Radicals Continue to Oppose Mountain Valley, Atlantic Coast Pipes
Pipelines are the safest form of transportation on the planet–bar none. Everyone knows it. But anti-fossil fuel radicals attempt to lie about the safety of pipelines in an attempt to get projects canceled–a tactic in their war on fossil fuels. They know as well as anyone that pipelines are perfectly safe, so they lie about safety to try and stop projects. Like the $3.5 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline and the $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline–both critically important projects in the Marcellus/Utica. Note their language in opposing such projects. The aim is not to re-route the projects, but to kill them altogether. There is no reasoning with un-reasonable people like those who are members of the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance, a small group of anti-fossil fuel radicals…
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EQT issued its third quarter 2016 update yesterday. The company reports losing money on its drilling operations ($22 million), but making money on midstream operations ($133 million), so they ended the quarter in the black. Highlights include production zooming up 26% higher over the same period last year. EQT drilled 24 wells in 3Q16, which breaks down as 21 Marcellus wells, 2 Upper Devonian wells and 1 Utica well. However, the biggest news coming from yesterday’s update came from the analyst phone call when EQT president Steve Schlotterbeck said, “We continue to make solid progress on both the cost and recovery efforts and we’re encouraged that the Deep Utica can compete with or surpass our core Marcellus economics in the near future.” That is, although they just got done drilling a bunch of Marcellus wells, it is the Utica that has turned EQT’s head in a major way. Why? Schlotterbeck also said he thinks Utica drilling will end up costing the company half as much as Marcellus drilling (due to higher production in Utica wells). The company sees itself as primarily a Utica driller in the not-too-distant future. Here’s the update, along with a select portion of yesterday’s analyst phone call…
Yesterday MDN reported that EQT is buying another 60,000 Marcellus/Utica acres (along with buying out Trans Energy) in transactions totally $683 million (see 
We can’t say enough good things about Rusty Braziel and 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given a preliminary thumbs up to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last October, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners (see 
Two Democrat-run anti-fossil fuel organizations–the Southern Environmental Law Center and Appalachian Mountain Advocates–pooled their donated money together and went out to find a consulting firm with the veneer of respectability that could be bought off to produce a faux “report” slamming two much-needed pipelines. They found an easy mark in Synapse Energy Economics, headquartered in ultra-liberal Massachusetts. The “report” Synapse produced says neither Dominion’s $5 billion, 594-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (a natural gas pipeline that will stretch from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina), nor EQT’s $3.5 billion, 301-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA) are needed. The sham report, titled “Are the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline Necessary?” (full copy below) is getting picked up by lazy (or propagandist) mainstream news organizations and reported as real news. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s a joke…
One of the lowest cost producers that gets some of the highest prices for its natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica is Rice Energy. The difference between what it costs Rice to produce gas ($0.90/thousand cubic feet, or Mcf) verses what they sell it for (an average $3.12/Mcf) means Rice makes a whopping 247% internal rate of return, or IRR–which is THE most profitable driller among 10 of the largest Marcellus/Utica drillers surveyed (see today’s companion post on Hedging Gas Prices in the Marcellus/Utica). The Rice boys’ stellar performance has not gone unnoticed by analysts at investment and research firms. In fact, one such analyst, from Wolfe Research, says Rice “could be” a target for takeover/buyout by a larger competitor. Which competitor? Let’s name names…
In January, three liberal Democrat county commissioners from Fayette County, WV, with the backing and help of the radical WV Mountain Party, voted to ban injection wells in the county (see 
Kudos to EQT for being a good corporate citizen. EQT, through its charitable subsidiary the EQT Foundation, doled out $1.3 million to 43 non-profit organizations located in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky during the first half of 2016. During one of the worst downturns in the oil and gas industry in a generation. The Foundation, established in 2003, has donated a cumulative $37 million since it was founded. Astonishing! Here is a partial list of the very-worthy organizations receiving money in 1H16…