Punxsutawney Phil Getting a New Neighbor – Shale Injection Well
In the future, when everyone’s favorite groundhog Punxsutawney Phil pokes his head out of his hole in February to tell us whether or not there are another six weeks of winter, he may be looking at shale wastewater trucks coming and going on their way to a new underground injection well just outside of town. Yesterday the federal EPA issued a permit to G2 STEM LLC based in Fairfax, Virginia, to build a Class IID oil and gas wastewater underground injection well in Young Township, Jefferson County, PA. You may know the area by its famous boro, Punxsutawney.
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EOG Resources CEO Lloyd “Billy” Helms spoke at the J.P. Morgan Energy, Power and Renewables Conference in New York City yesterday. Helms had some very interesting comments on his company’s strategy moving forward–a strategy of keeping drilling activity in the Permian about even (not expanding), but increasing drilling activity in other plays, including the Ohio Utica.
Gulfport Energy issued a press release yesterday to announce that several unnamed stockholders, referred to as “certain stockholders,” are offering to sell 1.3 million company shares for $95 per share–for a total value of $123.5 million. If the market supports it, there may be an option to buy an additional 195,000 shares (another $18.5 million). Gulfport said it doesn’t benefit from the sale, but the company plans to purchase $25 million of the shares on offer as a buyback.
Encino Energy, now Ohio’s biggest oil producer, has agreed to donate $100,000 over the next five years to the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy Foundation to help fund community projects in Tuscarawas, Harrison, Carroll, and Belmont counties. The donation was announced at a press conference on Tuesday at Tappan Lake Marina in Harrison County. The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) is an agency formed in 1933 to help control flooding and promote water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed area of Ohio, an area that covers 8,000 square miles. Over the years, MWCD has leased thousands of acres for Utica Shale drilling and cut deals to sell water to drillers for fracking. The result has been well over $100 million in revenue for MWCD–a true game-changer for the agency and the Ohio residents who live in that region.
Far-left environmentalist wackos have learned how to abuse the legal system in the U.S. in their attempts to block fossil energy. One of the places they excel in abusing the system is in Pennsylvania. When the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issues a new permit for a project the left opposes, they appeal the decision to a special court established in PA to hear appeals of DEP decisions, called the Environmental Hearing Board (EHB). The left tries to fool the EHB into ruling against a DEP decision by claiming there is “new information” that should be considered, information that has come to light since the original DEP decision. It’s a sleazy legal tactic. Senate Bill (SB) 198, introduced by PA Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R-Washington), closes that loophole in the legal process.
In 2017, Texas-based Newpark Resources bought out and merged in Well Service Group located in Robinson Township, near Pittsburgh, for $75 million (see 
In late December, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) voted to grant permission to New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) to build a pipeline regulator station in Holmdel, NJ. What does a regulator station do? It reduces pressure on the underground natural gas pipelines that already exist in the area, running underneath the ground in Holmdel Township and throughout Monmouth County. Ultimately, a regulator station will ensure the reliability of the pipelines and gas that flows in the area. The new station will replace a currently-operating temporary regulator station. Yet the “leaders” of Holmdel voted to appeal the BPU decision to court, allocating up to $20,000 of taxpayer money for legal fees in what is sure to be a fruitless attempt at overturning the BPU decision (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Cheniere and Equinor sign long-term LNG sale and purchase deal; The Permian Basin is out-producing Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar Field; NATIONAL: URTeC: Shale production? It’s complicated.; INTERNATIONAL: Energy in the age of pragmatism.