{"id":1484273,"date":"2022-05-19T12:31:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T16:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1484273"},"modified":"2022-05-19T12:31:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T16:31:54","slug":"gas-producers-hesitant-to-ramp-up-drilling-over-uncertainty-from-biden-admin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gas-producers-hesitant-to-ramp-up-drilling-over-uncertainty-from-biden-admin\/","title":{"rendered":"Gas Producers Hesitant to Ramp Up Drilling Over Uncertainty From Biden Admin"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgas-producers-hesitant-to-ramp-up-drilling-over-uncertainty-from-biden-admin%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1484273&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/justthenews.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/social_media_share\/public\/2021-10\/fracking%20drill%20rig.jpg?h=84071268&#038;itok=o9_uWYf8\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Natural gas drilling is very profitable these days as market prices rise, but U.S. producers aren&#8217;t ramping up production.<\/p>\n<p>Instead they are using their extra profits to pay off debt, buy shares back, and increase dividends, The Wall Street Journal recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/why-surging-natural-gas-prices-havent-sparked-a-drilling-boom-11651623490?mod=hp_lead_pos6\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan McConnaughey, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, told The Center Square that one reason drilling hasn&#8217;t ramped up is because of &#8220;uncertainty&#8221; about production on federal land.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are a lot of things that come into play when it comes to ramping up drilling, especially in Wyoming,&#8221; he said. &#8220;One of the things, obviously, is the uncertainty of what&#8217;s happening on federal lands and how companies can make sure that when they invest in federal production, they will be able to continue to do that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) posted notices for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/national\/feds-offering-80-less-in-oil-and-natural-gas-lease-sales-increasing-royalty-rate\/article_287fb466-c0ca-11ec-9e41-dff7d1378bc4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">resumed lease sales<\/a> last month after the Biden administration&#8217;s moratorium on lease sales was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecentersquare.com\/national\/federal-judge-halts-bidens-oil-and-gas-lease-moratorium\/article_86e15a68-ceaa-11eb-92ab-1fdf566265b6.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">struck down<\/a> by a federal judge.<\/p>\n<p>But the acreage available for lease is 80% less than what the federal government was initially evaluating for potential leasing, and the agency has also increased royalty fees that oil and gas developers will have to pay.<\/p>\n<p>The industry, like many other industries across the country, is also experiencing labor shortages and supply chain issues, particularly for steel pipe, according to McConnaughey.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think there are a myriad of factors that are hindering that full recovery in the oil and gas industry,&#8221; he said, adding that it takes time to ramp up drilling.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s definitely not something you can turn the spigot and it will come,&#8221; McConnaughey said. &#8220;Even with leases in hand, it still can take upward of a decade to get oil and gas produced. I think that is something we&#8217;ve been trying to get people educated on. When leasing is delayed at the federal level, that just means we have much larger gaps in supply over the long term.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Even though oil and gas prices are up right now, companies are making decisions based on long-term pricing, McConnaughey said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the best way to determine whether it&#8217;s a sound investment,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Obviously, there will be ups and downs in the market that they can&#8217;t control. But making sure there is a positive outlook over the mid- to long-term is really the best practice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Some in the industry said that the federal government&#8217;s long-term goal is to eliminate the oil and gas industry, McConnaughey noted.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is that concern after hearing the rhetoric of people in the Biden administration,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But there continues to be a need (for) petroleum products well into the future.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The choice is whether the production takes place in the United States or in other countries, McConnaughey said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have to take the Biden administration at its word when it says it wants to shut down the industry on federal lands,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Obviously they can&#8217;t do that very easily on state and private lands.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In Wyoming, 90% of natural gas and 50% of oil produced comes from federal lands, according to McConnaughey.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Any sort of shutdown on federal lands would be a disaster here in Wyoming,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Our argument has always been that we should be producing it domestically where it helps our people and where we can make sure it is done safely and sustainably.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Natural gas drilling is very profitable these days as market prices rise, but U.S. producers aren&#8217;t ramping up production.Instead they are using their extra profits to pay off debt, buy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}