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White House aims to enforce new sustainability standards in American aviation

President Biden’s administration pledges to reduce aviation emissions by 20% by 2030, focusing at the same time on creating new jobs in the industry. The key to success in this venture is sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

This move comes to light as a means to achieve promised climate goals and bring forward carbon-free aviation before 2050 as part of President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda. Since modern American aviation stands for 11% of all transportation-related emissions in the region, this share of emissions will only continue to grow without appropriate actions as the volume of commercial or not flights steadily increases. And prioritizing fuel produced from waste cooking oil, plants, and animal fats may be just the right answer, considering SAF could cut up to 80% of aviation emissions.

Such problems demand comprehensive measures, and for sustainable aviation to be achievable, the industry requires efficient innovations not only in aircraft technology but also in fuel extraction. And while hydrogen and electric-powered aviation may come to fruition in the future, bold decisions especially for long-distance travel need to be taken now.

The new SAF tax credit supports a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions up to 50% by cutting costs while rapidly scaling domestic production of sustainable fuels for aviation. This credit will work in concert with measures taken by the aviation-related industries to reduce their carbon footprints.

The White House's commitment to the transformation of aviation stems not only from the desire to address ecological challenges, but also to create union jobs, aid airport workers in improving environmental quality, and open rural economic opportunities to use sustainable fuels derived from a wide range of feedstocks and pathways. Aviation is changing toward a zero-carbon sector. To make this transformation, however, aircraft manufacturers, airlines, fuel producers, airports, and the Federal government will have to work together. And with the upcoming executive actions, new federal programs, and private sector commitments, the industry may very well soon be on its way to that cherished goal.

It is predicted that the domestic SAF market will increase rapidly in the coming years, with production reaching well over the current 4.5 million gallons per year. But SAFs production won't scale up domestically without the support of policy and producer commitments. Growing domestic production will require a wide range of feedstocks and paths, and the industry will explore a variety of possibilities. Ethanol conversion into jet fuel is one of these alternatives.

As evident, several airports already are in hot pursuit of the infrastructure needed to enable SAF deliveries in the future. While in Los Angeles, CA (LAX) and San Francisco, CA (SFO) it is readily in use on short domestic passenger flights. Additionally, many U.S. airports have individual road maps to achieve net-zero emissions and are actively participating in the Airport Carbon Accreditation certification program.

For our part, keeping ahead of sustainable fuel initiatives, Rextag will continue to add asset and infrastructure data to enhance business development, market surveillance, and competitive awareness in the industry.

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Staying on Top of Drilling Activity Trends in the Permian Basin

Oil output in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico is supposed to go up 88,000 bbl/d to a record 5.219 million bbl/d in June, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced in its report on May 16. Additionally, gas productivity in the Permian Basin and the Haynesville in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will rise to record highs of 20 Bcf/d and 15.1 Bcf/d in June, respectively. Given that this growth has been expected, recent global market changes make forecasting the output even more challenging. Learning how production will change is easier with early activity tracking, a new service recently launched by Rextag – Pad Activity Monitor. With the help of PAM, you are able to monitor well pad clearing, drilling operations, fracking crew deployment and completions with new data collected approximately every 2 days. Additionally, it cuts down activity reporting lag times by at least 98%, from 120-180 days down to just 5-8 days. In order to access reports, charts, tables, and mapping visualizations via Rextag’s Energy DataLink use a web-based application allowing users to filter, download and identify activity on a map or data table. Moreover, customers will be able to set up daily, weekly, and monthly email report notifications.

We think these GIS-related news will be important for the industry in the near future

The EIA forecasts that total output in the main U.S. shale oil basins will increase 142,000 bbl/d to 8.761 million bbl/d in June, the most since March 2020. Oil productivity in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico is supposed to go up 88,000 bbl/d to a record 5.219 million bbl/d in June, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced in its report on May 16. In the largest shale gas basin, the productivity in Appalachia in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia will grow up to 35.7 Bcf/d in June, its highest since beating a record 36 Bcf/d in December 2021. Gas output in the Permian Basin and the Haynesville in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will rise to record highs of 20 Bcf/d and 15.1 Bcf/d in June, respectively. Speaking of the Permian future output, putting hands on upcoming changes in production has recently been made easier with the new Rextag's service - Pad Activity Monitor. Thanks to satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, customers are able to monitor the oil and gas wells and are provided with near real-time activity reports related to drilling operations. However, it is noticed that productivity in the largest oil and gas basins has decreased every month since setting records of new oil well production per rig of 1,544 bbl/d in December 2020 in the Permian Basin, and new gas well production per rig of 33.3 MMcf/d in March 2021 in Appalachia.

No sooner had the crude prices soared above $100/bbl than the industry professionals believed in an incredible growth of drilling activity in North America’s largest shale patch. Analysts speculate that additional output of 500,000 barrels of oil daily would become a significant part (4%) of overall U.S. daily production. That is going to flatter oil and gasoline prices. Drilling permits in the Permian Basin are persistently growing, averaging approximately 210 at the beginning of April. Moreover, the permits trend is noticed as an all-time high as a total of 904 horizontal drilling permits were awarded last month. Nowadays, learning and analysing the current situation and predicting the future development become easier with early activity tracking, a new service recently launched by Rextag. Rextag's Pad Activity monitor (PAM) allows you to see well pad clearing, drilling operations, fracking crew deployment and completions with new data collected approximately every 2 days with the help of satellite imagery and artificial intelligence. While the increase in drilling will result in higher production, U.S. shale producers will have to overcome several hurdles including labor shortages and supply constraints.

2022 blog posts