DRBC Adopts Meaningless Prohibition on Shale Wastewater Disposal
The leftists of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) voted yesterday to approve a final rule prohibiting the discharge of wastewater from high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) to water or land in the Delaware River Basin. The final rule also “clarifies” the circumstances in which water, including wastewater, may be exported from or imported into the Basin. The bottom line from yesterday’s action is that nothing has materially changed. Fracking is currently banned in the Basin under a previous action by the Commission. And nobody discharges frack wastewater on the ground or in streams and rivers anywhere, including in the Delaware River Basin. So what did the vote accomplish for the rabid left? Just more virtue signaling.
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Well, that didn’t take long! Yesterday MDN told you that the Attorney Generals from 13 states had recently filed a protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) seeking to block Vanguard, a MAJOR investor (with $7.2 trillion of assets under management), from buying stocks in electric utility companies. Why? Because Vanguard is (among other things) a member of the radicalized Net Zero Asset Managers group–a group whose mission is to force companies to abandon the use of fossil energy. And just like that, Vanguard quit its membership in the Net Zero nutters group. It seems Vanguard values profits over pretentious virtue signaling, after all.
Gas-focused drillers in the U.S. tracked by RBN Energy (most of them with major operations in the Marcellus/Utica region) had a stellar third quarter financially. The group of 11 publicly-traded drillers that RBN tracks tripled their earnings on average, and cash flows were up 150% over the same quarter last year. EQT Corp., now helmed by Toby Rice, was the most profitable company on the list, earning $2.6 billion in Q3 while generating $3.1 billion in cash flow. What about the others?
Once a month, the analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months or so. We sometimes poke some good-natured fun at the EIA because one month their predictions go up, the next month down, etc. What about the latest STEO, published on Tuesday? EIA predicts average natural gas production will be just above 100 Bcf/d in 2023 (after predicting last month it would average below 100 Bcf/d). As for the commodity price of gas, EIA says the Henry Hub spot price will average right around $6/MMBtu in 1Q23.
From time to time, we bring you news about hydrogen (H2) because, for many, H2 is the next “big thing” in energy. Many on the left are dazzled by H2 energy, although some of the more extreme elements of the left oppose H2 energy because most H2 is produced by cracking methane (see 
Perhaps like us, you didn’t pay much attention to the Georgia Senate runoff race. Since the Democrats already have cackling Kamala if they need her, the Dems control the Senate by default 50-50 (Kamala used to break ties). So whether Raphael Warnock (the leftist kook Democrat) won, which he did, or Herschel Walker (former football star and Republican) won, it didn’t really matter, right? Wrong. Just that one extra vote, 51-49, has given much more power to the Democrat anti-fossil fuelers that run the Senate (i.e. Chuck Schumer), than we could have imagined. For example: Warnock’s win all but ensures Dick Glick will get reappointed to FERC early next year–a profoundly sad outcome.
Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology services and consulting. Earlier this morning, Accenture published a report titled, “The Reinvention Reset — From Bold Plans to Pragmatic Actions” (full copy below). The report is based on Accenture’s own industry research and a global survey of more than 200 oil and gas executives that focuses on the efforts of O&G companies to “reinvent” themselves. Accenture is a Fortune Global 500 company with revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022 and a workforce of 721,000 people, so you should pay attention to what they say about the O&G space.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: The false assumptions behind climate regulations in Pennsylvania; NATIONAL: Report says to expect a return of $100 oil in 2023; Chevron lifts 2023 capital spending amid Biden pressure; Biden seeks fossil fuel-free federal buildings in hit to gas; INTERNATIONAL: German utility signs 25-year deal to import gas via new terminal.