Marcellus Drilling News

Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

FERC Grants MVP Request to Double Transportation Rates
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project will be completed and go online sometime in the first quarter of 2024 (see Equitrans Admits the Obvious – MVP Won’t be Online Until 2024). In September of this year, MVP filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to amend its original certificate (that established the rates it could charge) to increase the rates it charges for new customers (not existing/already contracted customers). Earlier this week, FERC granted MVP’s request to raise rates.
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Ascent Resources | Belmont County | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Gulfport Energy | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio | XTO

Court Orders Ohio Drillers to Produce Documents in Royalty Dispute
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

Back in the summer of 2020, MDN told you about a lawsuit brought by an Ohio rights owner called TERA, an organization that appears to own the royalty rights for a number of leases with wells in Belmont County, OH, drilled by different producers, suing the producers for drilling into the Point Pleasant shale layer when the lease only mentions the Utica layer (see OH Landowners Sue Rice, Ascent, XTO, Gulfport for Drilling Too Deep). That lawsuit continues to grind on. Last week, a judge ruled the drillers being sued must produce certain documents sought by the plaintiff (rights owner).
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Geothermal | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Project InnerSpace Conducting PA Geothermal Study Aimed at O&G
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

In September, MDN told you about a non-profit organization called Project InnerSpace, which has been reaching out to public officials, academics, and oil and gas interests in Pennsylvania, pitching a transition from fossil fuel extraction to geothermal energy using the same workers and potentially, the same infrastructure (see Siren Song of Geothermal Calls to PA Conventional & Shale Drillers). In January, Project InnerSpace published a “first-of-its-kind, landmark study” titled “The Future of Geothermal in Texas.” The organization has now turned its sights on two more O&G states: Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Project Innerspace announced yesterday it will research and publish reports for PA & OK in the summer of 2024.
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Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

FERC Republican Commissioner James Danly Stepping Down Dec. 31st
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

And then there were three…Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioners, that is. Currently, there are two Democrats and two Republican commissioners. Lately, the “Acting” Chairman of FERC, Willie Phillips (a Democrat), has voted more with the two Republicans than with Big Green sock puppet Democrat Allison Clements (a former attorney for the far-left National Resources Defense Council). However, it was good to have the option to block something (via deadlock) with two Republican votes if necessary. That opportunity will now be gone with the departure of Republican FERC Commissioner James Danly at the end of this year.
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CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Charif Souki Exits Tellurian & Driftwood LNG with $8 Million Payout
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

Last week, Charif Souki, an Egyptian-born but naturalized U.S. citizen, was booted from the company he co-founded, Tellurian (see Tellurian Fires Charif Souki – Out as Chairman & Executive Officer). The board fired Souki but let him keep a board seat. Souki is now gone from the board, too. He worked out a deal to leave the company with a severance package worth roughly $8 million.
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Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Research

Morningstar Natural Gas Price Outlook 2024: Recovery Coming
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

DBRS Morningstar is a leading provider of independent rating services and opinions for corporate and sovereign entities, financial institutions, and structured finance instruments globally. Rating more than 4,000 issuers and 60,000 securities, DBRS Morningstar is the fourth-largest credit rating agency in the world and a market leader in Canada, the U.S. and Europe in multiple asset classes. The agency published a commentary on Monday that will be of interest to the MDN audience: “North American Natural Gas Market Outlook: Price Pressures Through Early 2024 Followed by a Recovery” (full copy below).
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Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Dec 21, 2023
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Court rules Oregon’s landmark climate change regs invalid; NATIONAL: Rockefellers still heavily invested in oil companies; How gas pipeline rates are really set and why you should care; INTERNATIONAL: ING plans to phase out of oil and gas financing after COP28; Oil edges up as rising US stockpiles dim Red Sea chaos.
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