EPRINC trustee Ben Montalbano and non-Resident Fellow Trisha Curtis, both co-founders of PetroNerds, have just completed an assessment of oil hedging positions of 25 major oil producers in the Permian Basin.  Hedging is a valuable tool for distributing risk and allowing producers to protect revenue streams from price volatility. Hedges protect producers revenues when oil prices fall, but also limit gains when prices rise.  In addition, when oil prices rise it may limit the supply response if a large volume of unconventional production is hedged. Ben and Trisha’s assessment shows the percent of total production that producers hedge varies, but heading into Q1of 2018 producers hedged about 20% of total output. A copy of their assessment can be found here.

EPRINC Non-Resident Fellow Trisha Curtis and Trustee Ben Montalbano build on some of their previous work concerning US shale productivity in their recent paper entitled “Completion Design and the Impact on US Shale Well Productivity.”They identify the factors contributing to sustained productivity growth in several US shale plays and examine some of the economic constraints facing well efficiency. As the nation adjusts to relatively stable and depressed oil and gas prices, Trisha and Ben’s paper outlines the current industry environment and highlights future challenges to increasing shale productivity. Their paper can be downloaded by clicking here.

On a very sad note EPRINC recently lost two colleagues. Our former Chairman and current honorary Chairman, John Lichtblau, passed away on May 29, 2017. He was 94 years old.  On May 17^, 2017 we lost Bob Greco, an EPRINC Distinguished Fellow. Bob was 57 years old.

We’ve known both of these good men for more years than we can recall and we will miss much more than their good counsel. We will miss their intellectual curiosity, optimism and close friendship.