LNG

Aug 24 (LNGJ) – The Texas Alliance of Energy Producers said natural gas prices in July averaged $2.84 per thousand feet, increasing the value of Texas-produced gas by 2.3 percent to nearly $1.9 billion. Sizeable year-on-year improvements in the rig count, drilling permits and the value of Texas-produced crude oil and natural gas combined to push the Texas Petro Index up in July to 176.9, the eighth straight monthly increase. However, it is in oil where Texas and the US are excelling. “OPEC production curtailments did not achieve the desired price outcome,” said spokesman Karr Ingham. “Oil supplies remain plentiful because domestic producers are becoming increasingly efficient at producing crude oil at lower costs, so a $45 per barrel (US) oil market provides more incentive than in the past,” added Ingham, referring to the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) US benchmark oil price.

The Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, the largest in the US, said upstream oil and natural gas activity in the state had come to the end of “a punishing 24-month economic contraction”, adding momentum to the state’s extensive shale-gas plays and LNG developments.

Sept 7 (LNGJ) - The Texas Alliance of Energy Producers said the monthly upstream oil and gas employment figures have risen for the first time in 19 months. “The reversal of the employment-loss trend is an encouraging sign that the deep contraction in the Texas upstream oil and gas economy is in the process of coming to an end," said Karr Ingham, the economist who created and maintains the Texas Petro Index. Estimated Texas natural gas output was more than 708.9 billion cubic feet, a year-on-year monthly decline of about 5.2 percent. However, the number of active drilling rigs in Texas surpassed 200 units for the first time since March and the price of crude oil continued a four-month rally.