More Than 50 Coal Companies Have Been Wiped Out Since Trump’s 2016 Victory

[mystery-ak]

More Than 50 Coal Companies Have Been Wiped Out Since Trump’s 2016 Victory


Chris White
Tech Reporter
November 23, 2019 8:51 PM ET

    Coal producers are still finding life difficult even as President Donald Trump is easing regulations on the industry.

    More than 50 coal plants have shuttered since 2015, when Trump began campaigning to save the industry from former President Barack Obama’s so-called war on coal.

    Trump has seen one of his biggest backers, coal tycoon Robert Murray, fall on hard times after his plant filed for bankruptcy amid the country’s changing energy mix.

One of the largest coal companies in the western U.S. closed Monday, making it among the more than 50 coal producers to shutter since voters elected President Donald Trump in 2016 on a promise to rescue the industry.

The Navajo Generating Station burned the last of its coal as the Arizona-based coal producer deals with the industry’s downturn, the Arizona Republic reported Monday. The mine that supplied the plant with coal closed in August, leaving Navajo with no other supply in the area.

This comes after a coal company headed by one of Trump’s biggest supporters filed for bankruptcy in October. Murray Energy announced on Oct. 29 that it reached an agreement to continue operating, with CEO Robert Murray relinquishing two of his roles in the company.

more
https://dailycaller.com/2019/11/23/trump-coal-election/

[PeteS in CA]

It would be interesting to know how much was due to Obamian regulatory damage and how much was due to marketplace shifts (from which government should not shield companies).

Back in the early 90s, computer companies Tandem Computers and Silicon Graphics were boosters of Bill Clinton. Within 5 years, both were either absorbed by acquisition (Tandem, a billion-dollar revenue company) or dying (Silicon Graphics). But those corporate deaths were not Bill Clinton's fault, they were due to both companies' failure to address their customers' needs and wants. Tandem's headquarters buildings are now Apple facilities, and Silicon Graphics' facilities are now Google facilities, except for a computer museum.

Marketplace happens.

[Fishrrman]

Someday -- after the natural gas fields play out, the oil fields run dry, and the wind and solar farms have collapsed as the frauds they are -- coal will "come back", because it's still there, it's cheap, and it works.

Only a matter of time.

[Smokin Joe]

Someday -- after the natural gas fields play out, the oil fields run dry, and the wind and solar farms have collapsed as the frauds they are -- coal will "come back", because it's still there, it's cheap, and it works.

Only a matter of time.

Only it won't be cheap. Few will know how to mine it, the mines will have to be re-opened, and that will cost a fortune, especially after they have been reclaimed, per EPA regs. The low hanging fruit has been picked.

[thackney]

Someday -- after the natural gas fields play out, the oil fields run dry, and the wind and solar farms have collapsed as the frauds they are -- coal will "come back", because it's still there, it's cheap, and it works.

Only a matter of time.

Not when you include methane hydrates in the gas numbers.

...there is more energy in methane hydrates than in all the world's oil, coal and gas put together...
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-27021610

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Someday -- after the natural gas fields play out, the oil fields run dry, and the wind and solar farms have collapsed as the frauds they are -- coal will "come back", because it's still there, it's cheap, and it works.

Only a matter of time.

That someday is so many generations into the future it for all purposes won't happen.

We have yet to tap the potential of natural gas in this country.

Crude is another matter....

[Smokin Joe]

That someday is so many generations into the future it for all purposes won't happen.

We have yet to tap the potential of natural gas in this country.

Crude is another matter....

Many of the barriers to natural gas exploration/exploitation will be artificially created by legislators and the victims/proponents of the anthropogenic climate change hoax. Those may prove more difficult to overcome than the geological and engineering challenges which that eventual production will face.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Many of the barriers to natural gas exploration/exploitation will be artificially created by legislators and the victims/proponents of the anthropogenic climate change hoax. Those may prove more difficult to overcome than the geological and engineering challenges which that eventual production will face.

Yep, all one has to do is look at California to see that in action.

Blessed with 4 of the largest oil fields ever discovered in lower 48, it is now only #6 in oil production as the state throttles down its indigenous oil industry.

And how many billions of dollars of wealth has New York refused to create with its insane ban on fraccing when the largest gas province ever seen on the continent underlies the state and cannot be exploited?

[Smokin Joe]

Yep, all one has to do is look at California to see that in action.

Blessed with 4 of the largest oil fields ever discovered in lower 48, it is now only #6 in oil production as the state throttles down its indigenous oil industry.

And how many billions of dollars of wealth has New York refused to create with its insane ban on fraccing when the largest gas province ever seen on the continent underlies the state and cannot be exploited?

I just know we saw people from both states move to North Dakota to participate in the mother of all oil booms here in the Bakken/Three Forks, and those who worked prospered. California was number two or three, and we passed them on the way up, while they were on the way down.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I just know we saw people from both states move to North Dakota to participate in the mother of all oil booms here in the Bakken/Three Forks, and those who worked prospered. California was number two or three, and we passed them on the way up, while they were on the way down.

I have noticed North Dakota is not letting up either.  Production keeps growing, thanks to guys like you who persevere there rather than heading off to 'greener' pastures like the Permian.

North Dakota posts record gas and oil production numbers
The country's second-largest oil producing state produced 1.42 million barrels of oil per day in June.
http://www.startribune.com/north-dakota-posts-record-gas-and-oil-production-numbers/545152332/

I continue to believe that geology makes the Bakken/Three Forks the pre-eminent unconventional play ever.  And with lessened drilling occurring, I believe this is the product of the modest amount of decline for established wells after their initial 3-5 years of decline, which makes for a tremendously stable base production over the long term.  It is the benefit of having such a low perm reservoir.

Those who choose to believe the Permian can reproduce the types of systematic improvements over the breadth of the basin like in the Williston are in for a hard fall.

[Smokin Joe]

I have noticed North Dakota is not letting up either.  Production keeps growing, thanks to guys like you who persevere there rather than heading off to 'greener' pastures like the Permian.

North Dakota posts record gas and oil production numbers
The country's second-largest oil producing state produced 1.42 million barrels of oil per day in June.
http://www.startribune.com/north-dakota-posts-record-gas-and-oil-production-numbers/545152332/

I continue to believe that geology makes the Bakken/Three Forks the pre-eminent unconventional play ever.  And with lessened drilling occurring, I believe this is the product of the modest amount of decline for established wells after their initial 3-5 years of decline, which makes for a tremendously stable base production over the long term.  It is the benefit of having such a low perm reservoir.

Those who choose to believe the Permian can reproduce the types of systematic improvements over the breadth of the basin like in the Williston are in for a hard fall.

The attraction early in the play in the Permian was that leases were cheap, compared to the Bakken. Early on, that is with any play, I recall leases being let for 50 cents an acre at the start. By the end of the leasing fervor, prime tracts in ND were leasing for 5K an acre and 20% royalty.
But the geology in the Permian (at least the Sprayberry trend) was nothing like the Bakken/Three Forks for the combination of discrete source rock and reservoir. The means exist to identify permeability barriers and viable reservoir, generally using mass spec data, but even that might not overcome the geology. Unless/until fracs are developed which can take those Permian Basin wells to payout on a consistent basis and provide a decent profit, (and takeaway capacity developed to reduce discounts on production, or localized infrastructure built to generate electricity and sell that), some folks are going to lose money there as their decline curves collide with their money curves.

Even the Bakken play has its hot spots, from Elm Coulee in Montana to the Nesson Anticline trend down to the Antelope field area, and Billings Nose, but the bottom line for an oil company is to get it all together for less money than you will make producing the well. Some have done very well, others, not so much, even here.

[Idiot]

The attraction early in the play in the Permian was that leases were cheap, compared to the Bakken. Early on, that is with any play, I recall leases being let for 50 cents an acre at the start. By the end of the leasing fervor, prime tracts in ND were leasing for 5K an acre and 20% royalty.
But the geology in the Permian (at least the Sprayberry trend) was nothing like the Bakken/Three Forks for the combination of discrete source rock and reservoir. The means exist to identify permeability barriers and viable reservoir, generally using mass spec data, but even that might not overcome the geology. Unless/until fracs are developed which can take those Permian Basin wells to payout on a consistent basis and provide a decent profit, (and takeaway capacity developed to reduce discounts on production, or localized infrastructure built to generate electricity and sell that), some folks are going to lose money there as their decline curves collide with their money curves.

Even the Bakken play has its hot spots, from Elm Coulee in Montana to the Nesson Anticline trend down to the Antelope field area, and Billings Nose, but the bottom line for an oil company is to get it all together for less money than you will make producing the well. Some have done very well, others, not so much, even here.

In our area of Texas, leases are going for $100-500 an acre with a 20-25% royalty.  The Permian is a different ball game entirely, where I've heard of $10,000 to 30,000 an acre and up.

At least things are starting to slow down in the Permian....thank goodness.

[Smokin Joe]

In our area of Texas, leases are going for $100-500 an acre with a 20-25% royalty.  The Permian is a different ball game entirely, where I've heard of $10,000 to 30,000 an acre and up.

At least things are starting to slow down in the Permian....thank goodness.

Maybe there are parts of the Permian where leases at $10K-$30K will pay off, but knowing the decline curves in the Bakken, and from what i saw on wellsite it Texas, no. Someone made out like a fat rat, likely speculating on the acreage, but in the end, starting with a lease investment in 1280 acres of $12.8 million to $38.4 million puts the operator behind the curve from the start. Add in discounts for lack of takeaway capacity, and lower prices and it's the trifecta of boom busters.