Why A Real Fracking Ban Won’t Happen

Friday January 31, 2020

In the latest edition of the Numbers Report, we’ll take a look at some of the most interesting figures put out this week in the energy and metals sectors. Each week we’ll dig into some data and provide a bit of explanation on what drives the numbers.

Let’s take a look.

1. Fracking ban of little consequence

• Several candidates for president have called for a ban on fracking. In practice, the president can only try to ban fracking on federal lands, and even that might be subject to litigation.

• Even if a ban succeeded, capital would flow from federal to private lands. “Even in the long-term, the impact might be quite negligible as seen from the greater industry perspective,” says Artem Abramov, Head of Shale Research at Rystad Energy. “However, the effects of such a ban could have stronger negative effects on one key shale producing region in particular – the New Mexico portion of the prolific Permian Delaware Basin.”

• New Mexico and North Dakota would be most affected by the ban, each producing several hundred thousand barrels of oil per day from federal lands. As for gas, Wyoming is the largest contributor from federal lands, followed by New Mexico.

• Some of the companies most affected in the Delaware basin would be Occidental (NYSE: OXY), Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) and Concho Resources (NYSE: CXO), with their Delaware holdings on federal…