Southwestern in Advanced Talks to Buy 2nd Haynesville Driller for $1.7B
In early June Southwestern Energy Company announced it would no longer be a pureplay Marcellus/Utica driller. Southwestern said it was buying Indigo Natural Resources, which drills for natural gas in the Louisana Haynesville Shale (see Southwestern No Longer M-U Pure-Play, Buys Haynesville Driller $2.7B). The deal was consummated in September. The rumor mill is heating up again–this time that Southwestern is in advanced stages of talks to purchase a second Haynesville driller, GeoSouthern.
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A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT, in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT finally struck out legally at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in May 2020 (see 
Last week America’s Rural Energy Coalition (AREC), a national organization created by rural community stakeholders and industry representatives from across the country to build sustainable rural communities by maximizing the opportunities and minimizing the challenges presented to them as a result of the development of their regional energy resources, held a regional meeting in Bradford County, PA. While AREC advocates for safe development of all forms of energy in rural America, front and center at last week’s meeting was the mighty Marcellus Shale and the critical role of oil and natural gas in the lives of every citizen on planet earth (and to the people of PA).
For years Chesapeake Energy has been the stepchild of the oil and gas investment world. Former CEO Aubrey McClendon, who founded Chesapeake as a natural gas-focused driller, larded the company up with debt–there’s no denying that. But then McClendon’s successor, Doug Lawler, compounded the problem (made it fatal) by attempting to convert the company into an oil company by purchasing an oil driller in the Eagle Ford for $4 billion in 2018 (see 
In April 2019, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to review Section 401 of the Clean Water Act–the section that grants states (and tribes) the right to have a say in pipeline projects (see 
Although Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick is a nutty leftist, he’s not stupid. Glick can see that within a month or two there will be widespread shortages of natural gas available to feed gas-fired power plants, particularly in places like New England. Glick has voted against every single interstate pipeline project to come before him over the last three years he’s been a commissioner, claiming the pipes would contribute to mythical global warming. Now his actions are beginning to bite him on the rump with coming shortages. So what does he do? He blames LNG exports and tells power plants they better grab all the gas contracts they can now, so they can keep operating this winter.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Washington, hands off our natural gas; Sen. Manchin is right to support natural gas efforts; Celebration held for group protesting pipeline; NATIONAL: WTI completes ninth consecutive weekly gain; U.S. stockpiles in Cushing reaching historically worrying levels; The U.S. is turning green. What will this climate plan cost and who will pay?; Rising U.S. natural gas prices aren’t just a supply issue but a policy one; U.S. consumers likely to pay more for propane heating during the upcoming winter; Wall Street projects a “higher for longer” era for oil prices; Europe’s energy nightmare doesn’t have to be duplicated here; The U.S. oil supply is still out of balance.