Biden Admin Files Supreme Court Brief Supporting PennEast Pipe
In early February MDN told you that it was likely the Biden administration, although anti-drilling and anti-pipeline, would have no choice but to support an active case before the U.S. Supreme Court dealing with eminent domain for the PennEast Pipeline project (see Biden Justice Dept. Likely to Support PennEast in Supreme Crt Case). Indeed we were right. Yesterday Biden’s Acting Solicitor General filed a brief in the case supporting PennEast’s right to use FERC federally-conferred eminent domain to run the pipe across property owned and/or controlled by the State of New Jersey.
Read More “Biden Admin Files Supreme Court Brief Supporting PennEast Pipe”
As sure as the seasons change and our long winter is finally turning into spring with the first crocuses popping up through the soil, you can count on another sign of spring: a forced pooling bill will pop up in the 60-day West Virginia legislative session. And so it has. The WV legislature is currently considering two bills, Senate Bill (SB) 538 and House Bill (HB) 2853, called “unitization bills” which is just another word for forced pooling. This time West Virginia University is providing support for forced pooling in the form of a new study claiming forced pooling will “jump-start” a new era of natural gas development.
West Virginia House Bill (HB) 2581 is rapidly advancing through various committees. The bill changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes. It also creates a new appeals process for all property taxes in WV. Provisions in the bill allow expenses from “lifting, processing, transportation and other industry activities” to be subtracted from a well’s income. Question: Do these new post-production deductions also apply to royalties?
In early February, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc., a company that invests in non-operated oil and gas assets (they let others do the drilling), announced it had purchased 64,000 net acres producing ~120 MMcfe/d (million cubic feet equivalent per day) in the Marcellus/Utica from Reliance Industries Limited (see 
In early February MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of doing a remote video interview with George Stark, Director of External Affairs for Cabot Oil & Gas. Jim has known George (via various industry events) for perhaps the last 10 years. Cabot is the sponsor of a series of in-person and online events called Think About Energy (TAE). George is conducting a series of interviews about good sources of information for the oil and gas industry and he wanted to highlight MDN. Thanks George! In the interview (watch it below), Jim talks about how MDN got started and some of the key issues facing the M-U today. Enjoy!
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 9 new permits, with 5 of those permits going to Cabot Oil & Gas and their drilling program in Susquehanna County. Ohio received 4 new permits, all for the same company (Encino Energy) in the same county (Harrison) on the same well pad. And West Virginia received 3 new permits, all for the same company (Northeast Natural Energy) in the same county (Monongalia) on the same well pad.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: AOC, other NYC Dems call on Cuomo to pull plug on ‘toxic’ gas-fired power plant in Astoria; Ample supply, outflow constraint kept lid on Northeast gas prices in February; NATIONAL: U.S. crude oil production fell by 8% in 2020, the largest annual decrease on record; No roaring USA shale industry to respond to OPEC+; Biden admin launches oil and gas leasing study; America’s energy policy should be “all of the above” not “everything but”; The Biden administration should build, not backtrack, on energy progress; INTERNATIONAL: ‘Drill, baby, drill is gone forever’: Saudis bet against U.S. shale.