We love a story about an individual or company that defies conventional wisdom and succeeds by charting its own course separate from the herd. Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) is one such company. DGO buys up older conventional (and shale) wells in Appalachia, making money off the “long tail” of low production (see Diversified Zags, Finds Profit in Appalachian Conventional Wells). Another company charting a different path is CNX Resources. Yesterday we told you CNX is buying out the rest of its midstream/pipeline subsidiary (see CNX Resources Buying/Merging in Rest of CNX Midstream for $357M). Why is CNX buying back their pipeline operations, when so many others are selling pipeline operations?
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Day: July 29, 2020
Radicals Make Final Push to Strangle PA O&G Using Emissions Reg
Radical environmentalists (far outside the mainstream) are making one final push to pressure the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to expand an already onerous new regulation it is planning to implement. Last December the DEP’s Environmental Quality Board (EQB) approved new regulations that supposedly will capture every last molecule of stray methane that leaks from shale drilling operations (see PA DEP Goes WAY Too Far in Approving New Methane Regulations). The new regs are unnecessary and will shut down even more shale drilling operations in the state.
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Multiple Lawsuits Filed re FirstEnergy Nuke Bailout Bribery Scandal
FirstEnergy is in the middle of an excrement storm. The company’s former subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and several of his associates to gain their assistance passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6, which became law, gives Energy Harbor $1.1 billion in ratepayer funds to prop up the company’s uneconomic nuclear power plants. Multiple class action lawsuits have been filed against the FirstEnergy and Energy Harbor since the bribery scandal news broke…
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Investors Love M-U Companies, Even Though Gas Price is Low
How does one make money in the natural gas market these days when the price of gas is at historic lows? One way is if an investor was fortunate enough to bet the price would go down. Those folks made money. The other way is to…invest in drillers? Yep. Even though low prices hurt drillers, investors still like the looks of what is on the horizon, especially for companies operating in the Marcellus/Utica. Example: The stock price for Range Resources and EQT is up over 30% each this year so far.
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How to Predict Price of NGLs – The Spread Between Oil & NatGas
Here’s a little known factoid that will be useful for anyone wondering what the price of NGLs (natural gas liquids) will bring in a given market at a given time. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), our favorite government agency, points out NGLs almost always fetch prices that are “range-bound” between the price of oil on the high end, and the price of natural gas on the low end. Natural gasoline (an NGL) tracks closest the high end and the price of crude oil, while ethane is at the bottom of list closest to the price of methane.
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AOC Tries to Block All New Pipelines by Amending Budget Bill
The silly childlike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat from New York City), whom we refer to here on MDN as Alexandria Occasional-Cortex (for her lack of brainpower), is a Marxist committed to overthrowing the existing U.S. government by attacking and trying to end the use of all fossil fuels. Her latest antic is to introduce an amendment to a budget bill that will block the construction of all new pipelines. Once upon a time we’d just laugh and point and make fun of this silly child. In today’s upside-down world where good is evil and evil is good, we’re not laughing.
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Jul 29, 2020
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Track bribes before moving nuke deal; Many at OSU welcome proposed gas plant; NATIONAL: NY Times Lie: Oil and gas groups see ‘some common ground’ in Biden energy plan; What would a Joe Biden win mean for oil and gas?
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