A newly released report from the Natural Gas Council demonstrates the resiliency of our nation’s natural gas industry – even in the face of extreme weather events or direct threats to the system, whether physical or cyber.
Posted June 12, 2018
Administration officials continue to push the idea of propping up failing coal and nuclear plants to ensure the health of the U.S. power system by asserting that the nation’s natural gas infrastructure is at heightened risk of cyber attack and other threats. There’s simply no substantiated evidence supporting their claim.
Here’s what you need to know about the security of our country’s natural gas infrastructure and industry’s efforts to guard against potential cyber threats.
Posted May 16, 2018
For some time we’ve stressed that offshore oil and natural gas production is compatible with a variety of other ocean uses such as fishing and tourism – and most significantly, with the U.S. military’s need for open-water areas to conduct training exercises, advanced weapons testing and the like. Industry has a long track record of developing offshore energy in a manner that successfully coexists with the military’s needs in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas.
The same would be true in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico if a moratorium on offshore development there, in place since 2006, is allowed to expire in 2022 – creating access to key new areas for safe exploration and development of strategically important oil and natural gas. A new analysis by the Defense Department agrees.
Posted April 14, 2017
U.S. Department of Defense personnel and units that are responsible for meeting our military’s fuels needs were recognized for outstanding performances in 2016 during this week’s Defense Logistics Agency Worldwide Energy Conference. America’s oil and natural gas industry is proud to provide the reliable fuels that keep the U.S. military on guard for the rest of us.
Posted September 21, 2016
With environmentalists attacking a provision in pending energy legislation that would boost the competitiveness of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, now’s a good time to review the reasons to expedite federal approval of LNG export projects in this country.
Posted August 24, 2016
The United States is a global energy leader, thanks largely to technological advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. America’s energy leadership has proven successful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening national security and keeping prices low for consumers.
Posted May 23, 2016
New figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show the United States remained the world’s No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas in 2015, a position the U.S. has held since 2012.
Several important points here, supporting the idea that U.S. world energy leadership is a big thing.
First, U.S. production of oil and natural gas grew last year despite continued low prices for crude last year. U.S. output of petroleum and other liquid fuels grew from 14.08 million barrels per day in 2014 to 15.04 million barrels per day in 2015. According to EIA, natural gas production rose from 74.89 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in 2014 to 78.94 bcf/d in 2015, or about 13.99 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The second point is the vast majority of U.S. energy production is the result of safe and responsible hydraulic fracturing and modern horizontal drilling – fracking.
Posted May 17, 2016
The United States in 2040 will be more energy self-sufficient, a net energy exporter and a lower source of energy-related carbon emissions as clean-burning natural gas becomes the dominant fuel for generating electricity. The leading energy source 24 years into the future – as they are now – will be oil and natural gas.
So projects the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in an early look at select data from EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2016 report that’s scheduled for full release in July.
The main takeaway from EIA’s “sneak preview” is the importance of the U.S. energy revolution – primarily oil and natural gas developed from shale and other tight-rock formations using safe hydraulic fracturing and modern horizontal drilling. The United States is stronger now and will be in the future thanks to domestic energy from fracking.
Posted December 7, 2015
t’s good that Congress appears to be talking seriously about ending the United States’ four-decades-old ban on crude oil exports. Reports say Democrats and Republicans are discussing a deal that would include lifting the export ban – though it’s unclear what a specific deal would look like. “We need to have a conversation” about oil exports, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin told Politico. “We need to have a fair negotiation.”
Of course, we’ve been having a conversation about the merits of lifting the exports ban for some time. And it starts with this: Every major study on the issue has found that exporting U.S. crude oil would be good for America and Americans. The benefits range from those to consumers, to the economy, to American security to domestic energy production. According to the research, ending the outdated ban would positively impact all of the above.
Posted November 12, 2015
Another postscript to the president’s unfortunate and shortsighted rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline last week: The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that as total U.S. crude oil imports decline, Canada’s share of the imports total is rising.
The data shows that in August 1995 the U.S. imported a total of 7.43 million barrels per day (bb/d), including a little over 1 million bb/d from Canada, about 13 percent of the total. In August this year U.S. oil imports were 7.63 million bb/d (down from a high of 10.7 million bb/d in June 2005), including 3.4 million bb/d from Canada, about 45 percent of the total. (At the same time imports from Venezuela, which produces a heavy crude similar to oil sands crude, have declined from 1.29 million bb/d in 2004 to 849,000 bb/d in August – no doubt, a result of increasing supply from Canada.)
What we see here is a snapshot of the strategically important growth in the United States’ energy partnership with Canada. Our neighbor and ally is our No. 1 source of imported oil – almost three times larger than imports from Persian Gulf countries.