Range Cuts Deal with ENGIE to Market Responsibly Sourced Gas
Last June, Range Resources announced it had joined the Project Canary TrustWell™ Responsible Gas Program (see Range Forms ESG Committee, Joins ‘Responsibly Sourced’ Gas Program). At that time Project Canary was monitoring two Range well pads with the hint that more production would (eventually) be included in the program. Range also held out the carrot of selling its responsibly sourced gas (RSG) to “a European multinational energy utility.” We now know who the buyer is.
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We’re not quite sure what to think of this. The West Virginia State Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 2581 on the last day of the annual WV legislative session in April 2021. HB 2581 required the State Tax Commissioner to develop a revised methodology to value oil and natural gas properties for the purposes of assessing property taxes. The State Tax Department submitted an emergency rule over the summer that was, quite frankly, a mess. The rule created a complex system that is currently mired in controversy with both drillers and landowners confused about how much of a tax bill they will owe this year. The legislature is doing it again.
According to S&P Global Platts, spot gas prices across the northeast and Appalachia were “trading sharply lower Feb. 7.” It is, says Platts, “a dynamic that could continue into the second week of February, as stronger regional gas production and higher temperature forecasts loosen supply and demand fundamentals.” How much lower are prices trading? The Eastern Gas South trading hub (formerly Dominion South) fell by almost $1/MMBtu yesterday. The Columbia Gas, Appalachia trading hub fell more than $1.
According to numbers published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2020 Pennsylvania generated and sent more electricity to neighboring states than any other state in the union. More than 230 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity was generated in Pennsylvania during 2020, and nearly 78 million MWh of that electricity was delivered to neighboring states. If PA Gov. Wolf’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme is adopted, much of that electric production will disappear. PA’s neighbors should be VERY concerned.
Venture Global LNG expects to load the inaugural cargo at its Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility in Louisiana on or after February 9. This is fantastic news! In addition, Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass export facility (a competitor with Calcasieu Pass) received FERC clearance to start commercial production on its sixth processing train. The best part for both bits of news? Marcellus/Utica molecules flow to Sabine Pass and either already do, or will flow to Calcasieu Pass in the future. New markets for our gas!
The Pennsylvania State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has engaged in some questionable activities in the past, but this time they’ve stepped WAY across the line. Last Thursday the PA DEP filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court to force the state to adopt the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a blatant tax on carbon dioxide produced by gas- and coal-fired power plants. Thing is, it’s illegal for the state to adopt RGGI right now while the state legislature still has a window of time to vote on overriding Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto of a resolution that would have stopped RGGI. Constitutionally, legally, statutorily, the legislature has a certain number of days to attempt an override. The DEP’s Secretary Pat McDonnell, Gov. Wolf’s patsy, is trying to circumvent the law by forcing RGGI through now.
Some good news to report for Olympus Energy. The supervisors for Upper Burrell Township (in Westmoreland County, PA) voted last week to approve a new compressor station that will flow natural gas from multiple wells on 3-4 nearby Olympus well pads.
In late 2015 MPLX (i.e. Marathon Petroleum) bought out and merged in the Utica Shale’s premier midstream company, MarkWest Energy, for $15 billion (see 
Evolution Well Services, headquartered in Houston with a regional office in Pittsburgh, specializes in “electric” fracking–using natural gas from the well pad (instead of diesel fuel) to power turbines to create electricity that drives fracking pumps. In September 2020, three former Evolution employees who worked at remote sites in the Marcellus/Utica for the company, filed a lawsuit against the company claiming Evolution failed to pay them for their commute to and from job sites. This past Tuesday a federal judge in Pennsylvania granted conditional certification for the lawsuit to become a class action.
Quebec, Canada is foolishly pushing forward with a total ban on all oil and gas drilling in the province. On Tuesday the province’s minister of energy and natural resources “tabled” Bill 21 which expropriates (seizes control of) all oil and gas wells and pulls back any previously issued permits to drill. Tabling in Canada means something different than it does here in the U.S.–it means to begin consideration. It’s the next step in finalizing a new law to ban oil and gas drilling in the province, including a ban on drilling in Quebec’s extensive Utica Shale.