natural gas industry with this type of design.
 

By Alex Mills
…U.S. inventories of distillate fuel oil have been below the five-year (2017–2021) low since the start of 2022. Since April, total U.S. distillate inventories have been below the five-year low and more than 20% below the five-year average.

“The low inventories have primarily been the result of less global refining capacity since 2020, as well as high demand in early 2022 and global trade disruptions later in the year linked to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” EIA said….
 

November 9, 2022 — Fire investigators are reportedly at the scene of an overnight refinery fire in the Los Angeles, CA, area.

The 2-alarm blaze was confined to one area of the 1,000-acre Chevron oil refinery at El Segundo, according to KTLA.

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by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller

After Winter Storm Uri caused mass power outages, widespread misery, and humiliation for our state and our grid, I tasked my team with creating a comprehensive plan to help inform the public and lawmakers about the scope of the challenge and the breadth of the potential solutions.

The result was the Texas P.O.W.E.R. (Proper Oversight, Winterization, and Electricity Reform) Plan.

Many of those recommendations have since become law. Others should be. The grid is certainly more secure, and that work continues.

None-the-less, I’m proud of the contributions my team came up with to improving our electrical grid and helping avert further disruptions.

With the onset of this year’s crippling drought, our farms and ranches have been decimated. Crops continue to fail; livestock is being sold early and our agriculture sector is in crisis. Experts tell us we may be in the midst of another drought similar to the one that rocked Texas in the 1950s….
 

November 5, 2022 — Natural gas and oil sales tax collected by the Texas Comptroller‘s office continued a months-long rise year-over-year during the month of October.

The natural gas production tax collected last month of $410 million was up 59% when compared to October 2021.

And the October oil production tax income was up $544 million, up 33% from October of last year.

Motor fuel taxes, however, were down 3% year-over-year, at $312 million….
 

November 5, 2022 — Phillips 66 and Valero are among the winning bidders in the US Dept. of Energy’s (DoE) awards for access to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

Twelve companies replied to the DoE’s notice of sale, totaling 110 bids, the agency said…..
 

By Alex Mills President Biden threatened American oil producers this week with punitive taxes if they do not decrease prices. Just seven days before the midterm election, Biden went to the podium at …

November 2, 2022 — Plains All American Pipeline LP and Enbridge Inc are now the sole owners of the Texas Cactus II Pipeline and its company Cactus II Pipeline LLC, after a buyout priced at about $265 million.

Subsidiaries of Enbridge and Plains purchased 15% interest in the pipeline from Western Midstream Partners LP, with Enbridge getting 10% and Plains 5% based on the Western Midstream holdings…..
 

November 1, 2022 — Denbury Carbon Solutions says it’s executed a CO₂ Services Agreement with Clean Hydrogen Works, certifying Denbury to transport and sequester CO₂ captured from a hydrogen-ammonia complex in Louisiana that Clean Hydrogen is planning, with a final investment decision to be made in 2024.

Denbury, a subsidiary of Plano-based Denbury Inc., says the Ascension Parish complex (to be called the Ascension Clean Energy complex, or ACE) is expected to be built less than 2 miles from Denbury’s existing CO₂ pipeline network.

The proposed facilities are to be constructed on a 1,700-acre site along the west bank of the Mississippi River in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, about 50 miles upstream from New Orleans….
 

November 1, 2022 — The University of Texas at Arlington is adding a first-of-its-kind bachelor’s degree program in resource and energy engineering to train students to apply engineering principles to the design, development, …

October 28, 2022 — A new report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) — actually an update of an earlier report — says the ERCOT power grid is almost as vulnerable as it was during Winter Storm Uri in February of 2021.

The FERC said marginal improvements have been made to the grid but more changes are required..

And on Thursday Texas PUC Director of Communications Rich Parsons replied to the FERC report, saying the grid is indeed ready for winter weather: ….
 

October 29, 2022 — As Pioneer Natural Resources evaluates a number of potential renewable energy investments,  it’s now participating in a couple of projects the company says will provide low-cost, renewable power to its Permian Basin operations and to the Texas electric grid….

October 28, 2022 — Permex Petroleum Corporation has appointed a new member to its board — Melissa Folz P.E., who has an extensive background in the O&G industry.
…
 

By Alex Mills

Politicians around the world just can’t help themselves. They can’t keep their cotton-picking hands out of trying to manipulate energy markets.

Take the political leaders in Europe. For decades western European countries have relied upon Russia to supply them with oil and natural gas that was reliable and affordable.

Now, that source of energy is no longer available to them because of sanctions on Russian oil and gas, and their primary source of energy has  evaporated and consumers (voters) face paying extremely high prices if they can get it at all.

Oil rose as high as $130 per barrel earlier this year (current price is about $90), and natural gas escalated to $80 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) but has settled in the $35 range, currently….
 

October 26, 2022 — An industry advisory group being formed by Houston’s Criterion Energy Partners to aid the expansion of geothermal energy includes a number of big players in the Texas energy industries.

The group is expected to meet regularly to consider ways to bring geothermal energy to commercial markets while driving down the length of execution timelines and the costs of projects and production — and to help the company in crafting a demonstration project.

Criterion said the initial list of companies includes a number of specialists in drilling and completions as well as subsurface experts.

The announced list of members includes:…
 

October 20, 2022 — Entergy Texas expects to increase the Southeast Texas economy with its new non-binding agreement with an affiliate of New Fortress Energy Inc. (NFE) for a collaboration on the development …

October 19, 2022 — Texas became the first state in the nation to begin plugging abandoned oil and gas wells using federal grants from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Plugging work began last week on an abandoned oil and gas well in Refugio County in South Texas. The RRC anticipates the initial grant will be used to plug approximately 800 abandoned wells. These would be in addition to 1,000 wells the agency anticipates will be plugged this year by the successful State Managed Plugging Program (SMP), using industry fee and fine revenue from the Oil and Gas Regulatory and Cleanup Fund.

“The RRC’s success and expertise with SMP was instrumental in quickly standing up the plugging project using federal funds,” said Clay Woodul, RRC Assistant Director of the Oil and Gas Division for Field Operations. “Our established workplans and contracting will continue to help ensure neighborhoods and the environment across Texas are kept safe through our well plugging work.”

Well plugging work in Refugio County utilizing federal grants.

The RRC has a web page on the federal grant funds for abandoned oil and gas well plugging. That page is at the following link: https://www.rrc.texas.gov/oil-and-gas/environmental-cleanup-programs/federally-funded-well-plugging/