RBN Energy Blogcast

Houston and Corpus Christi dominate crude oil exports, but the balance between the two hot spots has been shifting in interesting ways recently. In Houston, Enterprise could extend its lead and in Corpus Christi, South Texas Gateway is fighting for the top spot after adding a new pipeline connection last fall. 

For E&Ps, differences in financial performance often stem from accounting methodology, specifically from whether a company uses the Full Cost (FC) or Successful Efforts (SE) method to account for its oil and gas properties. Today, we examine why this seemingly mundane topic really matters.

Canadian crude oil production has reached highs and is expected to continue growing. But, in an area where steep price discounts have been a frequent problem, and in a world that is seemingly awash in crude, what does that mean for Canadian producers, and how will all this supply get to market? 

New LNG export capacity near the Texas/Louisiana border, rising natural gas production in the Haynesville (and the West Haynesville), and new pipelines transporting that gas south to the Gulf Coast have spurred a lot of interest in gas storage — and storage developers are responding.

This year will be a tale of two halves for the Permian. Natural gas production and pricing figure to remain fairly stable until the back half of this year, when more than 5 Bcf/d of new pipeline capacity comes online, giving the basin room to grow for the first time in a long time.

Northeast Texas is increasingly a key conduit for natural gas supply pushing toward rising Gulf Coast LNG demand. The region's supply is poised to surge over the next decade, driven by new inflows from the Permian and rising local production, including from the emerging Western Haynesville play.

One of the biggest questions surrounding Venezuela centers on its now-moribund oil sector, which has suffered from decades of neglect. It's widely understood that a recovery will take time, but there are some concrete steps that could boost production in the short, medium and long term. 

The U.S. is on the brink of a major transformation in refined products. New pipelines into the Desert Southwest and connecting out to California, along with refinery shutdowns along the West Coast, are poised to usher U.S. refiners into a new era shaped by consolidation, efficiency and market power. 

Utah legislators seeking to lower the state's at-the-pump tax on gasoline and diesel have proposed a tax of up to 24 cents on every gallon of motor fuel produced at Utah's five refineries. That has raised the ire of refiners and out-of-state consumers of Utah-sourced fuels, who cite several reasons why the move would be a mistake.

The U.S. has been drilling for oil and gas for more than 160 years, and what to do with those wells once they are no longer productive has long been an issue, as they can also be significant emitters of methane, a major greenhouse gas. Today, we discuss a new approach that aims to address both issues.

The retail propane market delivers 9 billion gallons to U.S. consumers annually, with its heart anchored in “mom-and-pop” retailers serving rural and small-town communities. These small, owner-operated businesses know their customers, regions, and challenges. 

The six states in EIA's PADD 1C subregion — Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia — consume massive volumes of refined products but produce very little themselves. That dichotomy spurred a multi-decade buildout of highly efficient pipeline, marine and trucking networks.

Florida is the nation's fourth-largest consumer of natural gas, and its consumption has tripled since 2000, mostly due to the development of nearly 30 GW of new gas-fired power plants. In today's RBN blog, we examine the state's remarkable growth and whether additional pipeline capacity might be needed.

There's more interest than ever in increasing coordination between the U.S. gas and electric sectors. Each market now depends more heavily on the other than ever. Yet significant hurdles remain, many stemming from fragmented and distinct regulatory regimes and deeply entrenched operating practices on both sides.

The U.S. midstream sector experienced a massive infrastructure buildout in the 2010s, followed by a sharp pullback after 2020, and then a new era of financial discipline and deleveraging. Now, AI-propelled power load growth and a wave of LNG export expansion are pushing midstream capex higher again.

The next four years will reshape the future of North America's natural gas market. LNG exports are set to surge as new terminals across the U.S., Canada and Mexico come online, causing ripple effects through global energy trade and fueling new demand from Europe and Asia.

Devon Energy and Coterra Energy's newly announced merger didn't come as a huge surprise. They have highly complementary assets in the Permian and the Anadarko and their deal promises $1 billion or more in synergy-related savings. Finally — and this is important — their combination had been urged on by an activist investor.

For the past several years, a potent combination of market developments has incentivized PADD 2/Midwest refiners — and their midstream partners — to move increasing volumes of refined products east. In today's RBN blog, we'll discuss what's been happening lately and how it's affecting refiners.

The arrival of a special, 460-Mbbl shipment of U.S.-sourced naphtha in Venezuela a few days ago underscored a critically important fact, namely that production of Venezuelan heavy sour crude requires steady inflows of imported diluent. Today, we'll discuss Venezuela's need for diluent and how it's likely to be met.

Given the recent media focus on AI and the surge of data center construction, it comes as no surprise that the electric utility industry's capital investment has risen to record highs. What isn't as widely publicized is the enormous strain this historic expansion has placed on utility balance sheets. 

The evolving situation in Venezuela is rife with uncertainty. But as the outlook for Venezuelan crude oil improves, there are significant market issues at play as well, including the potential for renewed competition with Canadian heavy crudes along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The long-anticipated return of Enterprise's Midland to ECHO 2 Pipeline to crude service is underway, bringing 220 Mb/d online for the first time since the end of 2023. This coincides with Enterprise's new NGL line, the Bahia Pipeline, which began operations in December. 

Haynesville natural gas production is heading back to record levels thanks to growing LNG demand and new pipelines designed to move gas from north to south in Louisiana. In today's RBN blog, we'll preview some of the topics RBN will be covering regularly in the new NATGAS Haynesville report. 

Buoyed by record-level feedgas demand and several planned export terminals reaching important development milestones, 2025 was a banner year for U.S. LNG. Today, we'll examine some of the sector's near-term challenges and look at where demand could increase in the long term.

Mexico's still-rising demand for U.S.-sourced natural gas — and new pipelines to deliver it — has been driven by the buildout of new power plants and, more recently, by planned LNG exports. Today, we discuss more private-sector midstreamers and the new gas demand that may bring them new opportunities.

NGL production in Western Canada hit an all-time high in 2025 and looks to be headed even higher in the years ahead. Major midstream players, such as AltaGas, have been undertaking infrastructure expansions to deal with all the additional gas processing, Y-grade fractionation and product exports.

The news out of Venezuela has commanded the world's attention since early January, with the country's highly prized heavy crude oil caught in a geopolitical tug of war. In today's RBN blog, we'll lay out where Venezuela's crude oil is produced and how it differs from grades elsewhere.

Producers venturing into the substantial natural gas reserves in the far-west part of the Haynesville Shale were historically thwarted by extreme geological conditions and poor drilling economics. Now, technological advancements and bullish market conditions are once again beckoning E&Ps. 

Mexico's process for planning new gas pipelines is very top-down, with state-owned Cenagas and CFE playing key roles. But the buildout of pipelines there has been largely accomplished by private-sector companies that are now planning another round of projects that will spur more gas exports from the U.S.

The stock market of 2025 often felt like different movies playing on adjacent screens. On one, the broader market surged. On the other, economically sensitive sectors such as oil and gas stocks slid into the background. Today, we examine the performance of the 35 public E&Ps we cover.

In Mexico, state-owned players like Cenagas and CFE continue to play central roles in planning and underpinning the development of natural gas pipelines. At the same time, however, Mexico has leveraged the participation of a handful of private-sector companies that have built a significant share of the newer pipelines there. 

The U.S. refining industry has been on a real rollercoaster ride in recent years. Today, we take a region-by-region look at the future of the U.S. refining industry and explain why reductions in refining capacity are expected in some areas while others may be in a position to thrive.

All roads lead to Louisiana in the natural gas market, and those roads have become increasingly crowded as LNG demand sucks in gas from other states. Today, we discuss Boardwalk's Kosci Junction project and how it will impact the gas market in Louisiana, Mississippi and beyond.

Even if Permian crude oil production were to stagnate over the next few years, the region's output of NGLs would likely increase by half, from the current 3.2 MMcf/d to about 4.8 MMcf/d in 2030. Anticipating that growth, NGL midstreamers are planning new NGL pipeline capacity from West Texas to the Gulf Coast.

Sure, natural gas markets have experienced lots of changes the past few years. But all that was merely a prelude. The main event — a transformation of Gulf Coast markets — is about to begin. In today's RBN blog, we discuss our upcoming GasCon 2026 conference on this market-shifting inflection point.

Wow! Pragmatism! Driven by physics, economics and, yes, even politics. It's clear that 2025's reset will carry into 2026, and energy markets are breathing a collective sigh of relief. So what does this renewed tilt toward fossil fuels mean for markets? Today, our Prognostications for 2026.

Well, 2025 is now in the books, allowing us time for reflection, resolution-making and pretending we always knew how the year would turn out. And unlike many, we also look into the rear-view mirror to see how we did with last year's predictions. That's what we'll do in today's blog.

Regularly scheduled refinery turnarounds are one the most important (and expensive) activities of any refiner. Today, we look at what happens during a typical turnaround, the ways refiners seek to manage their risk, and the biggest potential payoffs that come with a well-executed project.

What it takes to get energy from where it is produced to where it is consumed was at the heart of many of RBN's most popular blogs in 2025. But there were also the three T's: Trump, tariffs and turbulence.

There are at least a couple of clear trends in upstream-sector M&A. One is that E&Ps continue to zero in on the basins where they see the most promise, and to divest non-core assets. Another is that the ramp-up in LNG exports is spurring heightened interest in acreage and production targeting that market. 

The International Energy Agency's new World Energy Outlook 2025 has a major shift in how the agency is framing the future of global energy. It's going back to basics and once again providing an outlook based solely on policies already on the books today. 

In the upstream oil and gas world, “reserve life” — calculated via the Reserve Life Index — is one of the simplest and most widely cited metrics. But behind the RLI lies a web of technical, financial and strategic forces that make it surprisingly nuanced measure of an E&P's long-term outlook.

Crude oil production in the U.S.'s portion of the Gulf of Mexico is poised to top 2 MMb/d for the first time in six years — and only the third time ever. New projects keep coming online. And a newcomer to the U.S. GOM, U.K.-based Harbour Energy, just announced a deal to acquire LLOG Exploration.

Opinions vary on how much U.S. electricity demand may rise and how much that may impact demand for natural gas. But there's across-the-board agreement that the electric and gas sectors are more intertwined than ever and electric-grid reliability will suffer if gas-fired plants don't get the fuel they need.

A framework agreement between Canada's federal government and the province of Alberta aims to kickstart a process to construct a new crude oil pipeline to the country's west coast that would expand direct crude exports to Asia and reduce reliance on the U.S. as an export customer.

U.S. E&Ps continue to ignore political pressures to “drill, baby, drill,” sticking rigidly to capital discipline and trimming their drilling-and-completion activity. But that hasn't kept production from inching up as E&Ps continue to increase their productivity.

Five years ago, Vermont enacted a law requiring steep reductions in GHG emissions and, in 2023, it directed regulators to develop a program to steer households and businesses away from heating oil and propane. But now everything's in limbo — a development with important implications for other states. 

Plains All American's Basin Pipeline and the complementary Sunrise Pipeline play major roles in moving Permian crude to Cushing, OK, the delivery point for the U.S. benchmark and a key storage hub. In today's RBN blog, we'll dig into why the pipes are so important to the Permian, Plains and Cushing.

Underpinned by new shipper commitments, a WhiteWater Midstream-led team has upsized the capacity of its planned 2.5-Bcf/d Eiger Express Pipeline to a whopping 3.7 Bcf/d. In today's RBN blog, we'll discuss the expansion plan.

Three-quarters of the Bakken's top-tier well sites may have already been drilled and the remaining inventory may be less than stellar, but a new AI-based analysis suggests the quality of the rock held by the shale play's top producers varies widely.

The E&Ps we track have retained investor support over the past three years despite a drop in oil prices. Their formula has been throttling back costs and investment to prioritize shareholder returns.