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Shell Adding Back 300 Workers a Week at Cracker Construction Site

Shell continues to ramp back up work being done at its mighty ethane cracker construction site in Beaver County, PA following a shutdown of activity due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company has announced plans to add 300 employees back each week until they are back up to full compliment.
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Work on New Fortress LNG Export Plant in Wyalusing Heats Up

We have some exclusive news to share about a northeast PA LNG plant project. In August 2018, New Fortress Energy announced plans to build at least one LNG liquefying plant in Wyalusing, PA (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA). The plant will cost $800 million to build and use some 500 workers to build it. Work began last year to clear the site in preparation for construction (see Work Continues to Clear Site for NEPA Landlocked LNG Export Plant). The big news is…
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DRBC, New Fortress Crush Antis’ Arguments Against LNG Export Dock

Kabuki theater

Earlier this week the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) held a promised hearing to consider its previous decision to approve a request by New Fortress Energy to build a $96 million 1,600-foot-long pier/dock on the Delaware River. The dock will be used for docking and loading two ships at a time with LNG. The only parties allowed to speak were DRBC, New Fortress, and THE Delaware Riverkeeper, the arrogant Big Green group trying to stop the dock and the LNG facility in northeast PA that would feed it.
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Epsilon Energy 1Q: Still Partners with Chesapeake in NEPA

From time to time we check in on Epsilon Energy, which concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA. Does Epsilon actually do any of its own drilling? No. They partner with (give money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other companies do the actual drilling. Epsilon, according to its website, owns ~4,000 net acres in the PA Marcellus. Epsilon issued its first-quarter 2020 update yesterday.
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Penn Twp Frack Ban Case Strikes Out at PA Supreme Court

A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT, in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT has finally struck out, permanently, at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
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M-U Drillers Promise Spending Restraint Even with Rosier Outlook

Have Marcellus/Utica drillers learned their lesson about growth at any cost? It seems the answer to that is, YES! The price of natural gas has been low for a long time due to overproduction. You’ve often read here on MDN that gas prices will be “lower for longer.” And yet with the coronavirus pandemic and the crash in oil prices, the price of natgas has been (mostly) inching up–getting close to $2/Mcf (although it was down again yesterday, to $1.62/Mcf). Estimates for gas prices next year are trending to the $2.50-$2.75 range. Everyone is watching–will M-U and other gas-focused drillers restart big spending and more drilling?
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, May 14, 2020

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Methane leaks much worse than previously thought, study says; Range Resources shareholders OK compensation plan at annual meeting; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Bakken gas supplies plunge as oil production pulls back; NATIONAL: EIA expects energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to fall 11% this year; Republicans urge Trump to bar banks from shunning fossil fuel loans, investments; FERC picks first-ever chief of LNG division.
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