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Ohio Utica 3Q19 O&G Production New Record: Oil Up 30%, Gas Up 11%

The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued third quarter 2019 numbers for Utica shale oil and gas production last Friday. Drum roll please! The numbers show new state record highs for quarterly oil AND natural gas production, the most ever since quarterly reporting began in 2013. Through the roof! Utica oil production was up 29.8% over 3Q18, and Utica natural gas production was up 11.3% over 3Q18.
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Elba Island Finally Exported First Marcellus LNG Cargo on Friday

Maran Gas Lindos

Last week MDN reported LNG tanker Maran Gas Lindos had docked and was thought to be loading what will be the very first shipment of Marcellus molecules to be exported from the Elba Island, Georgia LNG export facility (see Elba Island Exporting First Marcellus LNG Cargo This Week – Maybe). Although the Elba Island facility is six months or more behind schedule in going online, we’re happy (exhausted, actually) to report that the Maran Gas Lindos left dock Friday evening and is heading to Pakistan with the very first Marcellus LNG shipment.
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Risberg PA-to-OH Pipeline Starts – Flows Marcellus Gas to OH

Risberg ribbon-cutting ceremony (credit: Ashtabula Star Beacon)

The Risberg Line, a 60-mile pipeline from Crawford County, PA to Erie County, PA and from there across the border into Ashtabula County, OH, went into service on Friday with a ceremonial ribbon cutting and a literal turning of the valve by Ohio Lt. Governer Jon Husted. Pop the cork on the champagne!
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Ohio AG Lawsuit Against Rover Pipe Tossed by Appeals Court

In Nov. 2017 the Ohio Attorney General’s office under then-AG Mike Dewine (RINO swamp dweller, now governor) sued Energy Transfer at the prompting of the Ohio EPA claiming the company’s Rover Pipeline project was guilty of “polluting state waters while constructing a natural gas pipeline across Ohio” (see OH EPA Director Manipulates Atty General to Sue Rover Pipeline). A Stark County judge threw the case out in March of this year (see OH Judge Tosses AG’s Lawsuit Against Rover Pipe Enviro Violations).
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M-U Drillers Face Ongoing Challenge re More NGL Production

click for larger version

Although the Marcellus (and Utica) is known worldwide as a “gas play”–meaning methane (CH4) production–a number of producers in southwestern PA, eastern OH and northern WV value the two plays for other hydrocarbons, NGLs (natural gas liquids). While methane or “natural gas” prices have gone low and stayed low, NGLs, which also come out of the ground along with methane, fetch much higher prices, and can make the difference between profitability and unprofitablity. But for M-U drillers there’s a problem with NGL production.
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Big Green Appeals Penn Twp Frack Ban Case to PA Supreme Court

A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT, in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA, backed with money from Big Green groups, continues to sue in an effort to block shale drilling in the township. And they keep losing their lawsuits. In November the group lost an appeal of a lower court ruling which challenges a Penn Township ordinance allowing Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate wells (see Anti Group Loses Yet Another Penn Twp (PA) Frack Ban Case). And wouldn’t you know it? With endless gobs of Big Green money, Protect PT has just appealed its losing case to the PA Supreme Court.
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Antis Arrested for Trespass Near ME Pipe Claim “Intimidation”

The husband and wife team of Mark and Melinda Clatterbuck are at it again–getting themselves arrested for illegal trespass and disorderly conduct at a pipeline site. They previously got themselves arrested in Lancaster County, PA when protesting the Williams Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project (see Lancaster Pipeline Protesters ‘Do the Hokey Pokey’ & Get Arrested and 2 Lancaster Radicals Arrested Stopping Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Work). Now that Atlantic Sunrise is built and in the ground and flowing gas, they’ve moved on to protesting against Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 project near Philly.
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Dec 16, 2019

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: When Chevron leaves the region, so will most of its charitable giving; PA DEP invites comments on Mariner East pipeline chapter 102/105 permit revisions; Special permit for LNG by rail foreshadows boon for U.S. small-scale liquefaction; Southwestern Energy: a misunderstood natural gas producer; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: FERC approves Driftwood LNG site preparation work; SandRidge CEO resigns as Icahn-backed board eyes spending plan; Primus Green Energy commissions FEED study for Texas natural gas-to-gasoline plant; NATIONAL: U.S. drops four natural gas rigs as oil count climbs; Shale slowdown takes economic toll; INTERNATIONAL: Global natural gas electricity is gaining on coal; U.N. climate talks end without meeting goals.
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