Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY
Cuomo PERMANENTLY Bans NY Fracking in Now-Adopted Budget
While no one was paying attention, distracted with literal life and death issues due to the coronavirus pandemic, the uber-corrupt and sleazy Andrew Cuomo (worst governor EVER) slipped in a permanent ban on fracking into the annual state budget bill which is now the law of our fallen (and sick) land. This is truly a sad day for those of us who live in New York State. We seriously doubt there will ever be a Republican legislature and governor in NY to reverse the horrific damage now done to our civil liberties. Freedom died yesterday in New York State. We now live behind enemy lines.
Read More “Cuomo PERMANENTLY Bans NY Fracking in Now-Adopted Budget”
The radical organization Earthworks has been exposed for making a false accusation against the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), claiming the DEP ignored complaints of potential environmental violations in the shale patch due to distractions over the coronavirus pandemic. Earthworks claimed a frack wastewater treatment plant in Potter County is leaking onto the ground. DEP said it did investigate and no, there is no leak.
One year ago MDN told about a Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America LLC (NGPL) project that carries Marcellus/Utica gas from the Midwest all the way to the Gulf Coast to feed just about any of the existing or under construction LNG export plants in the region (see 
Both Patterson-UTI Energy and TechnipFMC are big oilfield services (OFS) companies–drilling, fracking, completions, etc. Both have operations in the Marcellus/Utica region, as well as operations in other shale plays (TechnipFMC has ops in other countries). Both companies run in the same pack with much larger (but similar) companies like Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes. Because of their presence in the M-U, it caught our attention that both Patterson and TechnipFMC announced major cuts to their capital expenditure budgets for the balance of 2020. Patterson is axing more money from an already axed budget–now 60% lower than what they spent in 2019. TechnipFMC is trimming 30% from their budget this year over last.
Last week we told you about the biggest rig count drop in four years with a loss of 47 rigs in a single week (see 
It’s pretty amazing what a single tweet can do. It can move the price of oil up by $5/barrel! Yesterday President Trump tweeted: “Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry!” The markets reacted quickly bidding up the price of oil to $25.32/barrel for WTI. Let’s hope it continues.
NATIONAL: Cheniere Energy’s Jack Fusco on the future of LNG; Surviving the coronavirus? Thank fossil fuels.; Oil and gas M&A deals crash along with prices; INTERNATIONAL: As oil sinks, some companies float idea of ‘zero clause’ in trades; Barclays aiming for net zero emissions by 2050, portfolio realignment starts with energy sector; Global natgas prices for 2020 expected even lower, set to feel COVID-19 symptoms for years; Chinese buyers snap up U.S. oil purchases at widest discounts ever.