Ascent Closes on 27K Utica Acres for $270M – Finally Names Seller
On July 1, just as everyone was heading out the door for summer vacation, Ascent Resources announced it is buying another 26,800 acres in the Ohio Utica for $270 million (see Ascent Resources Buys Another 27K Utica Acres for $270 Million). The announcement withheld the identity of the seller but did say Ascent was buying *all* of the seller’s Ohio Utica shale assets, which touched off speculation about who is doing the selling. We now know. On Friday, Ascent announced it has closed on the deal. The seller was…
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PennEnergy Resources LLC, which according to the Pittsburgh Business Times is the 11th largest shale driller in Pennsylvania (with 405 active shale wells), achieved responsibly sourced natural gas certification from Project Canary on nearly all of its wells in January of this year (see 
During pipeline giant Williams’ 2Q22 update last week, company officials talked about expansion projects in the Marcellus/Utica region (see 
Make no mistake: The Manchin-Schumer “Soar Inflation Higher” bill is bad for the country in EVERY way, including bad for the fossil energy industry via an industry-killing methane tax (see 
As we point out in a companion story today, some in the oil and gas industry have sold out and are supporting the Manchin-Schumer methane tax. It’s sad (and angering). As we point out in that post, those companies believe they are insulated from the effects of the methane tax because they have already deployed technology to reduce methane emissions from their operations. But what happens when the federal government changes the rules by telling them their technology is junk and they have to replace it with new government-blessed technology? Right on cue, the Dept. of Energy announced it will spend $32 million on “research” to figure out what kind of technology can lower methane emissions.
Earlier this week, Energy Transfer (ET), the builder of the mighty Mariner East pipelines and owner/expander of the Marcus Hook refinery, issued its second quarter update. The company had plenty of positive news to report, including net income of $1.33 billion, a $700 million increase from the same period last year. In July, the company hit a new record high for the amount of NGLs flowing through the Mariner East pipeline system. It has also found a way to squeeze another roughly 10,000 barrels per day of NGL exports out of Marcus Hook.
While drilling in Chester County in August 2020 in the Marsh Creek State Park area, Energy Transfer’s (ET) Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see 
The radicalized environmental left has opened up a new front in its disgusting (and insane) war against fossil energy. Three hard-left groups–U.S. PIRG Education Fund, Environment America Research & Policy Center, and ClientEarth–announced yesterday they have filed a lawsuit (i.e. fundraiser) against natural gas utility company Washington Gas in the District of Columbia Superior Court. The faux claims in the lawsuit say Washington Gas “misled” customers about the environmental impacts of using natural gas. This is a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in the United States, claiming a gas utility has violated consumer protection laws (i.e. “greenwashing”).
Enverus, a leading global energy data analytics and SaaS technology company, earlier this week released Macro Forecaster, a new report that assesses the continued impact of COVID-19, the Ukraine war, and the weakening global economy on near-term oil and gas balances. Enverus predicts the price of oil will be somewhere in the range of $80s or $90s per barrel by the end of this year. The company also predicts natural gas will slump to about $4.50/MMBtu by next summer.
We have spit and sputtered daily since Traitor Joe Manchin announced his treachery last week–that he will sacrifice the entire country and its economic future in return for finishing one pipeline (see 
Here’s some of the best news we’ve heard in a month! Freeport LNG, offline due to an explosion and fire in June, issued an announcement yesterday to say it has signed a deal with the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that will allow the export facility to restart in October–at or near full strength of exporting 2 Bcf/d of natural gas.
In July 2018, a group of 100+ southwestern Pennsylvania landowners sued EQT for failure to pay them rental fees for storing natural gas under their properties (see 
Two days ago, MDN mused over the issue of whether or not there will EVER be fracking in New York State (see 
What makes an oil and gas company (specifically a driller) a “bad actor”? Anti-fossil fuel zealots believe they’ve found a clever way of smearing Marcellus drillers and painting them as “bad actors” by citing how many notices of violation (NOVs) the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued to a driller. The problem is, those notices are highly inconsistent and many times are for relatively minor (quickly fixable) “infractions” against regulations. Citing a high number of NOVs sounds impressive and scares people, which is the important thing for antis.
As we previously stated and continue to state: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s sellout of the entire country (and the entire fossil energy industry) in return for a vote on separate legislation that supposedly will ensure Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) gets completed (no guarantee a vote will be taken), is not worth the price. Unsurprisingly, Equitrans Midstream, the company building MVP, is delighted to learn of Manchin’s plan to sacrifice the country in return for completing its pipeline. Extremely short-sighted.
New Jersey Resources’ Adelphia Gateway project converts an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, into a natural gas pipeline. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued final approval for the project in December 2019 (see