The long-delayed rules around the federal government’s Hydrogen Production Tax Credit (PTC), also known as 45V, had been the subject of heated debate — and lobbying — since passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) way back in August 2022. But after more than a year of speculation — and with the Biden administration in its last days — the final …

At first glance, you might think that Phillips 66’s newly announced, $2.2 billion plan to acquire the EPIC NGL pipeline system, two fractionators near Corpus Christi and other NGL-related assets in Texas is just another logical step in the expansion of P66’s “well-to-market” NGL strategy — and you’d be right. But the story is actually much more int…

In 2024, more than 9 billion gallons of propane were delivered to U.S. consumer markets, primarily for residential heating and cooking, with substantial volumes supporting the commercial, industrial, agricultural and transportation sectors. It is a physically complicated business because, unlike electricity and natural gas, which are delivered thro…

Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude oil production has been sliding for years — decades really — but that is poised to change in the second half of the 2020s. Two long-planned ANS projects — Pikka and Willow — are slated to start up in 2026 and 2029, respectively. By the early 2030s, these and other projects in the works could return North Slope product…

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-completio…

After a decade-long odyssey and a cost-per-mile that must make public-sector accountants in Ottawa wince, the Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX) — which nearly tripled the capacity of the original Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMP) from Alberta to the British Columbia (BC) coast — finally came into service in May 2024. As o…

Are you ready for Trumpian turmoil? Regardless of your opinion of the president-elect, you’ve got to acknowledge he’ll be shaking things up. In fact, with talk of a tariff blitz poised to disrupt global trade, mass deportations on deck, notions like reclaiming the Panama Canal, buying Greenland and even annexing Canada, the turmoil is already well …

As 2023 wrapped up one year ago, it seemed there were a lot of moving parts out there in energy markets. Capacity constraints were back on the radar screen, and while prices appeared stable, they were overshadowed by the looming threat of escalating conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Opportunities abounded for energy projects, including natu…

Many of this year’s most popular RBN blogs gravitated toward familiar energy market themes — rising exports, shifts in oil production, weak natural gas prices, surprising NGL pricing dynamics and the like. However, we also noted a significant uptick in interest in topics beyond the traditional energy realm, including hydrogen, carbon capture and se…

As crude oil production in the Permian continues to grow and pipelines from West Texas to the Gulf Coast edge closer to full utilization, it’s becoming a challenge for producers and shippers alike. Amid this capacity crunch, one pipeline stands out as the only one with a detailed expansion plan: the 850-mile, 900-Mb/d Gray Oak Pipeline from West Te…

A primary objective of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), when it was expanded back in 2007, was to stimulate by 2022 the production of at least 16 billion gallons/year of gasoline and diesel made from cellulosic biomass in conversion plants resembling small refineries. After getting lots of headlines in the early days of renewable fuels, t…

The pace of data center development accelerated in 2024, raising questions about how to power these energy-hungry behemoths. Natural-gas-fired plants are a go-to approach to helping local utilities provide the reliable, around-the-clock electricity that large-scale data centers need. Now, two giant oil and gas companies, ExxonMobil and Chevron, wan…

Negative natural gas prices have been breaking hearts in the Permian Basin for many years, with pipeline development struggling to keep pace with rapid increases in associated gas production, but 2024 has shattered all previous records for the severity and length of negatively priced periods. The Matterhorn Express Pipeline, which started partial s…

The U.S. is now the world’s #1 supplier of LNG and the new liquefaction/export capacity slated to come online over the next few years suggest it will hold that position into the 2030s. To control more of the LNG value chain and become more familiar with the inner workings of the U.S. natural gas market, a small-but-growing number of LNG buyers and …

After languishing since midsummer, the share prices of U.S. oil and gas producers surged after Election Day on a wave of optimism that the sector would flourish under the new administration. However, stocks quickly gave up most of the gains on lackluster Q3 2024 results and a great deal of uncertainty about how — or even if — President-elect Trump’…

The U.S. intends to triple its nuclear generating capacity by 2050 to meet the expected growth in electricity demand and expand carbon-free power production. In a recently related roadmap to achieving that goal, the outgoing Biden administration said the U.S. aimed to have 35 gigawatts (GW) of new nuclear capacity either in operation or under const…

More than 15 years into the Shale Era, the U.S. refining sector’s response to burgeoning production of light, sweet crude oil continues. Earlier this month, Chevron completed the long-planned, $400 million renovation and expansion of the century-old refinery in Pasadena, TX, which the company acquired from Petrobras in 2019. In today’s RBN blog, we…

Negative natural gas prices have been breaking hearts in the Permian Basin for many years, with pipeline development struggling to keep pace with rapid increases in associated gas production, but 2024 has shattered all previous records for the severity and length of negatively priced periods. The Matterhorn Express Pipeline, which started partial s…

U.S. LNG was poised for a year of massive growth in 2024, with new terminals and expansions set to cause feedgas to rise and commercial success in the years following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine set to spur further LNG project development. Instead, construction delays have pushed projects back and feedgas in the past three months has averaged…

As 2023 was drawing to a close, folks with 401(k) plans and IRAs were wondering whether stocks would have another great year in 2024. Many of us tracking oil and gas E&Ps were asking a similar question about upstream M&A: Is there any way to match the consolidation frenzy that started in mid-2020 and didn’t let up? The answer is, yes — 2024 was ano…

China’s appetite for crude oil has been lower than expected this year, largely due to a slowing economy and the increased adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). And the U.S.’s #1 economic and geopolitical rival is in the midst of another transition that could further weaken crude oil demand: Heavy-duty trucking in China is increasingly being powered …

LPG and ethane exports out of the U.S. continue to grow rapidly and are expected to reach 3.4 MMb/d by 2030. They are also critical parts of a plan by Enterprise Products Partners to expand its total liquid hydrocarbon exports to 100 MMbbl per month (100 MMb/month), a roughly 50% increase from current levels for crude oil, LPG and ethane, refined p…

The U.S. is still years away from establishing a national carbon tax or cap-and-trade system — and it’s certainly possible it will never take either step. But there are state and regional cap-and-trade programs in place to incentivize refiners and others to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In today’s RBN blog, our fourth and final on ca…

President-elect Trump’s plan to impose a 25% tariff on all imported goods from Canada and Mexico — including crude oil — has raised concern among U.S. refiners, many of which depend heavily on those imports and would face serious challenges in replacing them. The question is, given that dependence and the incoming administration’s pledge to reduce …

Texas is the fastest-growing state for electricity consumption in the nation and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which is responsible for about 90% of the state’s electricity service, said earlier this year that peak power demand could nearly double in just six years — from about 85 gigawatts (GW) currently to as much as 150 GW b…

Over the past few years, tax credits and other incentives — both financial and regulatory — have breathed life into the U.S. market for sustainable aviation fuel, whose production is now ramping up, with more SAF capacity on the way. But the sector may experience turbulence under the incoming Trump administration, which has pledged to undo much of …

Boosting America’s hydrocarbon output was a major plank in the 2024 Republican platform, and Donald Trump’s recent victory has stimulated a lot of optimism about the U.S. upstream sector. The nomination of Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright as Energy Secretary confirmed that “drill, baby, drill” will be a mantra in the new administration. However, ove…

Soaring demand for around-the-clock electricity, tied to the development of large-scale data centers, has sparked a renewed interest in carbon-free nuclear power. Given that conventional nuclear plants can be very challenging to site and permit, there’s been a lot of talk about installing small modular reactors (SMRs) at the sites of coal-fired pow…

Even with all the headline-making deals we’ve seen in the North American oil and gas industry over the past two or three years, producers and midstream companies are still at it. And the M&A, the post-acquisition divestitures and the acreage swaps aren’t confined to the Permian, which has seen more than its share of big-dollar transactions lately. …

Cushing has done it again! The all-important hub in central Oklahoma is once more broadening the range of crude oils it handles, this time by figuring out how to receive and blend the quirkiest of domestic oils: yellow wax crude from Utah’s Uinta Basin. Better still, the blending can create a fully compliant Domestic Sweet (DSW), the crude quality …

About 60% of global LNG imports in 2023 came from only three countries — Australia, Qatar and the U.S. — sometimes dubbed the “LNG Trinity.” All three are geographically remote from each other and differ considerably in terms of configuration, politics, economics and strategy. But all three are looking to consolidate and potentially grow their glob…

Exactly the same product. Exactly the same day. In storage very nearby. Yet their prices diverged by 17 cents per gallon — a spread equivalent to $7 per barrel. That’s a very substantial difference for prices that typically are almost indistinguishable, differing by an average of only 0.3% in recent years. The disparity roiled the financial underpi…

PetroChina’s recent decision to offload its 20-year commitment to use the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion (TMX) might seem like a bit of a head-scratcher on the surface, especially since Asian buyers have been expected to take advantage of the increased access to Western Canadian crude oil that TMX provides. But when you factor in the known chall…

Enterprise Products Partners continues to grow its export capabilities and set ambitious goals, including one noted by CEO Jim Teague during his appearance at RBN’s recent NACON: PADD 3 conference — growing liquid hydrocarbon exports by about 50% to a remarkable 100 MMbbl per month (100 MMb/month), or about 3.33 MMb/d. And that doesn’t include the …

Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) inventories have been climbing over the past year as the Department of Energy (DOE) advances plans to replenish it following the record 180-MMbbl drawdown after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But DOE officials have said its refilling efforts are complicated by upgrades at three of the four SPR storage sites.…

Increasing the production of low-carbon-intensity (LCI) hydrogen is viewed by many as a way to help the U.S. reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But so far only minimal amounts of LCI hydrogen are being produced, raising the question of what it would take to significantly ramp up production without breaking the bank. In today’s RBN blog, we …

Rising demand for natural gas storage in the Gulf Coast region has spurred growing interest and investment. A number of midstream companies have been making moves, either by expanding their existing storage facilities in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama or entering the space with acquisitions or plans for greenfield projects. As a result, …

The small town of Cushing, OK, occupies a central place in the U.S. crude oil market thanks to its hundreds of storage tanks and numerous pipeline connections. And while it might seem far removed from the factors that influence the global crude market, what happens elsewhere directly impacts the storage volumes at Cushing. In today’s RBN blog, we r…

If all goes to plan, Texas’s isolated power grid will one day be connected to a pair of neighboring states via a massive transmission line called Southern Spirit. The project is designed to increase grid reliability, reduce blackouts and drive down energy bills, but it could be years before it becomes a reality. And while the transmission line will…

It’s relatively common along the U.S. Gulf Coast to use underground salt domes to store crude oil, natural gas, mixed NGLs and so-called NGL “purity products” like ethane and propane. There are also a handful of salt cavern storage facilities in Kansas, Michigan, New York and Virginia. But in the Rockies and the West Coast states they’re rare as he…

Just over three years ago, Cabot Oil & Gas — Coterra Energy’s corporate predecessor — was focused exclusively on producing natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. But unlike other gas-centric E&Ps like EQT Corp., Chesapeake Energy and Antero Resources, Cabot decided it was time to diversify. In October 2021, it merged with Cimarex Energy, an oil-and-ga…

Exactly the same product. Exactly the same day. In storage very nearby. Yet their prices diverged by 17 cents per gallon — a spread equivalent to $7 per barrel. That’s a very substantial difference for prices that typically are almost indistinguishable, differing by an average of only 0.3% in recent years. The disparity roiled the financial underpi…

The Atlantic hurricane season often evokes worries about the oil and refined products industry, even far up the East Coast, thanks to the widespread impact of Superstorm Sandy a dozen years ago. But electricity production could also be at risk should a major storm once again make its way up the Eastern Seaboard thanks to the large-scale wind farms …

There’s been a lot of speculation about whether the pace of electric vehicle (EV) adoption has slowed, with JD Power now expecting EVs to make up 9% of U.S. new-car sales in 2024, down from its earlier estimate of 12.4% but still up from 7% in 2023. The group remains bullish on EVs in the long term, expecting market share to reach 36% by 2030 and 5…

A slew of LPG, ethane and ethylene export projects are underway along the Gulf Coast, a direct result of rising U.S. NGL production and generally flat domestic demand. Three of the projects will provide “flex” capacity of some sort — that is, the facilities will be able to shift between LPG and ethane exports or, in some cases, between ethane and e…

One of the biggest challenges to a significant expansion of the commercial hydrogen market in the U.S. is the lack of a comprehensive transportation network. That has spurred interest from utilities, government agencies and others interested in utilizing or repurposing parts of the existing (and extensive) natural gas infrastructure to ship hydroge…

One of the most prevalent stories in the U.S. natural gas market over the past decade has been soaring associated gas production in the Permian Basin and the question of what to do with it. Numerous pipelines have been built over the years connecting Permian gas to demand regions, and more are in the works. The largest source of incremental demand …

There may be ongoing uncertainty about the timing and volumes, but it’s not difficult to anticipate that natural gas flows through the Agua Dulce Hub near Corpus Christi will be rising significantly over the next few years as new LNG export capacity starts up and new gas-fired power plants come online in South Texas and south of the border in Mexic…

The Gulf Coast is the engine of U.S. energy markets and its fiercely competitive. Over the past decade, monumental growth of crude oil and NGL production, predominantly from the Permian Basin, has led to a surge in exports, with more than 90% of these liquids departing from marine terminals along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. To facilitate that g…

Weak refining margins, rising regulatory compliance costs, softening demand for gasoline and the push for lower-carbon alternatives like batteries and renewable diesel have each contributed to a steady decline in California’s refining capacity the past few years. Now, Phillips 66’s plan to idle its 139-Mb/d Los Angeles Refinery in Q4 2025 will leav…