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”
Last Friday a federal judge in Pennsylvania rejected arguments from three Tioga County, PA landowners who claimed Marcellus driller Repsol did not have a right to install a gathering pipeline across their property. The landowners leased their property for oil and gas development and their property now flows gas, for which they’re paid royalties. Even so, the landowners claim Repsol does not have the right to build a pipeline because it flows gas from other properties not part of their unit. Like all lawsuits, this one is complicated, but instructive for landowners (and drillers) when it comes to pipelines and leases.
Read More “Tioga County, PA Leased Landowners Lose Case to Block Gathering Pipe”
In mid-May the nation’s largest natural gas producer, EQT Corporation, temporarily shut-in (curtailed) roughly one-third of its natural gas production in Pennsylvania and Ohio (see EQT Shuts in 33% of NatGas Production in Pennsylvania, Ohio). The company curtailed 1.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas production and kept it offline until the end of June. Beginning in July EQT restored their curtailed production (see EQT Brings Curtailed Production Back Online, M-U Flows Back Up). As of Sept. 1, the company has turned off some of the valves once again.
Read More “EQT Shuts-In Production Again, Turned Off 1/2 Bcf/d as of Sept. 1”
Pin Oak Midstream, a subsidiary of Pin Oak Energy Partners, a relatively young Marcellus/Utica driller based in Akron, OH, has purchased most of the pipeline assets of Laurel Mountain Midstream for an undisclosed amount. The assets include 1,050 miles of natural gas-gathering pipelines and five compressor stations located in three Pennsylvania counties.
Read More “Pin Oak Buys Laurel Mountain Pipe System from Williams/Chevron”
S&P Global Market Intelligence has done some forensic analysis of permits issued to drill new shale wells in Pennsylvania during August 2020. They compared last month’s permit numbers with the numbers from a year ago and found that PA issued 77 new permits last month, down 24% from August 2019.
Read More “PA Shale Drilling Permits Down 24% in August, but EQT Roars Back”
In 2010 gigantic Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp. bought a 30% stake (joint venture) in Rex Energy’s Marcellus drilling operation in Bulter County, PA for $150.7 million. Sumitomo wrote down much of the value for that purchase in 2015. In 2018 Rex went bankrupt and now PennEnergy Resources owns and operates the Butler assets (see Rex Energy Sells Itself to PennEnergy Resources for $600M). PennEnergy is getting a new JV partner. Yesterday Sumitomo announced the sale of their 30% share of the action.
Read More “Sumitomo Corp Sells JV Stake in Butler County, PA Marcellus”
Aubrey McClendon, then-CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was the first major shale driller to recognize the promise of the Utica Shale play in Ohio (see Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Talks to Jim Cramer About the Utica Shale in Eastern Ohio). He once famously said the Utica is “the biggest thing to hit Ohio since the plow.” While McClendon rightly deserves credit for launching the development of the Utica, he guessed wrong on the best places to drill in the Utica.
Read More “Glimmer of Hope for Utica Drilling in Northeastern Ohio”
Back in 2012 Gulfport Energy drilled a pair of exceptional Utica wells in Belmont County, Ohio–both on the same pad. The first was the Shugert 1-1H which had an initial production (IP) rate of 20 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (Mmcf/d). It also produced an initial 144 barrels of condensate per day, and 2,002 barrels of natural gas liquids per day (see New ‘King’ of Utica Wells? Gulfport Shugert Well @ 20 Mmcf/d). The second was the Shugert 1-12H well, with an IP rate of 28.5 MMcf/d (see Gulfport’s New Utica Well Produces Mind-blowing 28.5 Mmcf/d!). Somewhere along the way, the Shugert family claimed Gulfport was making post-production royalty deductions it should not have taken.
Read More “Gulfport, OH Landowner Settle Royalty Lawsuit re Monster Utica Wells”
We don’t often see news about a Marcellus producer called Alta Resources. Alta was one of the first drillers we wrote about just after launching the MDN website back in 2009 (see Texas Billionaire George Mitchell is Betting on the Marcellus in PA). George Mitchell, widely recognized as the father of shale energy, was a partner in Alta and had glowing things to say about the Marcellus. Mitchell died in 2013. His legacy lives on. Alta is in the news again. The company recently began using a software program from Ambyint to increase production across the 900 or so Marcellus wells it owns in northeastern PA.
Read More “Alta Resources Uses Software to Make Marcellus Wells Produce More”