.The Texas Energy Report

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.The Texas Energy Report

NRC Continues Consideration of West Texas High-Level Radioactive Waste Site, Rejecting Public Citizen Arguments

August 26, 2019

Despite granting Public Citizen‘s wish to take part in testimony in the licensing of a high-level radioactive waste dump in West Texas, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has rejected all but one of the public advocacy organization’s arguments against the licensing…..
 

RRC Commissioners Assess More Than $1.2 Million in Penalties

August 26, 2019
 
The Railroad Commission of Texas assessed $1,264,033 in fines involving 439 enforcement dockets against operators and businesses at the Commissioners’ conference last week.

The Commission has primary oversight and enforcement of the state’s oil and gas industry and intrastate pipeline safety.

Eighty-seven dockets involved $424,539 in penalties after operators failed to appear at Commission enforcement proceedings.

Details on these Master Default Orders can be found on the RRC website here.…
 

Attracting Energy Cash May Be Difficult for Trump Now, But GOP Rivals Are Doing Worse: Research

August 22, 2019

President Donald Trump has been having trouble attracting energy company campaign contributions that will likely flow eventually, but such problems pale when compared to his possible GOP rivals, according to new reports from a Washington research organization.

Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) research indicates wide skepticism of Mr. Trump’s trade tariff efforts, despite his pro-energy agenda.

And while there are indications that the Trump 2020 campaign will be receiving unexpected support from a number of political sectors, and while research into expected donations is already underway, the fact that the vote remains well more than a year away renders much of the research speculative.

Still, oil, gas, coal and other energy money will likely be crucial to the entire election cycle again over the next 14 months, and the landscape will be even more complicated than the most recent election….
 

Battery issues confront development of electric vehicles

By Alex Mills

August 21, 2019

The automobile industry has searched for several decades for the solutions to the many problems it faces in developing vehicles powered by batteries solely.

General Motors (GM) has a long history in trying to develop its EV1 electric car but discontinued that effort in 2003, but continued to offer hybrid vehicles, which operate on battery power with gasoline powered engines as backup.

However, The Wall Street Journal reported this week that GM and Volkswagen say they see no future for hybrids and they will concentrate fully on electric vehicles.

GM will develop some 20 styles of electric vehicles (plug-in) during the next four year under the Chevrolet and Cadillac brands….
 

Texas Drilling Permits and Completions Statistics for July 2019

August 19, 2019

The Railroad Commission of Texas (Commission) issued a total of 912 original drilling permits in July 2019 compared 1,153 in July 2018. The July 2019 total included 836 permits to drill new oil or gas wells, eight to re-enter plugged well bores and 68 for re-completions of existing well bores. The breakdown of well types for those permits is 212 oil, 58 gas, 537 oil or gas, 93 injection, three service and nine other permits….
 

ERCOT Calls Unusual Emergency, Asks for Consevation

August 15, 2019

ERCOT said Thursday afternoon a Level 1 alert is in effect — wind generation is down, at least one backup generation ‘is out’ bringing grid to lower overall generation level.

No outages are expected at least for now.

The grid coordinator is calling for electricity users to cut back usage.

Level 1 is the lowest of three levels of emergency alert.

Some fewer generation sources unavailable when compared to earlier in the week, ERCOT Senior Director of System Operations Dan Woodfin saAugust 15, 2019

ERCOT said Thursday afternoon a Level 1 alert is in effect — wind generation is down, at least one backup generation source ‘is out’ bringing grid to lower overall generation level.

No outages are expected at least for now.

This alert is not weather related, ERCOT said.

The grid coordinator is calling for electricity users to cut back usage.

Level 1 is the lowest of three levels of emergency alert.

Some fewer generation sources unavailable when compared to earlier in the week, ERCOT Senior Director of System Operations Dan Woodfin said…..
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ERCOT Emergency Alert Cancelled After 2 Hours, Prices Briefly Top $9,000/MWh, Reliant Asks for More Conservation

August 13, 2019

Reliant Energy is asking its Texas customers to continue conserving electricity through Thursday, after power prices spiked above $9,000/MWh and an emergency action declared by ERCOT on Tuesday afternoon was cancelled after less than two hours….
 

Comstock Resources 2Q Results Continue Jerry Jones Influence

August 13, 2019

Comstock Resources‘ second quarter financial and operations results continue to feature contributions from the 2018 merger of properties from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

The North Texas billionaire contributed Bakken Shale properties to the company in exchange for a controlling interest while it refinanced its long-term debt.

Following are highlights Comstock’s press release on quarterly and half-year results:

For the second quarter of 2019, Comstock reported net income of $21.4 million or $0.20 per diluted share as compared to a net loss of $34.0 million or $2.22 per share for the Predecessor second quarter of 2018. The second quarter 2019 results included an unrealized gain from derivative financial instruments held to manage oil and gas price risks of $12.8 million and Covey Park merger related transaction costs of $1.4 million. Excluding these items, the net income for the second quarter of 2019 would have been $12.7 million or $0.12 per diluted share….