Record low prices for natural gas means basins like the Barnett and Fayetteville are dead. Currently the rig count is down about 100 rigs. And gas prices are bottoming out at $1.80, prices similar to that of 40-50 years ago. Insanely low but all due to one reason. Associated gas.
Associated gas is produced as a byproduct of oil and with oil production concentrated in the Permian Basin of Texas and SE New Mexico, and the Anadarko of Oklahoma, it looks like a long time before gas prices recover except for geopolitical spikes in supply. There is nothing anyone can do about it. But the truth is that T. Boone Pickens was right. We need to be converting trucks to natural gas. A diesel engine can be modified to run on diesel and with this awful additive necessary for diesel called DEF, the cost of diesel is too high. Nat gas would run cleaner and more efficient than diesel. But for some reason there is hardly a vehicle available for natural gas driving.
I’d like to be optimistic that it will change but I am not. We seem stuck in the world between conventional ICE and EV autos and some pie in the sky future that can be recharged in minutes and/or use a new non-lithium battery.