Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | PennEast Pipeline | Pipelines

BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court to Decide PennEast Pipeline Case
February 3, 2021February 3, 2021

HUGE news! This morning the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear the PennEast Pipeline case. The case appeals a lower court ruling that disallows PennEast from using eminent domain to build across land owned or controlled by the State of New Jersey. The court’s acceptance of the case is an excellent sign PennEast will win the case–which is important not only for PennEast but all future pipeline projects in “blue” states.
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Diversified Energy | Energy Companies | Kanawha County | West Virginia

Diversified Opens New NatGas Control Center in Charleston, WV
February 3, 2021February 3, 2021

Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) owns close to 8 million acres of leases with some 60,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. Their focus has been to acquire quality production and cash flow–regardless of the well or commodity type (gas or oil)–in the Appalachian Basin. DGO currently owns over 400 Marcellus/Utica shale wells in their portfolio too. The company announced yesterday it has just opened a new “state-of-the-art” natural gas control center in Charleston, WV. Initially, the new center will monitor the Cranberry Pipeline network.
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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Chesapeake Refocuses on NatGas, Offers $1B in Post-Bankruptcy IOUs
February 3, 2021February 3, 2021

Chesapeake Energy will emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy next week having dumped $7 billion of old debt (out of $8.9 billion) and taking on $2.5 billion in new debt financing (see Court Approves Chesapeake Bankruptcy Plan to Dump $7B of Debt). Yesterday the company issued an announcement to say it is raising $1 billion of new debt by floating two new rounds of notes (which we call IOUs). The company will also refocus away from oil drilling and back on its original mission of natural gas drilling.
Read More “Chesapeake Refocuses on NatGas, Offers $1B in Post-Bankruptcy IOUs”
Fayette County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Supply Chain | Wastewater

Zenith Energy Buys Guttman Energy Terminals in PA, OH, WV
February 3, 2021February 3, 2021

Zenith Energy, based in Houston, TX and Metuchen, NJ, announced yesterday it has purchased the bulk terminal storage operations of Guttman Energy in three locations: Aurora, Ohio, Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, and Star City, West Virginia. Zenith says the reason for buying the terminals is to support customers in the Marcellus/Utica. What, exactly, is Zenith selling to M-U customers?
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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Ohio

Monroe County, OH Developing Ohio River Site to Help Utica Shale
February 3, 2021February 3, 2021

Clarington, OH

The Monroe County, OH Port Authority has scored close to $3 million in grants and loans to fund a development project located at a former CONSOL Energy coal mining site south of Clarington, OH. The money will be used to build an access road and repair eight of 12 existing barge cells on the Ohio River. The end game is to “lease the property to companies that provide support services to the shale gas industry.”
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Electrical Generation | Energy Services | FirstEnergy | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Statewide OH

Ohio AG Succeeds in Blocking $2B in Nuke Payments to FirstEnergy
February 3, 2021February 3, 2021

Ohio AG Dave Yost

We continue to peel back the layers of the rotten, smelly, stinky onion that is Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 6, a law granting billions (plural) to FirstEnergy in an attempt to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy is accused of bribing legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $60 million (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). It is the biggest bribery scandal in Ohio history. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has been hammering FirstEnergy with lawsuits since the bribery scandal was first revealed. It looks like Yost (and consequently Ohio residents AND the Ohio Utica Shale industry) has won.
Read More “Ohio AG Succeeds in Blocking $2B in Nuke Payments to FirstEnergy”
Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Feb 3, 2021
February 3, 2021February 3, 2021

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Epsilon Energy Ltd. announces changes to the board of directors; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: TVA proposes to build new gas plants at shuttered coal sites; NATIONAL: ExxonMobil caps year from hell with $22 billion loss, as activists demand big change; Biden’s Keystone XL order hurts America’s ability to do the big things; Global energy & infrastructure leader K.W. Miller slams Biden agenda to destroy U.S. energy and industrial output.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Feb 3, 2021”