Wyoming Energy News January 11

The School of Energy Resources features information about the energy industry on a weekly basis. Here is a recap of this week's stories.

Baker Hughes Rig Counts

Baker Hughes reports the following rig counts.

• U.S. rig count is unchanged from last week at 1,075 rigs, with oil rigs down 4 to 873 and gas rigs up 4 to 202.
• U.S. rig count is up 136 rigs from last year's count of 939.
• Wyoming rig count remains steady at 33.
• Colorado's count stays at 35.
• New Mexico added 2 rigs at 107.
• Texas decreased by 2 rigs to 532

Opening Prices from Bloomberg Energy on January 11

• West Texas Intermediate (WTI) opened at $52.28 up from last week's price of $47.96
• Brent Crude shows a $4.13 increase from $57.06 last week to $61.19 this week
• Natural gas declined slightly from $3.05 to $3.00 this week

U.S. Energy Information Administration

• Natural gas prices, production, consumption and exports increased in 2018. The average annual Henry Hub natural gas sport price increased to $3.16 per million BTUs, up 15 cents from the 2017 average.
• Wholesale power prices were generally higher in 2018, with both winter and summer spikes. Wholesale electricity prices during 2018 at major trading hubs in the U.S. ranged from 14% to 60% than in 2017.
• New electric generating capacity in 2019 will come from renewables and natural gas. According to EIA's latest inventory of electric generators, 23.7 gigawatts of new capacity additions and 8.3 GW of capacity retirements are expected for the U.S. electric power sector in 2019.

Wyoming Public Media

• Climate Research Centers Falter During Shutdown, While Oil and Gas Permits Hold Steady. The Bureau of Land Management continues to process oil and gas permit applications.

Casper Star Tribune

• Wyoming utility continues to weight coal's cost versus its benefits. Rocky Mountain Power is delaying an update to depreciation rate of its assets as it studies the changing economics of coal.

AP News

• New Wyoming governor: Keep fighting for coal exports

KULR8 News

• Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon offers the State of the State. Governor Gordon highlighted energy in his State of the State speech. He intends to support the School of Energy Resources' efforts in industries that have helped build Wyoming.