Debrosse Memorial Report: Steep Decline in 2020 Ohio O&G Production
In June the Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA) held its 74th Annual Winter Meeting in Columbus. Yeah, you read that right. The Winter Meeting was moved to June this year due to COVID. As with previous annual OOGA meetings, one of the speakers was Martin Shumway, technical director at Locus Bio-Energy Solutions. Shumway shared details from the latest DeBrosse Memorial Report (full copy below). What does the report show for 2020? Ohio oil and natural gas production both experienced steep declines last year. Oil production was down 16% from 2019, and natural gas production was down 10% from 2019. Even though the production news for 2020 is negative, this report is jam-packed with terrific, very useful information about Ohio’s shale industry.
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In June MDN brought you the news that Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) pipeline is being flow-restricted by the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA). Some 40% of the Marcellus/Utica molecules that flow through TETCO’s pipeline to destinations in the southeastern U.S. have disappeared and were predicted to stay that way until the end of September (see 
Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) had laid 31 miles of pipeline and had cut trees for 222 miles along the 600-mile route before Dominion Energy, the builder, decided last summer it no longer wanted to be in the interstate pipeline business, canceling ACP (see 
Yesterday PA Gov. Tom Wolf grabbed some headlines by having his Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announce they will “soon” begin to require *all* landfills in the state to test leachate (water with nasty stuff in it that comes from landfills) for radioactivity. The Wolf DEP press release takes great pains to point out the new testing includes landfills “that accept unconventional oil and gas waste.” Which is the purpose of the announcement. To plant the seed that maybe, just maybe, drill cuttings are causing folks to glow in the dark. Radiation poisoning. Yet buried in the press release is this statement about a previous study of leachate from PA landfills with and without drill cuttings…
Increasingly ours is a world run by computers. Even in-the-ground pipelines are monitored and controlled by computers. The ransomware attack earlier this year against Colonial Pipeline, a pipeline that flows a significant amount of refined products (gasoline and diesel fuel) from the Gulf Coast where it’s refined as far north as New Jersey, was a wake-up call for all pipelines. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) heard the call and responded. In May the TSA issued an initial “security directive” requiring pipelines, including natural gas pipelines, to do certain things to protect themselves and the public they serve. Last week TSA issued a second such pipeline directive.
When drillers for natural gas sink a hole and methane (CH4) begins to come out of the ground, a number of other hydrocarbons come out of the ground along with it–at least in “wet gas” areas. Those other hydrocarbons include ethane (C2H6). Ethane production in some M-U wells goes as high as 6% or more of the hydrocarbons coming out. For years ethane has been a waste product, something drillers pay to dispose of–typically by “rejecting” it and slipping it into the methane stream. Increasingly ethane, which is now trading at its highest price in two-and-a-half years, has become a profit center. Why? Because it’s used to make plastics.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Haynesville production surge looms as drilling, well completions accelerate; NATIONAL: In 2020, the United States produced the least CO2 emissions from energy in nearly 40 years; Biden’s oil, gas leasing plan likely waiting for Senate vote on BLM director; Surging North American natural gas prices look to test major producers’ discipline; Deb Haaland’s oil and gas stall; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices decline as delta variant spreads; With Quebec rejecting a $14B LNG project, is the industry at a dead end in Canada?