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Shell CEO: Monaca Cracker Plant Not Fully Operational Til 2025/26
During last week’s second quarter update conference call by oil and gas giant Shell, the CEO, Wael Sawan, had some interesting comments about the mighty Shell ethane cracker in Monaca (Beaver County), PA. Sawan praised progress at the plant but then said it would be 2025 or 2026 before the plant would be “fully operational.” That was new news for us.
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Writing for Hart Energy’s Oil and Gas Investor magazine, author Nissa Darbonne penned a fabulous overview of the Utica, bringing us the history of oil drilling in Ohio (in the 1800s) all the way up to the present day and Encino Energy’s dominance in oil drilling in the Utica. The article includes details about Encino and other companies, including Infinity Natural Resources and EOG Resources. On Friday, we brought you excerpts from the article about Encino Energy (see 
For the week of July 22 – 28, a total of nine permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica. Pennsylvania had the fewest with just two new permits, one each for Seneca Resources and Rice Drilling (i.e., EQT). Ohio had the most with four new permits, all of them for EOG Resources for a single pad in Noble County. West Virginia came in between with three new permits, all three for Antero Resources in Tyler County.
An important milestone was reached on Wednesday regarding the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2). You may recall that ARCH2 was one of seven projects to win the Bidenista Hunger Games competition to receive a chunk of $7 billion to build a regional hydrogen hub (see 
We’ve written a number of times about the Ohio Utica Shale and its beginnings with gas legend Aubrey McClendon, who, as CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was one of (if not THE) first to recognize the Utica as an oil play. However, it was a successor company, Encino Energy, that figured out how to coax large quantities of oil out of the Utica shale. Encino is one of the big success stories of drilling for oil in the Ohio Utica Shale. Roughly six years ago, Encino, in partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), closed on buying Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica assets for $2 billion (see 
Chesapeake Energy issued its second quarter 2024 update yesterday. Due to the low price of natural gas, Chesapeake promised (in 1Q) that it would curtail roughly 25% of its production. The company kept its word. Chessy’s 2Q production was 24.9% lower than the same period in 2023. Production was 2.745 Bcfe/d in 2Q24 versus 3.653 Bcfe/d in 2Q23. Interestingly, the company’s production was ALL (100%) natural gas — no oil and no NGLs were produced last quarter. Chessy lost $227 million last quarter versus making $391 million in profit in 2Q23. The company used an average of eight rigs to drill 30 wells and place four wells on production. It built an inventory of five drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs) and 24 deferred turn-in-lines (TILs). Chesapeake is currently operating seven rigs and two completion crews, having dropped a rig in the Marcellus in July.
Last week, MDN exclusively brought you the news that the CEO of American Environmental Services, which owns Austin Master Services (AMS), had filed a brief with Belmont County Court to either forgive or reduce a $1.2 million bond needed to keep the CEO, Brad Domitrovitsch, out of jail (see 
Last week, CNX Resources issued its second quarter 2024 update. The company lost $18.3 million in 2Q24, compared with making a profit of $475 million in 2Q23. This is quite a whack due to the low price of natural gas. Production was 134.0 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent) in 2Q24 — which works out to 1.47 Bcfe/d — down from 134.2 Bcfe last year (statistically the same). On the bright side, management was excited about the early results of two deep Utica gas wells that were brought online last quarter.
Range Resources Corporation, the very first company to drill a shale well targeting the Marcellus Shale layer in Pennsylvania (in 2004), issued its second quarter 2024 update earlier this week. Range continues to hold its production relatively flat. During 2Q, Range produced 2.15 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day), with approximately 69% of production comprised of natural gas and the rest in NGLs and oil. Range’s 2Q24 production is up 3% from 2Q23, but essentially flat from 1Q24 (2.14 Bcfe/d). Steady as she goes. Net income was $28.7 million, down 5% from the same quarter last year.
Yesterday, EQT Corporation, the country’s largest natural gas producer, issued its second quarter 2024 update. We’re dedicating another post to chronicling other news coming from the update. This post is dedicated to the most significant news from the update: EQT has decided to keep the newly christened 2.0 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) instead of selling it. Not only that, but EQT wants to expand the pipeline’s capacity from 2.0 to 2.5 Bcf/d as soon as possible.
MDN’s lead story today is that EQT Corporation has decided to retain majority ownership in Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and expand the pipe’s capacity with compressors asap (see EQT’s Game Plan Changed – Keep MVP & Expand Extra 0.5 Bcf/d). This post deals with the other (big) news coming from yesterday’s second quarter 2024 update. Namely, EQT is looking to sell the rest of its non-operated assets in the northeastern Pennsylvania Marcellus. In addition, we learned that EQT is still curtailing (limiting) production through the second half of 2024.
In April, MDN brought you the news that EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the country (totally focused on the Marcellus/Utica) had signed two agreements with Glenfarne Energy’s Texas LNG Brownsville export facility to liquefy 2.0 million tons per annum (MTPA) of EQT-extracted shale gas (see