PA’s Act 66 Sets Stage for “Transformative Growth” in NEPA Marcellus
In July 2020, PA Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law House Bill (HB) 732, a bill that grants tax breaks to companies willing to build brand new petrochemical plants in the Keystone State–plants that use huge quantities of Marcellus Shale gas (see Victory Lap! Gov. Wolf Signs Tax Break Bill for New Petchem Plants). Wolf vetoed a prior version and got a lot of negative feedback, so when the bill came around a second time he signed it. HB 732 became Act 66 in PA’s codes and regulations. Act 66 is meant to attract big petrochemical plants to northeastern PA. So far only one such facility (already in the works prior to the new law) has taken advantage of the Act 66 law. Efforts are underway to change that.
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Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil, and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in several unconventional shale plays, including the Marcellus and Utica. Last week Summit issued its first-quarter 2021 update. The company’s Utica Shale segment continued to be the star performer.
Yesterday MDN reported comments by Energy Transfer (ET) that the company plans to finally (after years of delays) complete the final pieces of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project by the third quarter of this year (see 
Of course, there was big news to report on Friday, the day MDN took off as a brief vacation day (the graduation ceremony was great!). The big news from last Thursday afternoon and Friday was (a) EQT’s first quarter update, and (b) EQT announced it has cut a deal to buy the northeastern Pennsylvania Marcellus assets of Alta Resources for a whopping $2.9 billion–pretty close to the asking price (see 
There are still a few select pipeline projects under construction in the Marcellus/Utica, even during the anti-fossil fuel Joe Biden regime. One such project of keen interest for us is the Mariner East 2 (ME2) NGL pipeline that runs from eastern Ohio through Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. The builder and owner of ME2 project, Energy Transfer, issued its quarterly update last week. As part of that update we found a reference from top management that ME2 will be completely finished (“done done”) sometime in the third quarter of this year.
Anti-fossil fuel activist Jill Antares Hunkler (whom we had never heard of before) testified before the same House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s environment subcommittee that Swedish special needs child (and minor celebrity) Greta Thunberg testified before on Earth Day. The two (plus others) peddled the same tired lies they always peddle about fossil fuels in general, and the Ohio shale industry in particular. A member of the Ohio O&G industry is standing up to challenge their lies.
The Enverus rig count added another 7 rigs for the week ending May 5 to hit a new post-pandemic high of 545 active rigs. Oil-focused rigs climbed by 10 to 417, leaving them just two rigs shy of 12-month highs seen in early April. The number of active gas-focused rigs fell back three to 128 (after hitting a 13-month high for the previous week). Both the Marcellus and the Utica maintained their numbers for the week (no change), ending the week at 36 for the Marcellus and 13 for the Utica.
A short 19-mile pipeline project called the Del-Mar Energy Pathway project, crossing both Delaware and Maryland, began its final phase of construction earlier this year after receiving approval from Maryland for traversing a wetland area (see 
When a pipeline company considers whether or not to build a new pipeline, the company conducts an “open season”–a time when drillers (producers), traders, buyers and others who want guaranteed capacity along that pipeline can sign long-term contracts. Such contracts guarantee pipeline companies will be able to make back the considerable amount of money they have to spend to build the pipeline. What happens when those 5-, 10-, and 20-year contracts expire?
We are sick and tired of the Chicken Little scaremongering that comes from so-called “independent consultants” and the reports they issue for states like Pennsylvania claiming (falsely) that average temperatures in the state are set to rise by 6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050. It is a demonstrably false claim. Yet that’s what is now being reported as fact.
Yet another assault on natural gas pipelines coming from the federal agency that’s supposed to promote them: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). When FERC approves a new pipeline project, the very first thing fossil fuel haters do is challenge that decision, requesting a “rehearing” or reconsideration of the decision. FERC under new Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick has just ruled that construction work on pipelines can’t proceed unless and until the rehearing request is no longer pending (FERC decides yes or no), which can take up to 90 days. In other words, FERC has just handed antis the right to delay a project by up to three months (in reality 10 months) just by filing a rehearing request.
You simply can’t miss the irrational exuberance of energy companies and investors proclaiming that hydrogen (H2) is the next big thing in energy. H2 is going to replace natural gas and cure the problem of man-caused global warming (which doesn’t exist, by the way). You can’t attend an oil and gas conference today without hearing at least one keynote or panel discussion about H2. (By the way, the