Electrical Generation | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Westmoreland County
EQT Invests in Fuel Cell Co. – Foresees Future Market for NatGas
A fuel cell manufacturer located in Westmoreland County, PA, WATT Fuel Cell, disclosed yesterday it has closed on its latest round of financing. The biggest investor? EQT Corporation. WATT has added EQT CEO Toby Rice to its board of directors. According to Caine Finnerty, WATT president and chief operating officer, “This round of investment enables WATT Fuel Cell to continue our advancement and commercialization of residential fuel cells, while funding additional innovation to develop larger fuel cell units for the industrial market.” So what is a fuel cell and why is EQT so pumped about them?
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The wild roller coaster continues of up, down, up, down, up, down. Last week the number of permits issued to drill new shale wells is down again–to 18 total. Pennsylvania had 16 new permits last week, nine for Repsol and three for Coterra Energy. All of Repsol and Coterra’s permits issued for Susquehanna County. West Virginia had two new permits, one each for Southwestern Energy and Antero Resources, in Marshall and Doddridge counties. Ohio? A big, fat, goose egg. No new shale permits issued last week in the Buckeye State.
EQT, the country’s largest natural gas producer, issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2021 update yesterday. We have loads of great information. In 4Q21 EQT made $1.8 billion in profit (net income), although the company ended up losing $1.2 billion for the year due to bad bets on hedging. The company produced 527 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent) of natural gas in 4Q21, versus producing 401 Bcfe in 4Q20–an increase of 31%, mainly due to extra production from buying Chevron’s and Alta Resources’ Appalachian assets over the past year. That works out to be an average daily production of 5.85 Bcf/d last quarter–the highest natgas production of any U.S.-based company.
Yesterday the New York State Common Retirement Fund announced it will “restrict investments” in a hit list of 21 naughty shale oil and gas producing companies. One of the companies on the naughty list is Chesapeake Energy Corp. New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, trustee of the Fund (far-left Democrat) who is the sole manager of the fund, said the companies on his naughty list “have failed to demonstrate they are prepared for the transition to a low-carbon economy.” However, another 21 shale companies are on DiNapoli’s nice list and he will continue to invest in those companies, including CNX Resources and EQT Corporation.
With the ever-changing landscape of mergers and acquisitions in the shale industry, including here in the Marcellus/Utica, it’s helpful to check in every now and again with a “top 10” list. This time our top 10 list is for the largest shale drillers/operators in Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Business Times recently updated its “Book of Lists” for active PA shale drillers, all 47 of them. We have a quick list of the top 10 below.
Holy smokes! What just happened? For months (and months and months) the cumulative number of weekly permits issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica has fluctuated from the low teens to perhaps 30 total on the upper end. Last week, from Jan. 17-23, an amazing 61 permits were issued to drill new shale wells. Double the usual. Wow! Pennsylvania issued 24 new permits, Ohio issued 9, and blow-the-doors-off-we’ve-never-seen-so-many-permits-issued-in-one-week for West Virginia, the Mountain State issued 28 new shale permits.
In May 2021 S&P Global Market Intelligence ran an article on which Marcellus/Utica drillers are likely targets to be acquired, and which drillers are doing the targeting (see 
EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the United States, announced last Friday that all of its natural gas produced in Washington and Greene counties in Pennsylvania (the majority of its production, some 4 Bcf/d) is now officially certified as “responsibly produced” gas by two different certification organizations: Equitable Origin and MiQ. That 4 Bcf/d of certified gas represents 4.5% of all natural gas produced in the U.S.
Everyone loves a “top x” list, right? We sure do. Hart Energy, publisher of must-have industry magazines including E&P (Exploration & Production), and Oil and Gas Investor, recently published a special publication called