Energy firms across the Midcontinent and Rocky Mountain region said they needed a 21% sequential increase in the average natural gas price to warrant a substantial increase in drilling during the third quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported last week.

Midcontinent Prices

The energy survey by the Federal Reserve branch, aka the Kansas City Fed, found that the Henry Hub gas price needed to spur growth was $7.65/MMBtu, up quarter/quarter from $6.34. 

The substantial increase gas prices for the two previous quarters were $4.53 in 1Q2022 and $4.27 in 4Q2021 across the Kansas City Fed’s Tenth District territory, which spans Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska Oklahoma, Wyoming and parts of Missouri and New Mexico.

Tenth District energy firms participating in the Sept. 15-30 survey also...