Range & MarkWest File Legal Challenges to Cecil 2,500-Foot Setback
Last November, three of five supervisors in Cecil Township (Washington County), PA, voted to ban all new fracking via a new setback (distance from well to nearest structure) requirement of 2,500 feet (see Cecil Twp Supervisors Pull the Trigger on Frack Ban Via Setbacks). We said at the time, “Let the lawsuits begin.” Once again, MDN was prescient. Both Range Resources, the only driller in Cecil Township with wells or permits to drill, filed a legal challenge to the illegal setback ordinance (the first step before a lawsuit is filed). However, in a surprise move, MarkWest Liberty Midstream (MPLX) filed a second, separate legal challenge against the town ordinance in county court. Read More “Range & MarkWest File Legal Challenges to Cecil 2,500-Foot Setback”
Big Oil is entering the Big Power market in a Big Way. Last December, the country’s largest oil and gas producer, ExxonMobil, announced it is working on a plan to build a massive 1,500 MW gas-fired power plant to power a data center(s) in a location not yet disclosed (see 
In December, CNX Resources announced it had struck a deal to buy the assets of Apex Energy II, LLC, a portfolio company of funds managed by Carnelian Energy Capital Management, for $505 million (see 
Last November, Coterra Energy announced it would buy “certain assets of Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources” located in the Permian (see 
Did you happen to catch the news lighting up all the cable news stations yesterday about Chinese startup DeepSeek? The company launched a free AI assistant that it claims uses less data at a fraction of the cost of other AI models. By Monday, the DeepSeek assistant had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s app store. The news sent traders into a tailspin of selling off tech company stocks like Nvidia (which makes the chips used in AI). The news also affected natural gas drillers negatively. Why? 
A fire was reported at a natural gas well near Jane Lew (Harrison County), WV, on Saturday at around 2:15 pm. Multiple fire departments responded. One media report says the well location is listed as the Stickel Pad belonging to driller HG Energy. There were no injuries, according to 911 officials. The fire was extinguished within a few hours. Other than those barebones facts and a few photos (below), that’s all we know about this incident. The incident doesn’t seem to be a priority for local news media outlets to cover. 
Diversified Energy, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (assets in other regions, too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. The company made a major announcement this morning. It has struck a deal to buy out and merge with Maverick Natural Resources for $1.28 billion. The deal adds over a million more acres of leases to Diversified plus significant new production. 
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its completely dysfunctional and irresponsible cousin, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the January 25 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC gave his approval to or renewed 18 general water use permits in December for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Lycoming, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties. 
Wow! Is this the Trump effect? For the week of Jan 13 – 19, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells achieved levels we haven’t seen in, oh, about four years. There were 41 new permits issued last week, up significantly from 27 issued the week before and 30 issued two weeks before. The Keystone State (PA) issued a whopping 25 new permits, with 17 (!) going to EQT spread across Greene and Washington counties. Another six permits went to Chesapeake Energy (now Expand Energy) in Bradford County. One permit each went to Range Resources and Apex Energy in Beaver and Westmoreland counties, respectively. 
MDN reported in October that Marcellus/Utica driller Infinity Natural Resources (INR) intended to file an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission hoping to raise $100 million (see 
The experts at RBN Energy recently analyzed the Q3 2024 financial results for the gas-focused producers the company tracks (mainly Marcellus/Utica producers). The gas-weighted E&Ps RBN follows had the best total shareholder return performance of the three peer groups they tracked through the first nine months of 2024, with a median gain of 14%. On the high side, CNX Resources’ share price was amazing, up more than 60% for the first nine months of last year. On the other end, Coterra Energy’s share price lost value. 
Enverus, a prominent analytics and advisory firm in the oil and gas space, released its Top 50 Public E&P Operators of 2024 list last week. Enverus is famously guarded in not allowing the media to publish their data, so we don’t have the full list of 50. However, Enverus shared the top three most prolific (by production) shale drillers for last year. Two of the top three are oil drillers in the Permian Basin (Exxon at #1, Occidental Petroleum at #3). However, at the #2 spot, nestled between those two, is Expand Energy, the new name for the combined Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy. Yes, a natural gas company (gas converted to barrels of oil equivalent) is the #2 most prolific producer in the entire country, beating out Oxy! Most of the gas Expand produces is produced in the Marcellus/Utica. 
A judge has dismissed New York City’s lawsuit seeking to hold Exxon Mobil, BP, and Shell liable for misleading the public about their products and claims that their commitment to renewable energy and fighting climate change are false. The case was so weak not even a Democrat judge appointed by Kathy Hochul could stomach it. In her ruling, Justice Anar Rathod Patel told the city it could not have it both ways. The city claimed its residents knew about mythical climate change and how it is caused by burning nasty fossil fuels. Yet the city’s lawsuit claims Big Oil has tricked people into using fossil energy with false and misleading advertising. Patel wrote, “The city cannot have it both ways.” Touché!