What the Data Shows Us About Building Natural Gas Pipelines Part 2
By Cyrus Brooks, RBAC, Inc. In Part 1, we traced how the U.S. natural gas system evolved from the first long-distance pipelines into a regulated interstate network, then through shortages, deregulation, and the restructuring that turned pipelines into open-access transporters. In Part 2, the story shifts from the pipelines in the ground to the market […]
What the Data Shows Us About Building Natural Gas Pipelines Part 1
By Cyrus Brooks, RBAC, Inc. Pre-History Natural gas was first piped over distances for use in ancient China around 500 BC. So, there’s a little prehistory to our natural gas system in the United states which I wrote about and you can read it here if you are interested. But this article is about the […]
Could a President Really Waive the Jones Act?
By Cyrus Brooks, RBAC, Inc. Key Question in an Energy Emergency Q: Could a President simply waive the Jones Act to rush energy (oil, refined products, fuels, LNG) to constrained markets like California, the Northeast, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, et al? A (short version): Yes. And No. Though a panacea it is not. So, then […]
Hormuz Risk: Assessing the Impact of LNG Supply Disruptions
This study first appeared in Montel’s Geopolitical Report – March 2026. Geopolitical Escalation and the Strategic Importance of the Strait In the early hours of Saturday, 28 February, coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes targeted sites in Tehran, marking a significant escalation in hostilities. The strikes followed several weeks of rising tensions between the United States […]
RBAC’s 25Q4 Global Gas Market Overview
Global gas and LNG markets are entering a complex phase. Asian demand, led by China’s industrial recovery and India’s expanding gas use in transport, continues to grow steadily, while Europe is balancing modest demand recovery against storage tightness and the legally bound phase-out of Russian LNG and pipeline imports. At the same time, North America […]
A Short History of the Shale Revolution
By Cyrus Brooks, RBAC, Inc. Origins of Shale Gas Production Shale gas is natural gas found in low-permeability sedimentary rock formations deep beneath the surface. Although small amounts of shale gas were produced as far back as the 1800s, for much of the 20th century it was not a major resource because it was difficult […]
Winter Storm Fern: La Niña’s Freeze Sends Natural Gas Prices Soaring
La Niña Sets the Stage Leading into Winter 2025-26 much of the talk was about the possibility of a La Nina Winter. A La Nina pattern emerges when the surface temperatures of the Pacific Ocean fall below average. While the shift in ocean temperatures may seem insignificant, it can shift the “Jet Stream”, the fast-moving […]
New Power Plants Surging in the Permian Basin
Modeling the Impact of New Gas-Fired Generation in West Texas West Texas is one of the hottest places for natural gas and electric generation, experiencing substantial growth in both supply and demand for each. The Permian Basin, sitting on the Western edge of Texas, continues to create plentiful gas supply in the region, to the […]
From Climate-First to Energy Security-First: Davos 2026 Part 2
What This Shift Means for Natural Gas, LNG, Power, and Global Growth Part 2 In Part 1, we explored how Davos 2026 highlighted the limits of energy strategies that underweighted reliability, cost, and infrastructure. In Part 2, the focus shifts to what is now forcing the issue: surging electricity demand from AI and data centers, […]
From Climate-First to Energy Security-First: Davos 2026
What This Shift Means for Natural Gas, LNG, Power, and Global Growth Part 1 “Energy and geopolitics were always interwoven. But I have never ever seen that the energy security risks are so multiplying and the dark and long shadow of geopolitics on energy sector overall. So, therefore energy security in my view should be […]
