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EQT, Chessy, Equitrans Form M-U Methane Monitoring Club
Yesterday, Chesapeake Energy, EQT, and Equitrans Midstream launched what the three companies call the Appalachian Methane Initiative (AMI), a coalition committed to further enhancing methane monitoring throughout the Appalachia Basin with an aim to reduce methane emissions throughout the region. Is this yet another certification scheme to prove methane leakage is low?
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Olympus Energy wants to drill six wells on a single pad in rural Elizabeth Township, a borough in Allegheny County on the east bank of the Monongahela River. The pad would sit about 2,400 feet (nearly half a mile) away from Elizabeth Forward High School. Some of the parents of students, and some of the administration, pushed back against Olympus’ drilling plan, using the kiddies as an excuse (see 
A group of landowners in Harrison and Doddridge counties (in West Virginia) sued Antero Resources, claiming the company had deducted post-production costs from royalties not allowed under the leases they had signed. Last year, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia ruled mostly in favor of the landowners. Antero appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit). Yesterday, the judges of the 4th Circuit issued their ruling (full copy below). Nobody got everything they wanted–we’d call it a split decision. However, Antero did win the right to make deductions in certain circumstances.
We’re catching up the permit report for the past two weeks (since we were off all of last week). Permits issued for Dec. 19 through Jan. 1 in the Marcellus/Utica included 19 new permits in Pennsylvania, 7 new permits in Ohio, and 12 new permits in West Virginia.
Last September, EQT Corporation announced it is buying privately-owned Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets for $5.2 billion (see 
Why would a major oil and gas driller decide to cede control of the future of its company to a group of international leftists hellbent on destroying fossil energy? The answer eludes us, but it has just happened with a second Marcellus/Utica driller: EOG Resources. Yesterday, EOG announced it has joined the UN’s Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0). Support for OGMP 2.0 is growing in the natgas marketplace in the U.S. We previously told you that Cheniere Energy’s LNG export plants are seeking certification under OGMP 2.0 (see 
What a difference three years can make! Three years ago, Henry Hub prices were hovering around $2 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf). Stock valuations for Marcellus/Utica drillers were majorly depressed (down 80-90% from previous highs), and gas producers were struggling. Fast forward to today. Balance sheets and earnings statements are through the roof. Most experts believe $4-$5/Mcf gas is sustainable–at least for the next X years. What does the future look like for M-U drillers? What are the risks? And can we keep the current bright outlook going?
It’s rare these days to come across information about the terms of a lease deal. Back in the day, when leasing was still going strong and there were a number of landowner coalitions, we would learn of lease terms and share them here on MDN. When we hear of lease terms nowadays, it’s almost always a deal between a municipality or governmental entity and a driller, forcing the information to be made public. We have one such deal to share today. Earlier this week, the East Guernsey Local School District Board of Education (in Lore City, Guernsey County, Ohio) voted to approve an oil/gas lease with Encino Energy.
Kevin Sunday, director of government affairs with the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, recently published an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pointing out how the mighty Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA, is the result of business and government (bipartisan government) working together. He makes the case that we need more of this type of thing, especially with many new faces coming to Harrisburg in January. We frankly wonder if hoping for bipartisan cooperation on fossil energy projects in the current political climate is just spitting in the wind.
It took us a while to track down this story, but we finally have details about the settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by roughly 60 landowners in Fayette County, PA, against Chief Exploration and Development, the former drilling arm of Chief Oil & Gas (now called Cyprus Exploration and Development). The lawsuit alleged that in 2008, Chief and its landman had cut a deal to lease the landowners’ property and then never paid the stipulated signing bonus. The lawsuit sought $7 million. The landowners ended up settling for $5.5 million earlier this month.