E&P

A glut of natural gas isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, leading the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to cut its Henry Hub spot price forecast for the winter to $3.52/MMBtu and for 2015 to $3.44/MMBtu, according to the agency’s most recent Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).

A glut of natural gas isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, leading the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to cut its Henry Hub spot price forecast for the winter to $3.52/MMBtu and for 2015 to $3.44/MMBtu, according to the agency’s most recent Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).

President Obama is expected to make a speech on Thursday — five days before the State of the Union — on climate change and methane emissions. He is expected to submit plans to help reverse the former and reduce the latter.

North America will be the hardest hit global energy region as producers pull back this year, with the Bakken Shale taking the brunt of the impact from falling rigs and capital spending cuts, a Barclays Capital analyst said Friday.

Shale oil helped pull Texas out of the 2008-2009 national recession more quickly than other parts of the country, but during the 2016-2017 biennium, revenue from oil and gas taxes will be making a smaller contribution to state coffers than during the current biennium, according to the comptroller’s latest estimates.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has filed an appeal in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas challenging a decision by the state’s oil and gas commission to revoke a permit it issued last month.

Texas oil and gas interests begin a new legislative session on Tuesday following a year that saw growing resistance to fracking in some corners of the state and heightened citizen awareness of drilling and pipelines. But industry efforts to assuage citizen concerns — not to mention much-weakened commodity prices — could give oil and gas a relatively easy time of it in Austin this time around.

Basic Energy Services Inc., which maintains well site services across the country, said its rig count remained unchanged in December, but well servicing hours were down month/month.

Matador Resources Co. said it plans to scale back its drilling program over the next few months, dropping two rigs deployed in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas but keeping three rigs in the Permian Basin in southeast New Mexico and West Texas, a familiar refrain as exploration and production (E&P) companies of all stripes continue to grapple with the collapse in world crude oil prices.