Rumor: EQT About to Layoff 25% of Workforce, Maybe This Week
The Pittsburgh Business Times‘ ace report Paul Gough is reporting an exclusive: EQT is getting ready to fire (i.e. layoff) around 200 employees. “Multiple sources” have confirmed the plans to the PBT. Since the company employs around 800 employees, that represents 25% of the entire workforce. This comes on the heels of the company laying off over 100 people earlier this year, when the company was run by a different management team (see EQT Lays Off ~15% of Workforce – Fires Back at Rice Brothers).
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According to analysis by S&P Global Platts, new drilling permits for shale wells across Pennsylvania have “plummeted” over the past few months–down 14% in July and down 23% in August from the same months a year ago. But, does comparing two months from this year against last year for the entire state really tell the whole story?
Like it or not, landowners are joined at the hip with the shale drillers who produce the natural gas from their land. When “the price” (which is actually a lot of different prices, depending on geography) of natural gas is high, everyone is in tall cotton. But when the price tanks, as it has over the past few months, every suffers. PA landowners are noticing very thin royalty checks. The big bone of contention is when drillers look to share more of their pain with landowners by claiming post-production deductions.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), which once supported (in court) Sunoco Logistics Partners method of requesting permits for the Marcus Hook facility (near Philadelphia), has just flip flopped and change sides, now siding against Sunoco and the permits the DEP itself issued for the Marcus Hook facility. DEP is now siding with the radical Clean Air Council demanding that all of the work at the Marcus Hook facility be done under a single emissions permit, not separate permits.
Just prior to taking a long Labor Day holiday weekend, MDN brought you news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has overruled New York State to allow the Constitution Pipeline to move forward with construction (see
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Green breakthroughs coming from an unexpected source; GDS manages water for Cabot throughout Susquehanna County; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Dominion Energy donates $250,000 to Hurricane Dorian recovery; Natural gas-fired power generation has grown in Florida, displacing coal; New Permian gas pipelines will reduce flaring, but what about prices?; NATIONAL: Industrial demand said ‘unsung hero’ of U.S. natural gas demand; Rig count falls to lowest since 2017 as prices stay stuck in ‘purgatory’; The coming M&A wave in U.S. shale; Oil companies succesfully reduce methane emissions; Fracking buzzwords evolve, from ‘ramp up’ to ‘capital discipline’; The next target in the climate-change debate: your gas stove; Natural gas and the electric power sector: the latest trends; Climate Call Out (video); INTERNATIONAL: Russia ups LNG race with green light on $21 billion Arctic LNG-2 project.