A few months ago CNX Resources bought out and merged in the remaining amount of CNX Midstream the company didn’t already own (see CNX Resources Buying/Merging in Rest of CNX Midstream for $357M). CNX isn’t waiting until the next quarterly investor conference call to tout the synergies of that move.
Read More “CNX Releases New YouTube Video, Slide Deck “Post Merger””
A group of anti-fossil nutters who devoted themselves to blocking Marcellus/Utica drilling around the Ambridge Reservoir have turned their attention to the Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County. They wanted to stop the cracker from getting built, but given the plant is now 70% built and it’s a 100% guarantee it will get done and go online, the nutters have turned their attention to aggressive monitoring of the plant and the pollution, they say, that will come from it.
Read More “Antis Organize “Nurdle Patrols” to Police Shell Cracker”
Olympus Energy, the renamed Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration (HHEX) has a new CEO. The new guy is Tim Dugan, who joined Olympus in January as the company’s COO (see Former CNX COO Tim Dugan Becomes Olympus Energy COO). Tim is replacing Chris Doyle who is staying on the board but leaving the area to become CEO of Primexx Energy Partners, a Dallas-based oil driller.
Read More “Olympus Energy (née Huntley & Huntley Energy Expl.) Gets a New CEO”
An unusual situation for permits to drill new wells for last week. Pennsylvania only had 5 new permits while West Virginia had 12 new permits. It’s typically the other way around. Could this be the beginning of the effects from PA raising the permit fee from $5,000 to $12,500 per well? Maybe! Ohio had no new Utica permits issued last week. Drilling seems to have slowed in the Buckeye State.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Sep 21-25”
Northeastern Pennsylvania landowners who are leased either with Equinor (formerly called Statoil) or Chesapeake Energy met last night in an open-air pavilion at the Wyoming County, PA Fairgrounds. They were there to discuss a lawsuit against Equinor for shorting landowners on royalties, and to discuss Chesapeake Energy’s bankruptcy.
Read More “NEPA Landowners Meet to Discuss Equinor Lawsuit, Chesapeake Ch. 11”
Unrepentant. That’s the best single word we can think of describing the attitude of “leaders” in Grant Township (Indiana County, PA) who illegally passed their own set of environmental laws, violating the PA state constitution, in a bid to prevent a safe saltwater injection well from being built in a rural location in the town. Grant continues to use radicalized lawyers in their lawbreaking bid to prevent the well.
Read More “Grant Twp, PA Files to Dismiss Lawsuit re Injection Well Ban”
Earlier this week we brought you a post exploring whether or not PTT Global Chemical will, in the end, actually build a $10 billion ethane cracker plant in Belmont County, Ohio (see Is PTT Going to Build a Cracker in Belmont County, OH…or Not?). Yesterday gave us one more strong signal for the “yes they will build it” column.
Read More “Range Signs Deal to be Main Ethane Supplier for PTT Ohio Cracker”
Last week Ohio finally broke the drought of not issuing permits for new shale wells in the Buckeye State. Finally! Last week Pennsylvania issued 13 new permits for wells on three well pads. Ohio issued 4 new permits for wells on two well pads. And West Virginia issued 1 new permit.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Sep 14-18”
Once again big money is being funneled to Big Green groups by secretive sources to finance a lawsuit attacking American infrastructure. The latest attack by Big Green, including a PA-based “environmental” group, seeks to overturn a recently-updated rule by the U.S. EPA governing air emissions from ethane cracker facilities.
Read More “Big Green Lawsuit Targets Cracker Plants, Incl. Shell PA Cracker”
Last year MDN shared with you the rumor that Exxon Mobil was sniffing around Pennsylvania, investigating the prospect of building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker like the Shell cracker being built near Pittsburgh. Those rumors went on for a while and even included evaluation of the Philadelphia area, not just Pittsburgh. Last week Exxon said unequivocally they have no active plans for such a facility in the Keystone State. Bummer.
Read More “Potential Exxon Interest in Building M-U Cracker Plant Goes Cold”
Yesterday the U.S. Dept. of Energy hosted a virtual 2020 Natural Gas Summit in Washington, D.C. DOE Secretary Dan Brouillette and Director of the White House National Economic Council Larry Kudlow were the two hosts and speaker/moderators. However, at least two prominent Marcellus/Utica driller CEOs participated, including Richard Weber from PennEnergy Resources and Jeff Ventura from Range Resources. Their message? We need more pipelines!
Read More “M-U Drillers Prominently Featured at DOE Virtual NatGas Summit”
Last December Chevron announced it was writing down over $10 billion worth of its U.S. onshore shale assets, with $6.5 billion of that number coming from its Marcellus/Utica assets. Also in December, the company posted for sale ALL of their M-U assets (see Chevron Confirms M-U Assets for Sale, Asks Vendors to Avoid Media). In February Chevron hired investment bank Barclays to help shop their M-U assets with the bids due in August (see Bids for Chevron’s 550K M-U Acres & 500 Wells Due in Mid-August). “Sources” talking to Reuters have let it leak that EQT has offered $750 million for Chevron’s $6.5 billion worth of assets.
Read More “Sources: EQT Offering $750M for Chevron’s Marcellus/Utica Assets”
What started out as a spat between two companies that used to be one and the same, EQT and Equitrans, has quickly turned into open warfare that’s heading for court. We’re talking about the flap over whether or not EQT has the right to buy out Equitrans’ Hammerhead pipeline, and turn around and sell it, as EQT is now trying to do (see EQT & Equitrans Spat Over Hammerhead Pipeline Goes Public).
Read More “It’s War: EQT Claims it Can Buy Hammerhead Pipe Due to MVP Delay”
For the third week in a row, both Pennsylvania and West Virginia issued permits to drill new shale wells last week, and Ohio did not. What’s up with Ohio? PA issued 13 new permits for wells on five well pads. WV issued 2 new permits on two different pads. PA’s new permits skewed toward the southwestern part of the state with 11 of the 13 permits issued (two in Bradford County in the northeast). The WV permits were both issued in Marshall County, located in the northern panhandle of the state.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Sep 7-11”
There’s trouble brewing in EQT-land. Once upon a time, EQT was both a producer (drilling) and midstream (pipeline) company. But then so-called activist investors forced the company (after its merger with Rice Energy) to split in two–drilling and pipelines. The split happened in November 2018 (see It’s Here! EQT Midstream Division Now Split into Standalone Co.). The new pipeline company was eventually renamed Equitrans Midstream. The two companies, EQT and Equitrans, have maintained a close relationship with Equitrans doing the lion’s share of gathering EQT’s production and getting it to market. But now the two sides are squabbling over an Equitrans project called Hammerhead, and that disagreement has gone public with Equitrans issuing a pointed warning via press release.
Read More “EQT & Equitrans Spat Over Hammerhead Pipeline Goes Public”
Encino Acquisition Partners (aka Encino Energy) bought all of Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio assets for $2 billion in 2018 (see Stop Press: Chesapeake Sells ALL of its Ohio Utica Assets for $2B). The deal included all of Chessy’s 933,000 Ohio acres (with 320,000 net Utica acres) and 920 operated and non-operated Ohio Utica wells. Since that time Encino has become one of the state’s top producers (see Encino Tops IP Charts with Ohio Utica Wells in 2019). Encino has just joined an organization called Our Nation’s Energy Future (ONE Future), a group dedicated to reducing methane emissions from their operations.
Read More “Encino Energy Joins ONE Future Low Methane Emissions Group”