The very low natural gas prices in the Permian are dragging down exploration and production (E&P) investment returns in the most prolific U.S. shale oil basin, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new report on Thursday. Pipeline constraints for the abundant oil and gas production in the Permian, coupled with gushing associated gas from oil drilling, keep natural gas prices in the region at very low levels. The midstream constraints for oil and gas transportation in West Texas and New Mexico have been limiting exploration and production volumes and weakening the realized oil and natural gas prices for producers, according to Moody’s. “New natural gas pipelines will likely go into service in the second half of 2019 and 2020, alleviating the bottleneck, but natural gas prices in the Permian Basin will continue to suffer from high basis differentials as E&Ps pursue growth in oil production,” James Wilkins, a Moody’s […]