Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Rockdale | UGI Energy Services

Rockdale Marcellus Bankruptcy Hearing Erupts with Controversy
October 19, 2021October 19, 2021

In September MDN broke the news that Rockdale Marcellus had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (see NEPA Driller Rockdale Marcellus Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy). The company, which owns and operates 66 producing wells on 42,897 net acres in three northeast PA counties (regional headquarters in Pittsburgh) plans to auction off all of its assets according to paperwork filed with the court. Yesterday the company attended a scheduled hearing with the judge in the case. The hearing got testy and heated.
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues

NYMEX Price Slips Below $5 on Warm Weather Forecast
October 19, 2021October 19, 2021

The benchmark NYMEX natural gas futures price at the Henry Hub lost ground for the second day yesterday, slipping below $5/MMBtu for the first time in nearly a month. The NYMEX was down 69.80 cents or 12.27% over the last two trading sessions. Ouch. However, we shouldn’t be surprised. And we don’t expect it to stay down long. The main reason for the loss is the weather–as in the forecast says we can expect warmer weather will be with us, at least in the northeast, until early November.
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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Regulation

Spire Warns of NatGas Shortage Coming to St. Louis w/o Pipeline
October 19, 2021October 19, 2021

click for larger version

Yesterday we brought you the sad and disturbing news that the U.S. Supreme Court, in the singular person of RINO Chief Justice John Roberts, has refused to hear an appeal of a case that would keep the Spire STL natural gas pipeline in the St. Louis area (a pipeline that flows Marcellus/Utica gas) up and running (see U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Spire STL Pipe Request to Block Shutdown). Parent company Spire is issuing one last dire warning that shutting down the pipeline will lead to massive gas outages this winter in the St. Louis area.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Democrat Media Turns Up the Heat on WV Sen. Joe Manchin
October 19, 2021October 19, 2021

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin

Mainstream media, which is now controlled by the Democrat Party, is gunning for West Virginia Joe Manchin, who is a so-called moderate Democrat. Manchin, Chairman of the powerful Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is opposed to Joe Biden’s plan to gut fossil energy, contained in the $3.5 trillion so-called budget reconciliation bill. The Dems have tried to bribe Joe into voting for the bill (see Sen. Joe Manchin Remains the Only Barrier to Left’s Energy Oblivion). That didn’t work, so now they left is targeting Manchin with smear articles. One such article, in the Washington Examiner, accuses Manchin of lining his pockets with coal money. Another article, in the New York Times, says Manchin’s hometown is flooding because of climate change that Biden’s bill will magically fix and that Manchin is opposing. The heat is on…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

Vermont has Lots of Utica Natural Gas – Refuses to Tap It
October 19, 2021October 19, 2021

Vermont (credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s something we didn’t know, or if we did, we had long forgotten: The state of Vermont actually has a hefty layer of Utica Shale rock underneath it. Although there’s likely no (or very little) oil in that part of the Utica, according to State Geologist Laurence Becker, “natural gas likely exists in large quantities” in the Utica layer of Vermont. And yet there’s no way to access it because the state banned fracking back in 2012 (see Vermont Becomes First State to Ban Fracking).
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ESG | Industrywide Issues

Modern-Day Methane Indulgences for Sale to Shale Drillers
October 19, 2021October 19, 2021

S&P Global Platts and Xpansiv have joined forces to launch a new benchmark for methane performance in natural gas production in the United States. Methane Performance Certificates (MPCs) allow a U.S. shale producer to sell instruments representing zero methane emission natural gas production. Our immediate impression was to think of medieval-era indulgences sold to atone for sins.
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ESG | Industrywide Issues

It’s Time for ESG Investing to End and Drilling to Restart
October 19, 2021October 19, 2021

Emperor has no clothes (Credit: Ivo Kruusamägi, Wikipedia)

Finally! Someone else in the oil and gas space who has the courage to stand up and say the ESG emperor has no clothes. The someone else saying it is none other than David Blackmon, editor of Shale Magazine and co-host of “In The Oil Patch Radio.” In a column appearing on the Forbes website, Blackmon says it’s time for ESG “artificial constraints” on oil and gas drilling to come to an end. Amen to that.
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Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Oct 19, 2021
October 19, 2021October 19, 2021

NATIONAL: Annual U.S. coal-fired electricity generation will increase for the first time since 2014; INTERNATIONAL: Energy crisis chatter to accelerate; OPEC+ fails to meet production target; Russia decides not to increase natural gas shipments to Europe; China looks to lock in U.S. liquefied natural gas in energy crunch.
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