Bidenistas Finally Get Desperate, Talk to Big Oil & Gas
President Joe Biden and his surrogates have been blaming U.S. oil and gas producers for not producing more in the face of prices going through the roof. Big Oil & Gas have responded that the Bidenistas refuse to even talk with them about important issues, like onerous new regulations, blocking new pipelines, etc. It looks like the Bidenistas are finally desperate enough to at least sit down and talk. According to Bloomberg (not always a reliable source) Dept. of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is having conversations with several oil companies at the CERAWeek conference.
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Yesterday the West Virginia House Energy and Manufacturing Committee held a public hearing to elicit feedback and comments on Senate Bill (SB) 694, a bill that will, after nearly a decade, provide for forced pooling for shale wells in the state. The bill has already passed the WV Senate and likely will come up for a vote by the full House this week. Based on support from both drillers and landowner groups, it appears this bill is a done deal. Even surface owners are “OK” with the bill. Not thrilled, but OK. About the only dissent we could detect from the hearing is that some believe it doesn’t go far enough with forced pooling.
In early 2013 the Pittsburgh International Airport and Allegheny County, PA signed a deal with CONSOL Energy (now CNX Resources) to lease 9,000 acres surrounding the airport for natural gas drilling (see 
Hackers, believed to be “state-sponsored,” aggressively targeted computers belonging to current and former employees at two dozen major natural gas suppliers and exporters. The aim seemed to be an attempt to cripple U.S. LNG exporting ability. One of the targets of the attacks was EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The activity occurred on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. You do the math to figure out who the “state sponsor” of the attacks was.
For over a year the oil and gas industry has been swept up in net-zero carbon emissions mania. We can provide countless examples of M-U drillers and pipeline companies jumping on the net-zero carbon bandwagon (
Even though construction is completed for the Mariner East pipeline system, anti-fossil fuelers are still lying about the project and its status. Energy Transfer said during its recent quarterly update that Mariner East is in the process of being commissioned, i.e. tested (see 
In June 2020, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (Democrat) announced an indictment of Cabot Oil & Gas for allegations of methane migration going back more than a decade, long before he was elected as AG (see 
Sort of a mixed bag with respect to recent prices for natural gas. While the spot cash price as a national average has slipped a bit, down 83 cents over the past week to $4.84, the NYMEX futures contract price for the “front month” of April soared past $5. In fact, if you look at the NYMEX contracts for each month over the next one year, they are ALL closing above $5/MMBtu.
One week ago MDN told you about the fast track for West Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 694, a bill that will, after nearly a decade, provide for forced pooling for shale wells in the state (see 
In Sept. 2021 Seneca Resources, the drilling arm of National Fuel Gas Company, announced it would certify as responsibly sourced gas (RSG) about 300 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of its production–roughly one-third of all Seneca production (see 
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), released its “Annual Energy Outlook 2022.” One of the main findings of this latest look forward is that the use of oil and natural gas will grow steadily and gradually from now until 2050–over the next 30 years. Renewables (solar and wind) will grow too, but fossil energy will remain completely dominant for the next generation (and likely longer). Surprised? We’re not.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, is in a grumpy mood. The cause? The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Manchin is meeting with FERC commissioners tomorrow and he plans to take them to the proverbial woodshed for a good thrashing. Two things are on Manchin’s mind: FERC’s new rules that use global warming as a standard for reviewing pipeline projects, and ongoing delays with finishing the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.