Exclusive: MSC’s Dave Spigelmyer Goes On the Record with MDN
Last Friday MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of speaking (via phone) with the president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, David Spigelmyer. Some 300 companies make up the membership of the organization–including all of the top exploration & production (E&P) companies and midstream (pipeline) companies operating in our region. Dave himself used to work for Chesapeake Energy once upon a time. He is a Pennsylvania boy, born and bred, and knows the industry inside and out. Dave made time to speak with MDN about a wide range of issues. We should note nothing was “off limits”–Jim asked some tough questions. Below is a transcript of that interview. We tackle topics including the Marcellus industry outlook for 2017, the commodity price of natural gas in our region vs. other locations, the proposed severance tax in PA, various pipeline projects, the Shell cracker, MSC’s lawsuit against DEP Chapter 78a regulations, and the “civil war” between drillers and landowners over the royalty issue. It’s all in there…
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The nutjobs at the Sierra Club have done us the favor in identifying their next targets: 409 natural gas-fired electric plants and 83 pipeline projects either under construction or planned. We have both full lists below. (Handy lists for those who want to sell something to the builders of those projects!) Global warming nuttery has metastasized into full-blown insanity at the Sierra Club. Even though natural gas produces far less carbon and harmful emissions than other fossil fuels, the Sierra Club is focusing all of their money, time and resources to defeating anything to do with fossil fuels. If they got their way, they would stop an additional 31 gigawatts of electricity from coming online from gas-fired plants (many of them in the Marcellus/Utica region). They would also stop many M-U pipeline projects. Essentially, they want to force all of us back into the Stone Ages–without the benefit of plastics or the use of fossil fuels. Yes, it IS insanity. Below are not only the two lists (gas power plants projects and pipeline projects), but also a copy of the Sierra Club’s latest foray into Joseph Goebbels propaganda–a report called “The Gas Rush: Locking America into Another Fossil Fuel for Decades.” Real bizzaro stuff…
Last week we brought you a few pickings from the Hart Energy Marcellus-Utica Midstream Conference and Exhibition held in Pittsburgh. One of those pickings were comments from Williams CEO Alan Armstrong and his prediction that production in the Marcellus/Utica would go up by 65% in the next five years (see 
Somehow, someway, a new natural gas-fired electric plant is in the process of getting built–in anti-fracking New York State (see 
Range Resources released details on their proved reserves last Friday. The company reports proved reserves are 12.1 trillion cubic feet equivalent (Tcfe), a 22% jump from 9.9 Tcfe at the end of 2015. Excluding acquisitions and divestitures, Range’s proved reserves were actually up 11%. Range CEO Jeff Ventura said the company replaced 292% of production from its drilling activities in 2016. They have driven down development costs to 34 cents per thousand cubic feet. If it costs an average of 87 cents to gather and get the gas to market (PA IFO estimate), that means it costs Range $1.21 to find, extract and get the gas to market. Range’s announcement was pretty amped-up on their newest purchase of acreage in Louisiana. However, in 2016, almost all of the added proved reserves came in the Marcellus–1,315 out of 1,394 billion cubic feet (or 94%)…
Oilfield services company Baker Hughes, with major operations in the Marcellus/Utica, posted its fourth quarter and annual 2016 results last week. Financially speaking the numbers were a river of red. BH lost $2.7 billion in 2016 vs. losing $1.9 billion in 2015. However, when you look at the later half of the year, and the fourth quarter in particular, the numbers started to improve. BH lost $417 million in 4Q16 vs. losing $1 billion in 4Q15. The bleeding slowed. BH CEO Martin Craighead, in responding to a question about the company’s North American shale business, said, “So equipment goes where it’s loved the most, and not every basin in North America is created equal right now in terms of pricing.” Hmmm. We wonder if the Marcellus/Utica is loved? Below is the update…
As we inch closer to a final investment decision (FID) on the PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker in Belmont County, OH, and with President Trump’s emphasis on using steel manufactured here at home for pipeline projects like Keystone XL, some are asking whether the PTT project (if it gets approved) will use American steel–or cheap, imported steel. It’s a good question…
If we had a nickle for every time we’ve heard, read or written the sentiment, “If antis don’t want to extract ‘fracked gas’ anymore, why don’t they show us how it’s done”–we’d be rich! The point: without oil and gas, our modern way of life would cease. Stop. Kaput. No more. We are totally dependent on fossil fuels for our existence. Since New York Gov. Cuomo doesn’t seem to want nasty “fracked gas” coming into his state from Pennsylvania (witness his block of the Constitution Pipeline), perhaps PA and all other states sending natural gas to NY should shut the spigots off for a while. It’s fun to muse, what would happen if?… Well, we don’t have to wonder what would happen. We have a great example. In Central New York in January 1977 residents of Syracuse faced a blizzard and a shortage of natural gas. It got so bad factories, schools and other entities that use natural gas had to shut down. Here’s how it looked forty years ago in Syracuse…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Shale Crescent bringing jobs back to USA; technicians with welding/pipefitting skills in high demand; Atlantic Coast Pipe good for Virginia; 5 gas stats that will blow you away; who will be the next natgas utility to be taken out following WGI; natgas price surges 4%; the link between natgas and electricity; natgas exports to Mexico may be at risk; and more!