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Ohio Utica O&G Production Rockets in 4Q18 – Top 25 Wells

The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued fourth quarter 2018 numbers for Utica shale oil and gas production yesterday, and wow! Both natural gas and oil production rocketed upward. Natgas production was up 32% over the same period last year, to a new all-time high of 663.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf), and oil production hit 5.8 million barrels, up 39% over last year’s 4Q.
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DEP and Diversified Gas & Oil Compromise on Plugging Old PA Wells

Diversified Gas & Oil has been on a mission to buy as many non-shale (conventional) oil and gas wells as it can in the Appalachian Basin. It owns over millions of acres and tens of thousands of wells–many of them located in Pennsylvania. Last fall the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) told Diversified it wants 1,000 of its nonproducing wells plugged in the next five years. Diversified countered it would like to plug 2,000 wells, but over the next 20 years. They ended up compromising.
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WV Legislative Session Closes w/Several Pro-Drilling Bills Passed

West Virginia has the right idea. Their legislature meets for 60 days total at the beginning of each new year, and then they’re pretty much done for the year. Go to Charleston, work hard, then leave and go back to your day job. Part-time legislators. Love it! The 2019 session is now done and dusted. In the closing days of the session, two bills to help the oil and gas industry got passed and now wait for Gov. Jim Justice to sign them. However, one very important bill for the industry did not pass.
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PA AG Shapiro Colludes w/Delaware County DA to Investigate ME Pipe

Ever notice how predators like to hunt in packs? First the Chester County, PA District Attorney launched an ethically questionable “investigation” into “crimes” that may have been committed by building the Mariner East pipelines through his county (see Chester County DA Goes Rogue, Targets ME2 Pipe w/Criminal Probe). The Chester DA recently impaneled a grand jury to hear fake allegations against Energy Transfer and Sunoco Logistics Partners (see Politically Motivated Investigation of ME Pipe Convenes Grand Jury).
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NJ Commission Pulls Approval for Short Pipe Thru Scrub Pines

Two weeks ago MDN told you that New Jersey radicals had succeeded in scuttling a plan to convert an old coal-fired electric plant into using natural gas (see Cape May NatGas Power Plant Dead – Scrub Pines Pipeline Too?). At that time we raised the question about whether a tiny 22-mile pipeline that would feed the plant would still get built. A state commission that had approved that pipeline has just unapproved it–so we now have our answer.
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Proposed Rhode Island Gas-Fired Plant Still has a Pulse

Last September MDN told you that a new natgas-fired electric plant planned for the People’s Republic of Rhode Island in Burrillville was on life support, with antis reaching to pull the plug (see Proposed Rhode Island Gas-Fired Plant on Life Support). Sometimes patients just won’t die. Such is the case with this project, which resumes state hearings this week.
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Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Mar 12, 2019

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: $500 million Pennsylvania nuclear rescue plan triggers fierce battle from rival power producers; NATIONAL: More than 60% of electric generating capacity installed in 2018 was fueled by natural gas; Optimism reigns for U.S. LNG as global supply fear wanes; Overt focus on U.S. shale decline rates misguided as output rise will continue; INTERNATIONAL: EU’s U.S. LNG imports soar as diplomatic talks continue; CERAWeek: Lukoil to release new natural gas strategy this autumn.
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