Increase

Permian Basin explorer Ring Energy Inc. has increased its capital spending for 2018 by nearly 25% as it builds out infrastructure in the Delaware sub-basin and Central Basin Platform (CBP) to deliver more natural gas and oil to market.

Driven by record production from the Permian Basin, including a near-70% increase in natural gas output from No. 1 prospect Alpine High, Apache Corp. is boosting its capital spending this year by $400 million to $3.4 billion.

Global oil supply outside the cartel that makes up the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, i.e. OPEC, has recovered since contracting in 2016, but uncertainties remain about where the market may be headed through the rest of this year.

Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s (Oxy) most significant U.S. oil and natural gas results in 3Q2017 were found in the Permian Basin’s Sand Dunes area of New Mexico, where drilling results are shattering expectations, executives said Thursday during a conference call with analysts.

For the second consecutive month, U.S. dry natural gas production increased year/year (y/y) in July to 2.28 Tcf, a 0.5% increase from July 2016, while liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports have more than doubled, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Natural gas forward prices for October rose an average 17 cents from Sept. 8-14 as weather forecasts called for warmer-than-normal temperatures to finish out the month, according to NGI’s Forward Look. But the market’s realization that demand destruction caused by Hurricane Irma may have been overestimated also weighed on forwards this week.

Worldwide natural gas consumption is projected to increase to 177 Tcf in 2040 from 124 Tcf in 2015 and account for the largest increase in fossil fuel consumption, but renewable energy resources are picking up the pace, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Thursday.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) revised its forecast for dry natural gas production from U.S. onshore basins to increase to an average of 73.7 Bcf/d this year, or 1.4 Bcf/d more than in 2016, according to its September Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).

Capital spending in the Permian Basin is set to shoot up 400% over the next five years to $40 billion by 2021, as operators raise more rigs and expand development, a Texas industry group said Thursday.