Massive Hike in PA Shale Permit Fees Coming at June 3 Meeting
In Ohio, it costs drillers $5,500 to file for and receive a permit to drill a new shale well. In West Virginia, the cost is $10,150. In Pennsylvania, it currently costs drillers $5,000 for a new shale well permit. Following an upcoming meeting by the state Independent Regulatory Review Commission on June 3, PA’s permit fee will zoom to the top of the M-U list: $12,500 (2 1/2 times the previous fee).
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Last week MDN brought you the news of another Pennsylvania Pipeline Investment Program (PIPE) grant being issued–this one in Luzerne County, near Wilkes-Barre (see 
Just when it seemed everything was going great to get all 10 mini-trains up and running at the Elba Island, Georgia LNG export facility (owned and operated by Kinder Morgan), a compressor fire earlier this week has caused the shutdown of three functioning units along with a fourth unit in the process of commissioning.
Midstreamer Equitrans, the former EQT Midstream (before EQT split itself into two companies) posted its first-quarter 2020 update yesterday and held a conference call with analysts. Of primary concern and focus for us, and most observers was an update on the company’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, which is 90% built and in the ground. The remaining portions of MVP are held up by various court cases and regulatory actions. According to officials on the call, there is a “narrow path” to completing the project by the end of this year at a cost of $5.4 billion. If the timeline slips, the cost goes up.
The crash in the drilling rig count continued last week for the ninth straight week, although the decline slowed for a third week in a row. U.S. oil and gas rigs for land-based operations fell another 29 last week, to a total of 369 active rigs. Most of the decrease comes from oil-focused rigs. However, we’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the Marcellus rig count.
Virginia’s radially left Attorney General, Mark Herring (Democrat), was among 11 other radically left Democrat AGs who recently sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting the agency just stop doing its job in approving pipeline projects until the COVID-19 pandemic is over (see 
Shell continues to ramp back up work being done at its mighty ethane cracker construction site in Beaver County, PA following a shutdown of activity due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company has announced plans to add 300 employees back each week until they are back up to full compliment.
We have some exclusive news to share about a northeast PA LNG plant project. In August 2018, New Fortress Energy announced plans to build at least one LNG liquefying plant in Wyalusing, PA (see 
A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT, in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT has finally struck out, permanently, at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
A relatively short pipeline project to flow water from the Susquehanna River in Tunkhannock (Wyoming County), PA to a water impoundment about seven miles away, began construction in February 2019 (see