Seneca Shifts Focus to Drilling Utica Wells in Northcentral PA
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Buffalo, NY, is the parent company for Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources and the parent of midstream company Empire Pipeline. Yesterday, NFG issued its latest quarterly update. NFG operates on a weird fiscal year system. This latest update is for the company’s third quarter, which would be everybody else’s second quarter update. NFG said it plans to “further moderate” its Seneca drilling activity as it shifts to slower production growth in the “low single-digit” range.
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Williams, one of the largest pipeline companies in the world, issued its second quarter update yesterday. The company reported 2Q23 net income of $515 million, up 5% from 2Q22. The company had record high gathering volumes of 18.03 Bcf/d. The company provided updates for two important Marcellus/Utica projects. (1) Williams continues constructing the Regional Energy Access (REA) project with partial in-service expected in 4Q23. REA beefs up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland. (2) Williams received a FERC certificate for its Southside Reliability Enhancement Project, a project to beef up capacity along the Transco to flow an extra 423 MMcf/d of M-U gas to Piedmont Natural Gas and its customers in eastern North Carolina. But a third M-U project was mentioned not previously on our radar screen.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a post noting the increase in the use of energy in the U.S. from 2020 to 2021. Energy usage increased by 25%, adjusted for inflation, in 2021. Why? In 2020 we were deep in the throes of lockdowns due to COVID. Nobody was going anywhere, pretty much, which significantly decreased the use of gasoline and diesel. Once the country emerged from the COVID pandemic, and people began to move around again, energy usage (petroleum products) soared.
When a government bureaucrat says, “We’re not coming for your gas stove,” you know what that means, right? It means just the opposite. It means they ARE coming for your gas stove. On July 26, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) voted in an “open” meeting to adopt new regulations to “decarbonize” buildings across the state. New Jersey’s tyrannical Governor, Phil Murphy, signed an executive order (edict) in February that sets a goal for zero-carbon-emission space heating and cooling systems in 400,000 homes and 20,000 commercial properties by 2030. The only way to do it is to force people to quit using gas stoves and gas furnaces. Yet the BPU said, following its vote, it is “not coming to take your gas stove.” LIARS.
New shale permits issued for Jul 24-30 in the Marcellus/Utica were down just a couple, but still a nice number. There were 29 new permits issued last week, down from the 31 issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 22 new permits in Pennsylvania, 7 new permits in Ohio, and no new permits in West Virginia. The top permittee for the week was EQT Corporation, receiving a whopping 16 permits in Greene County, PA.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Eric Taylor joins OhioSE team as project manager, shale specialist; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tailfin lands Georgia Natural Gas contract; Biden admin quietly settles with eco groups to restrict oil drilling in Gulf; NATIONAL: Gas cooking appliances remain at risk despite new DOE data; US LNG exports rise in July as maintenance works completed; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises as Saudis extend production cuts.