Williams & Canada Pension Plan Form $3.8B JV in Marcellus/Utica
The Canadians are coming! The Canadians are coming! Actually, they’re already here. Last summer we brought you the bombshell news that Encino Acquisition Partners (EAP) had purchased all of Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica assets (see Stop Press: Chesapeake Sells ALL of its Ohio Utica Assets for $2B). What’s not obvious in that headline is that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is Encino’s joint venture partner and put up virtually all of the money, and owns 98% of EAP. CPPIB is doing it again, this time buying a significant stake in Ohio Utica (and Marcellus) pipelines.
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Two days ago MDN brought you news about a new bill in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, HB 247, which would allow fully leased parcels that are part of one drilling “unit” to be combined with parcels in a different unit (see 
The “great crew change” is taking place in the oil and gas industry in general, and in the Marcellus/Utica in particular. Older workers are nearing retirement and exiting the industry in increasing numbers, and the industry isn’t attracting enough newer workers to fill the ranks. According to the Ohio Oil & Gas Association, the need for new workers in Ohio’s O&G industry is pressing. Everything from welders and truckers to people working with technology.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is conducting a series of four public meetings (called scoping sessions) for both the Williams Leidy South Project (see 
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report. The DPR is a forecast of oil and gas production in the country’s seven major shale plays for the coming month, made by the expert number crunchers at EIA.
On Friday MDN told you that Consolidated Edison’s deadline to apply to be added as a natural gas customer in Westchester County had arrived (see 
Last May, Liberty Utilities, located and operating in New Hampshire, announced a new pipeline project called Granite Bridge–27 miles of new natural gas pipeline to be buried along Route 101 from Stratham to Manchester, along with an LNG storage facility located midway along the pipeline (see 
CERAWeek (by IHS Markit) is held each year in Houston, Texas. There is no doubt it is the world’s premier energy event. Last week U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed attendees, as did Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Neil Chatterjee. Movers and shakers. Everyone from Saudi Arabian oil sheikhs to wildcatting frackers from America’s shale plays were there.
In the same way America’s “unnecessary” and audacious effort to put a man on the moon in the 1960s produced the unintended consequence of discovering new materials and inventions that have fundamentally changed our society (practical applications, like computers), so too has the “unnecessary” practice of hydraulic fracturing led to new discoveries and information about how the human body works–enlightening scientists, ultimately improving human health.
Equitrans Midstream, which used to be called EQT Midstream, yesterday announced they have cut their first big deal since separating from EQT last year. Equitrans is buying a 60% stake in Eureka Midstream, a 190-mile pipeline system in Ohio and West Virginia serving both the Marcellus and Utica, and a 100% stake in the tiny 15-mile Hornet Midstream, a gathering system in WV that connects to Eureka.
Witch hunts take a loooong time when it’s the U.S. government doing the hunting. We told you back in 2015 that the U.S. Dept. of Labor was unfairly targeting the Marcellus industry, looking at every time slip, to see if they could bag companies violating federal overtime regulations–not paying their workers overtime (see 
Some Pennsylvania landowners have recently been approached by the companies they’re leased with, asking landowners to sign amended leases to allow cross-unit drilling. We personally know of one case in which a driller requested such an amendment in northeast PA. So it is with great interest we notice a new bill has been introduced in the PA House, specifically to allow cross-unit shale drilling.
In February MDN told you about an important decision by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that has the potential to override New York State and allow both the Constitution Pipeline and Northern Access Pipeline projects to get built (see 
Here’s a mind-blower: Royal Dutch Shell is the world’s second largest oil producer (by market value). Yet a Shell official recently said his company wants to be “the largest electricity power company in the world in the early 2030s.” Within 15 years Shell wants to be THE world’s #1 electricity producer! And they plan to do it by using natural gas as the fuel to create all that electricity.