CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Year 2017 is nearing its end with extremely low natural gas prices.
“When everything else is costing us more, the cost of natural gas to heat our homes and our businesses has gone down,” said Anne Blankenship, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Association.
“It’s gone way down. We’re talking, we haven’t seen these prices since 1976.”
Over the last decade during development of the Marcellus shale, Blankenship said what West Virginians residential, commercial and industrial customers have paid for natural gas has declined by $4.3 billion total.
Broken down, data from the Energy Information Administration showed residential natural gas costs have dropped by $1.57 billion statewide since the Marcellus development, with a $1.38 billion reduction for commercial and $1.32 billion in industrial costs.
In 2018, Blankenship said projections are calling for a “slow uptick” in production.
“It’s that supply and demand dynamic that you’re always looking for, that perfect sweet spot,” she said. “For now, everybody in the state that’s using natural gas to heat their businesses and homes, they’re benefiting from it.”
Going forward, Blankenship said more focus will be put on potential downstream uses for West Virginia’s natural gas.
“By that, I’m referring to natural gas-fired electric generation facilities. Our surrounding states have really taken off in that regard and there’s a lot of momentum here in West Virginia to move down that path as well in addition to using the natural gas liquids that we’re creating,” she said.
Those developments could potentially be tied into China Energy’s plans for West Virginia.
Earlier this year, China Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state Department of Commerce for $83.7 billion in shale gas development and chemical manufacturing projects in the Mountain State over ten years.