| | |

PA Fracking Industry has Opportunity to Defeat Biden in 2024

This year’s presidential election may well turn on the results in the “swing state” of Pennsylvania. The Wall Street Journal has an intriguing story that looks at PA voters, who they support for president, and why. In the article ‘Now They’re Voting Red’: A Pennsylvania Fracking Boom Weighs on Biden’s Re-Election Chances, the WSJ says a slim majority of voters give Donald Trump a 3-point lead over Joementia if the election were held today. (How ANYONE could vote for Biden is a complete mystery to us.) “Economic churn” and Biden’s actions like his infamous LNG pause are pushing voters toward Trump in the Pittsburgh area, potentially overwhelming the Democrats’ base of college-educated workers. Could it be that pro-frackers in PA will hand the White House back to DJT?
Continue reading

| | | |

Bucks County RINO Gets Cold Feet, Won’t Support Climate Lawsuit

RINO Gene DiGirolamo

A few weeks ago, we reported that two Democrats and one anti-drilling RINO who run Bucks County government (a Philadelphia suburb) fell for the bait by Big Green and filed a lawsuit against Big Oil companies for supposedly, knowingly, causing the Earth to toast to a cinder (see Bucks County, PA, Sues Big Oil for Causing “Climate Change”). The lawsuit seemingly came out of nowhere. It was hatched secretly by green groups, including the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) – a Rockefeller-funded D.C. activist group. There were no public meetings. No public input. No public announcements. It was completely hush-hush, with a total media blackout until the lawsuit was filed. Here we are two weeks later, and the RINO, Gene DiGirolamo, has gotten cold feet and says he no longer supports the lawsuit. Now that the horse has left the barn…
Continue reading

| | | | | | |

Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Drops 1 @ 620, M-U Even @ 42

Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count dropped another rig. The count went from 621 active rigs two weeks ago down to 620 last week. This is the third week in a row the national count has lost rigs. Since last October, the national count has gone as low as 616 and as high as 629. And that’s it. No higher and no lower. The Marcellus/Utica remained the same last week at 42 active rigs. However, there were some musical chairs. Pennsylvania gained one rig and now operates 22 rigs. West Virginia lost a rig and now operates 8 rigs. Ohio remained steady with 12 active rigs.
Continue reading

| | |

Flood Waters Get Close to Shuttered Austin Master Frack Waste

Flooding in Martins Ferry, OH (credit: WTOV Channel 9)

Last week, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost took legal action seeking to force Austin Master Services (AMS) in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), OH, to correct “egregious violations of Ohio law” regarding the storage of oil and gas waste that he says threatens the Ohio River and Martins Ferry’s drinking water supply (see Ohio AG Sues Austin Master Services for Unsafe Storage of Wastewater). As the story began to unfold, we learned that AMS had stored at least 10,000 tons of fracking waste beyond its rating at the facility. Last weekend, the Ohio River, which is located 500 feet from the facility, reached flood stage and approached (but didn’t reach) the AMS facility.
Continue reading

| | |

With Respect to Orphaned Wells, PA DEP Doesn’t Know Jack Squat

Last week, MDN reported on new (to us) information shared at a Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee hearing that the state’s program to plug orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells is, quite frankly, a hot mess (see Plugging PA’s Abandoned & Orphaned Wells is a Hot Mess). The Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) recordkeeping of old wells is rife with errors. And the price to plug orphaned wells has ballooned from $17,500 per well in most cases to now over $110,000! An editorial appearing in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette takes the federal and state governments to task for spending big money on a problem they can’t even accurately describe or outline.
Continue reading

| | | |

Big Green Threatens New Lawsuit to Block Drilling in OH Wayne NF

Wayne National Forest (click for larger version)

Last week, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a new draft plan to allow shale drilling to finally begin on land in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (see BLM Floats Draft Assessment for Drilling in OH’s Wayne Nat’l Forest). Even though a majority of the land and mineral rights in WNF are privately owned, the BLM and various lawsuits from foreign-backed Big Green groups have blocked drilling in WNF for the past 15+ years. It’s a TRAGEDY and horrific injustice against private landowners. With the BLM’s new plan, the usual radicalized groups are back to announce they are watching and plan to sue once again.
Continue reading

|

City Council Votes Down Permits for Wisconsin Gas-Fired Power Plant

In September 2022, MDN told you about a relatively modest-sized gas-fired power plant planned for Superior, Wisconsin, called the Nemadji Trail Energy Center (see Midwest Elec Grid Roasted for Supporting New Gas-Fired Power Plant). Last December, the Douglas County (WI) Board approved the sale of about 45 acres of land along the Nemadji River to RendField Land Company Inc. to allow a transmission line to be built to the plant (see County Approves Land Sale to Wisconsin Gas-Fired Power Plant). However, antis have been able to persuade (bully) the Superior City Council to vote against issuing permits for the plant.
Continue reading

| | |

SEC Forced to Hit Pause Button on Woke Climate Disclosure Reg

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), corrupted by the Bidenistas, voted 3-2 (three Democrats vs. two Republicans) in March to issue a final regulation that will force all publicly traded companies to disclose their so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the imaginary climate risks their businesses face (see Woke SEC Adopts Modified Version of Climate Disclosure Reg). The end result of the Biden SEC’s new regulations will be to “kneecap” oil and gas companies (see SEC Reg Requiring Disclosure of Climate Change Risk “Kneecaps” O&G). And that’s the purpose. A number of lawsuits have been filed against the new reg, including a lawsuit by 25 state Attorneys General (see The Many Lawsuits Challenging Woke SEC’s Climate Disclosure Reg).
Continue reading

|

2 Groups Collude with Mainstream Media to Push Fake Climate Stories

Ahead of the Easter weekend, multiple media outlets reported that chocolate prices were soaring, and according to the coverage, the main culprit driving the inflating costs is so-called climate change. Across multiple platforms, the reports followed a similar message, using similar language to describe the problem and its causes — and the reports all came out the same week. The media reports can be traced back to a single source, an organization called Covering Climate Now. This is a story of how entire populations are being brainwashed with false narratives about the climate.
Continue reading

| | |

New Leases Sought in Columbiana County, OH, for Oil Drilling

Knox Township, Columbiana County, OH

Leasing activity is picking up once again in the northern part of the Ohio Utica shale play. Greg Carver, a trustee with Knox Township in Columbiana County, says he was recently contacted about leasing 15 acres he owns for new oil drilling. In late February, a consortium paid $1.6 million for mineral rights for 345 acres in Knox Township. Holy smokes! That’s $4,637 per acre! It sure sounds like Utica leasing is “back” — just not where you might think it would be.
Continue reading

| | | | |

Williams Building New Compressor in Columbiana County, OH

Hanover Township, Columbiana County, OH

We have a second big news story coming out of Columbiana County, OH, today. Pipeline giant Williams confirmed it plans to build a compressor station in Hanover Township (Columbiana County) to help push more natural gas in the northern part of the Utica play. “But wait, that’s an oil area, right?” Very good, young Padawan. It is an oily part of the play. However, when a well is drilled for oil, natural gas always comes out of the ground along with it. It used to be that drillers could just burn the “excess” methane, but not now with far stricter environmental regulations.
Continue reading

|

NatGas Spot Prices in M-U Moving Higher on Lower Production

While you wouldn’t know it from looking at the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price, the cuts in production from Marcellus/Utica producers, including Chesapeake Energy, ETQ, Antero Resources, Coterra Energy, CNX Resources, and others, IS having an effect on prices — on the spot prices of physically-traded natural gas in the M-U region. Over the past eight weeks, gas production from the Marcellus and Utica shale has fallen sharply.
Continue reading

| | | | | |

Josh Shapiro’s Mariner East Water Testing Program in PA is a Bust

The government screws up just about everything it touches — ever notice that? A perfect example is a water testing program set up by then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro in December 2022. In August 2022, Shapiro, who AG at the time, announced that he had finally bullied Energy Transfer into pleading “no contest” (meaning they don’t admit to a darned thing) in a so-called criminal case against the company for a series of accidents affecting construction for both the Revolution and Mariner East pipelines (see ET Pleads No Contest to “Crimes” for ME, Revolution Pipelines). Part of the plea deal included ET funding a program to test water supplies for those who claim their well water was damaged by the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline. That program has turned into a disaster.
Continue reading

| | |

U.S. Ethane Production, Consumption, Exports Set New Records 2023

The production of ethane in the U.S. — one of several natural gas liquids (NGLs) that come out of the ground when drilling both oil and gas wells — rose 9% in 2023 to a new record high of 2.6 million barrels per day (b/d), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Record ethane production was a result of the boom in natural gas production and the addition of two new ethane cracker plants coming online, one in Texas and the other in Pennsylvania.
Continue reading

| |

Study: LNG Exports Do NOT Lead to Increased Domestic Energy Costs

In January, Joe Biden announced a “pause” for any approvals of new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year (see White House Makes it Official – Biden Declares War on LNG Exports). One of the reasons cited for the pause is the oft-repeated lie that exporting LNG causes the price for natural gas here at home (for both residential and commercial) to skyrocket. A new report published by the Texas Oil & Gas Association refutes that claim using energy data from the federal government itself.
Continue reading

| | |

Mountain V Expands Focus to Appalachian Oil with Purchase of AXP

Mountain V Oil & Gas, headquartered in Buckhannon, WV, is a privately owned independent energy company with both conventional and shale assets in the Appalachian Basin. The company acquires and drills wells on over 300,000 leased acres, mainly focused on gas wells. Mountain V is now expanding its focus to include oil. Last fall, the company signed an agreement to buy the oil and gas assets of AXP Energy — assets located in Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky, Virginia, and the Illinois Basins — for $4 million. The AXP purchase with its oil-heavy assets closed earlier today.
Continue reading