Energy
10,000 Maniacs Were Right
The dramatic decline of natural gas prices was the focus of our last article (These Are Days to Remember). As we noted then, in real dollars, natural gas prices were near all-time lows. Since then, natural gas prices have continued to fall. Yesterday the November futures contract settled at $2.033 per mmBtu. The last time…
Read MoreThese Are Days To Remember
Natural gas prices are really, really low in the wholesale market. The graph above shows daily natural gas prices traded at the Henry Hub, in dollars per million British thermal units ($/mmBtu), from January 1997 to today. Prices on the graph are in nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation. Natural gas prices have exhibited a…
Read MorePeak Oil
Concerns and worry about Peak Oil are overstated and irrelevant. Many articles and books have been written on the topic and many lectures given. Dire predictions have been made and many people have concluded that because of peaking of crude oil production, the future of the human race is bleak. Peak Oil theory seems so…
Read MoreThree Years Ago
Just about three years ago, on April 19, 2012, the prompt-month (see Note 1) natural gas futures contract closed at $1.91 per mmBtu, a twelve year low. On April 9, 2015, the prompt-month contract closed at $2.53 per mmBtu. Are natural gas prices higher now, in April 2015, than they were in April 2012? The…
Read MoreUrban Oilfield
Los Angeles is an urban oilfield. Within its limits are more than 50 oil fields, 3,000 active oil wells, and numerous tar pits (actually asphalt seeps). During the 1920s, a quarter of the world’s crude oil production came from California, and the Los Angeles Basin was responsible for a large portion of that production. It…
Read MoreNatural Gas Market Update
Over the past 12 months, natural gas prices have fallen 52%. Looking ahead, the graphs below each look at natural gas prices in the futures market starting at two different points in time: June 24, 2014 and January 5, 2015. The first graph extends two years into the future and the second graph five years.…
Read MoreNatural Gas Market Update
The above graph looks at natural gas prices going back to January 1997. Natural gas prices have retreated from the Polar Vortex bump and remain relatively low by historical standards. The prices plotted above are not adjusted for inflation. If they were in 2014 dollars, the left side of the curve would be more elevated.…
Read MoreIn The News – Avalon Energy Services
Avalon Energy Services recently completed an electricity procurement project for KBS Capital Advisors’ One Washingtonian Center property in Gaithersburg, MD. Marc Deluca, Regional President of KBS, noted that “Electricity markets have exhibited extreme volatility. The folks at Avalon Energy Services have deep expertise and an unsurpassed understanding of the energy markets and how they work.…
Read MoreCapacity Factor – Part 2
In our previous article we looked at Capacity Factor and how it differs between nuclear generation and solar PV (photovoltaic). We concluded that in order to generate the same amount of electricity as 1/3 of the capacity of the US nuclear generation fleet (33,042 MW), 154,760 MW of solar PV capacity would be required. This…
Read MoreCapacity Factor
In a recent article in the Energy Law Journal, the authors state, By as early as 2016, installed distributed solar PV capacity in the United States could reach thirty gigawatts (GW). If that forecast is on track, distributed solar generation will have increased from less than one GW in 2010 to the equivalent of nearly…
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