.The Texas Energy Report

Update Sunday: Crews have been working to suppress flareups as a fire at a Louisiana oil refinery continued to burn along the banks of the Mississippi River, while residents worried about health effects from fumes and smoke, AP reported

August 25, 2023 — The smoke plume is spectacular but Marathon Petroleum says a fire accompanying a naphtha spill at its refinery in Garyville LA has been confined by firefighters to company property about 35 miles northwest of New Orleans.

As a precaution, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for those residing or working within two miles of the refinery, WDSU-TV reported.

One nearby resident said the fire seemed to have started about 7:30 this morning.

No injuries have been reported; air monitoring is underway, but “no off-site impacts have been detected,” the company said.

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More energy was consumed in the commercial sectors of eight U.S. states in 2021 than in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The increases in commercial sector end-use energy consumption in those states bucked the national trend, in which total commercial energy use decreased by 3% in 2021 compared with 2019, according to our State Energy Data System.

Our commercial sector data include energy consumption by governments, businesses, and religious organizations. Most energy use…
 

August 21, 2023 — Permian Resources says it will increase its stakes in the Delaware Basin with the purchase of Earthstone Energy in an all-stock deal with a $4.5 billion valuation that includes debt, part of an arrangement set to close by year’s end, boosting the shale producer’s presence in the Delaware Basin, according to a Monday announcement.
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This Texas Energy Report database is published each quarter and is updated as earnings are released throughout the reporting period.

Click on the name of the company for more information about the quarterly earnings report, usually from the company’s own press release

AEP

American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP) reported second-quarter 2023 earnings, prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), of $521 million or $1.01 per share, compared with GAAP earnings of $525 million or $1.02 per share in second-quarter 2022. Operating earnings for second-quarter 2023 were $582 million or $1.13 per share, compared with operating earnings of $618 million or $1.20 per share in second-quarter 2022.

Operating earnings is a non-GAAP measure representing GAAP earnings excluding special items. The difference between 2023 GAAP and operating earnings for the quarter was largely due to the mark-to-market impact of economic hedging activities and recent legislation in Texas regarding recovery of certain employee incentives. A full reconciliation of GAAP earnings to operating earnings for the quarter and year-to-date is included in the tables at the end of this news release.

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Amplify Energy

• Achieved average total production of 21.2 Mboepd, up approximately 9% compared to the previous quarter
• Generated net cash provided by operating activities of $4.9 million and net income of $9.8 million
• Delivered Adjusted EBITDA of $17.6 million
• Generated $6.1 million of free cash flow
• Reaffirmed our full-year 2023 guidance
• Entered into a new revolving credit facility with an initial borrowing base of $150 million and elected commitments of $135 million
• As of July 31, 2023, net debt was $113 million, consisting of $120 million outstanding under the revolving credit facility and $7 million of cash on hand
• Net Debt to Last Twelve Months (“LTM”) Adjusted EBITDA of 1.2x¹
  (1)  Net debt as of July 31, 2023, and LTM Adjusted EBITDA as of the second quarter of 2023

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APA

Reported second-quarter 2023 adjusted earnings of 85 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 66 cents. The outperformance primarily reflects lower operating expenses and strong production.

However, the bottom line dropped from the year-ago adjusted figure of $2.37 due to significantly lower oil prices.

Revenues of $2 billion missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.8 billion and were down 35.7% from the year-ago quarter’s sales.

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Archrock Inc.

• Revenue for the second quarter of 2023 was $247.5 million compared to $215.8 million in the second quarter of 2022.
• Net income for the second quarter of 2023 was $24.7 million compared to $16.7 million in the second quarter of 2022.
• Adjusted EBITDA (a non-GAAP measure defined below) for the second quarter of 2023 was $112.8 million compared to $99.5 million in the second quarter of 2022.
• Declared a quarterly dividend of $0.155 per common share for the second quarter of 2023, an increase of 3.3% compared to the prior quarter, resulting in dividend coverage of 2.1x.
• Repurchased 222,250 common shares at an average price of $9.33 per share for an aggregate of $2.1 million.
• Achieved record period-end utilization of 95% for the second quarter of 2023 compared to 87% in the second quarter of 2022.
• Raised 2023 Adjusted EBITDA guidance to a…
   

August 15 — The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) submitted joint comments opposing the EPA’s proposed rule that would add regulations to fossil fuel-fired electric generating units in attempts to decrease carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The likely outcome of this rule could result in the elimination of coal-fired units and a reduced ability to operate natural-gas fired power plants, which are critical for electricity supply in a state experiencing a booming population like Texas.

The comments also detail the unrealistic assumptions and artificially high metrics EPA used to estimate the climate benefits of the rule. Additionally, the supplemental costs involved, along with the additional infrastructure that would be necessary to implement the proposed requirements, would impose unreasonable costs in comparison to the anticipated benefits, all while placing reliable fuel supply for the electric…
 

August 14, 2023 — The Railroad Commission of Texas is accepting applications for membership on the Texas Hydrogen Production Policy Council (Council), which was created in House Bill 2847 passed by the 88th Legislature (Regular Session). The deadline to submit applications is Tuesday, September 5, 2023.

The Council’s duties include, but are not limited to:

• studying the development of hydrogen industries in Texas;
• monitoring regional efforts for the application and development of a regional clean hydrogen hub authorized under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act;
• developing a state plan for hydrogen production oversight by the RRC; and
• making recommendations to the Legislature on legislative changes needed for the oversight and regulation of production, pipeline transportation, and storage of hydrogen.

The bill requires the RRC to appoint no more than 11 members to the Council, with at least three, but not more than five, representatives from the hydrogen industry. The chair of the Council will be the Chairman of the RRC or…
 

Financial results for 40 publicly traded U.S. oil exploration and production (E&P) companies show capital expenditure in the first quarter of 2023 increased from the fourth quarter of 2022, even though cash from operations declined. Previously, rising crude oil prices in the first half of 2022 had driven increased production and had helped companies post multiyear highs for cash from operations. Capital expenditure growth had been much slower over the past two years.

In the first quarter of 2023, lower crude oil prices reduced cash from operations for these companies, which declined 18% ($5.8 billion) compared with the fourth quarter of 2022, to $26.2 billion. At the same time, capital expenditure in the first quarter of 2023 was 12% ($1.8 billion) higher compared with the previous quarter, totaling $16.7 billion. As a result, capital expenditure as a share of cash from operations increased to 64%, the highest percentage since …
 

August 10, 2023 — The Railroad Commission of Texas issued a total of 772 original drilling permits in July 2023. The total includes 681 to drill new oil or gas wells, 6 to re-enter plugged wellbores and 73 for re-completions of existing wellbores.

The breakdown of well types for total original drilling permits in July 2023 is:  145 oil, 65 gas, 521 oil and gas, 35 injection, and six other permits.

In July 2023, Commission staff processed 740 oil, 208 gas and 499 injection completions for new drills, re-entries and re-completions.

Detailed data on drilling permits and well completions for the month can be found at this link:…
 

By Alex Mills

The demand for crude oil and natural gas around the world has created upward pressure on price even though production is rising.

Crude oil in the U.S. is approaching record levels, outpacing Saudi Arabia and Russia, the other leading producing countries.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects U.S. crude oil production to surpass 12.9 million barrels per day for the first time in late 2023 and to exceed 13 million barrels per day in early 2024, according to its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released this week. EIA forecasts U.S. crude oil production to average 12.8 million barrels per day in 2023, which is 200,000 barrels per day more than in its July forecast.

EIA expects sustained global demand for petroleum products will continue to rise.

The Brent crude oil price (which is on the international exchange based in London) was near $75 per barrel at the beginning of July and increased throughout the month to surpass $86 per barrel on August 4, EIA stated. EIA forecasts the Brent crude oil price to increase the rest of 2023 and to approach $90 per barrel in late 2023….
 

Texas Energy Report NewsClips Friday August 18, 2023 Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall   Top Stories   Politico-E&E News – August 17, 2023 …

August 5, 2023 — Electricity is at the heart of modern life, and so it’s easy to assume that our reliance on electricity will increase or even accelerate. However, in many advanced economies the data reveals a surprisingly different story.

Electricity demand has increased by around 70% since 2000, and in 2017, global electricity demand increased by a further 3%. This increase was more than any other major fuel, pushing total demand to 22 200 terawatt-hours (TWh). Electricity now accounts for 19% of total final consumption, compared to just over 15% in 2000.

Yet while global demand growth has been strong, there are major disparities across regions. In particular, in recent years electricity demand in advanced economies has begun to flatten or in some cases decline – in fact electricity demand fell in 18 out of 30 IEA member countries over the period 2010-2017. Several factors can account for this slowing of growth, but the key reason is energy efficiency.

There have been a range of new sources of electricity demand growth in advanced economies, including digitalization and the electrification of heat and mobility. However savings from energy efficiency have outpaced this growth. Energy efficiency measures adopted since 2000 saved almost 1 800 TWh in 2017, or around 20% of overall current electricity use….
 

By Alex Mills

EDITOR’S NOTE: As publicly traded oil and gas companies begin reporting their second quarter financials, the Energy Information Administration released this week its financial analysis of first quarter 2023 of 40 exploration and production companies, which produced 31% (4 million barrels per day) of the oil in the U.S.  It does not include the smaller, privately held companies. Below is EIA’s analysis.

Crude oil prices have weakened since 2022 but remain relatively strong, which enhances cash flow as production in the U.S. sets records.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price averaged $75.96 per barrel  in first quarter of 2023, a 20% ($19.21) decrease compared with first quarter 2022 and an 8% ($6.72) decrease compared with fourth quarter 2022.

Higher production resulted in cash from operations increasing 13% ($3.0 billion) compared with first quarter of 2022. Oil production nationwide has increased 1 million barrels per day in April (12.6 million barrels per day) compared to April 2022 (11.6 million barrels per day).

Capital expenditure in first quarter 2023 increased 26% ($3.5 billion) compared with first quarter 2022 to $16.7 billion and increased 12% ($1.8 billion) compared with fourth quarter 2022. Higher capital expenditure supported production increasing 9% (338,000 b/d) in first quarter 2023 from first quarter 2022 and 1% (59,000 b/d) from fourth quarter 2022…..
 

FERC Chairman Willie Phillips: “This is a watershed moment for our nation’s transmission grid. … This new rule will enable America’s vast power generation resources to connect to the grid in a reliable, efficient, transparent, and timely manner, and in doing so, help provide more reliable, resilient, and affordable electricity for all consumers.”

July 28, 2023 — The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) passed a new rule on Thursday that’s finally going to streamline the backed-up US grid interconnection process.

At the end of 2022, there were more than 2,000 gigawatts of bottlenecked new power generation and storage waiting to be connected across the US. That’s the same amount of electricity generation capacity as all the power plants currently operating around the country.

Projects have faced an average wait of up to five years to connect to the grid – and today’s ruling is expected to shorten that wait (we’ll keep an eye on it to see to what extent). More from electrek.

Click here to see the video of the…
 

By Alex Mills

Natural gas has blossomed into a dominate source of energy, supplying 41% of the energy to generate electricity across the U.S. and in many parts of the world.

Just 50 years ago, the federal government restricted the transportation and usage of natural gas through price controls. The policies resulted in shortages on the interstate markets even though there were plenty of supplies in states that produced natural gas.

The advocates for free markets won many political and legal battles through the years, and natural gas has become the fuel of the future.

Natural gas production in the U.S. has increased for 23 consecutive months as electric power distribution and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports continued to rise.

U.S. dry natural gas production in February averaged 101.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), which is 7 Bcf/d (7.4%) higher than the same period in 2022, “the highest level for any month since 1973 when we began tracking dry natural gas production,” according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA)

EIA also noted gross withdrawals of 123.1 Bcf/d, which is a 6.8% increase over last year of 115.3 Bcf/d, and it is the “highest daily rate of gross withdrawals for any month since 1980, the earliest year in this data set.”

Consumption of natural gas for electric power increased 7% over February 2022…..
 

July 18, 2023 — Since the waning days of the 2023 Texas Legislature‘s regular session, a new trend has emerged among certain state news websites in consistently linking through political contributions two state officials with three state oil billionaires and two political action groups.

There is a current controversy revolving around some donors contributing to both Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who will take adversarial roles in Paxton’s September impeachment trial in the Texas Senate, yet prominent identification of the Texas oil billionaires by the news websites well precedes this controversy.

In more than a dozen articles over the past two months the Houston Chronicle and Texas Monthly have joined Reform Austin and the Austin Chronicle — and on Tuesday, Texas Tribune, NBCDFW-TV and the Dallas Morning News— in naming Midland-based Crownquest Operating‘s Tim Dunn and Frac Tech founders Dan and Ferris Wilks as broad contributors to Lt. Gov. Patrick’s and AG Paxton’s fundraising campaigns, linking them all closely with the political groups Empower Texans and Defend Texas Liberty.

The news articles identify the political leanings of the Wilks and Dunn families as “conservative” or “Libertarian.”

In many cases, Mr. Dunn and the Wilks brothers were not the biggest contributors to the fundraising campaigns mentioned.

The billionaires, known for political activism, reportedly bet against Governor Greg Abbott in the 2022 election, into which they poured millions of dollars.

These are the many news articles dating from mid-May through this week linking the state officials with the oilmen (and family members) and the two political groups:

July 14, 2023 — Statewide and county crude oil and natural gas production for April 2023 reported in the tables below came from 162,884 oil wells and 87,005 gas wells.

Crude oil production reported by the RRC is limited to oil produced from oil leases and does not include condensate, which is reported separately by the RRC. For full oil and gas production statistics, you can visit the links below….
 

Update: As of 8:30 pm Saturday, Dow Louisiana Operations stated that the fire has been greatly reduced in size but is still burning and Dow crews are working to keep the fire contained.

No other details were released.

Original story:

July 15, 2023 — At least one explosion and a fire last night at a Dow plant in Plaquemine LA south of Baton Rouge (in Iberville Parish) have had firefighting crews working overnight.

The plant is among the largest petrochemical facilities in Louisiana.

The location of the fire is said to be in an area that processes glycol at the Glycol 2 unit, according to the Baton Rouge Advocate.

Local news media quoted Dow as saying there were no injuries reported and all those who work at the plant are accounted for.

Some local residents said there were multiple explosions; extent of damage to the plant is unknown so far; the time of the blasts is said to have been about 9:20 pm.

A shelter in place was called for those living within half a mile of the plant, estimated by WDSU-TV to be about 350 homes.

The fire comes about a year after a large leak of chlorine at Dow’s neighbor, Olin Chemical, which is inside the 1,500-acre complex north of Plaquemine.

There is video said to be of the explosion, causing some speculation on social media.

By Alex Mills

Yes, if you think retail gasoline prices have been somewhat stable this year, you would be correct.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) at the U.S. Department of Energy noted the U.S. gasoline price has been between $3.50 and $3.75 for most of the time since Jan. 1. The average on July 10 was $3.546.

The primary reason is crude oil prices have been constant, too, ranging from $70 to $75 per barrel.

However, EIA forecast this week a rise in oil prices during the remainder of this year.

“We forecast higher oil prices in the second half of 2023 and into 2024 on the back of moderate but persistent inventory drawdowns in our most recent Short-Term Energy Outlook,” EIA stated.

“Our forecast supports the Brent crude oil price rising to the mid-$80 per barrel range by the end of 2024, up from the June 2023 average of $75 per barrel. We forecast the West Texas Intermediate crude oil price will follow a similar path and maintain a $5 per barrel discount to Brent,” EIA said.

The reasons for the expected rise in price are: (1) forecasters across the globe expect consumption and demand to increase, and (2) forecasters believe supply is declining and will continue to decline through the remainder of 2023.

“We have slightly increased our forecasts for world petroleum consumption in recent months, in contrast to our downward revisions in world petroleum production,” EIA stated in their Short-Term Energy Outlook issued on Wednesday.

EIA expects China and India…
 

We project combined wind and solar generating capacity in Texas’s power market will double by 2035, fueling a growing renewable share of total generation. However, without upgrades to the state’s transmission system, wind and solar generation will increasingly be curtailed, according to our recent analysis, A Case Study of Transmission Limits on Renewables Growth in Texas…..