EIA DPR: Marcellus/Utica Gas Production Continues Big Drop
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR estimates how much oil and natural gas each of the country’s seven largest shale plays produced in the previous (current) month, and how much each will produce in the coming (next) month. The July report, which predicts production for the coming month of August, estimates natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica will decrease by 210 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–the biggest decrease for any of the major shale plays.
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Whew. We can now breathe a sigh of relief. On July 7 TC Energy’s Columbia Gas Transmission subsidiary announced an unplanned outage (for maintenance work) for the Mountaineer XPress (MXP) pipeline in West Virginia–near Leach, Kentucky (see 
Wow! That was fast! Last week we brought you the rumor that a bill to allow incentives for petrochemical plants willing to build new facilities in Pennsylvania (generating hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of investment in the state) appears to be back on after the bill was previously vetoed by Gov. Tom Wolf earlier this year (see 
Yesterday Kinder Morgan asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to bring Elba Island Train #8 online to produce and ship LNG. Train #8 will increase Elba’s active train count to seven (out of ten). One month ago KM asked FERC for permission to begin testing Train #9 (see 
Pieridae Energy wants to build an LNG export plant in Nova Scotia, Canada. The project is called the Goldboro LNG project. Yesterday Pieridae announced the company they had contracted with to build Goldboro, KBR (Kellogg Brown & Root Limited), has notified Pieridae it is pulling out of the contract to build it. Pieridae says it is evaluating its legal options.
Hi-Crush Inc., a frac sand company headquartered in Houston, TX, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Hi-Crush provides frac sand/proppants to a number of shale plays across the country, including the Marcellus/Utica. In its filing, the company seeks to convert $450 million of its $699 million of debt into equity (shares of stock), diluting existing shares for existing stockholders. As is typical, existing shareholders get the short end of the stick.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Buffet to buy interest in Dominion Gas’ Cove Point; API Ohio welcomes new well plugging rules; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to appeal Dakota Access shutdown; NATIONAL: U.S. Henry Hub natural gas spot prices reached record lows in the first half of 2020; Analyst sees more shale bankruptcies ahead; Will the left kill America’s energy dominance?; INTERNATIONAL: After decades of wrong predictions, oil may finally be peaking; Extending production cuts would be ‘suicidal’ for OPEC; Is the world ready for more OPEC and Russian oil?