US NatGas Production Will Grow 59% by 2050 Thx to M-U
In February our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, issued its Annual Energy Outlook 2018 report (full copy below). This week the eager beavers at EIA culled through that report to highlight important information about U.S. natural gas production. In a Today in Energy post on Monday, the EIA made some startling observations. EIA predicts that U.S. natural gas production will grow 59% from 2017 to 2050, starting at 73.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2017 and reaching 118 Bcf/d in 2050. Massive! They also say that most of the projected production growth comes from the Marcellus/Utica region. However, as MDN has pointed out repeatedly in recent months, “associated natural gas” from the Permian region in Texas and New Mexico will also be a significant contributor to overall natgas production growth in the coming 30 years. Here are some intriguing insights into predictions made by some of the best number crunchers in the business…
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Some big, breaking news to share with MDN readers: Deep Well Services, a Marcellus/Utica-born company that specializes in “snubbing” work (completing those super-long laterals you read about), has been sold. Deep Well announced today a deal to be bought out by Houston private equity firm White Deer Energy. No, Deep Well and the expert team of 220 who work there now are not going anywhere. The company, headquartered in Zelienpole, PA, will retain its western PA HQ–same workers, same management team. However, the official announcement says White Deer’s investment will now allow Deep Well to “enter new basins.” Hmmmm. Intriguing. We wonder which new basins they’re considering? MDN spoke to Deep Well CEO Mark Marmo this morning and got the inside skinny. According to Mark, the “big thing” about this deal is “the opportunity to have capital like we’ve never had before. Our growth has been limited to adding one new unit per year. We will now be able to add three new units a year.” Mark also said, “Today we have 220 people. In the next 18 months we’ll have 330 people.” Mark, who is born and raised in the Pittsburgh area, said his goal “is to put a lot of western Pennsylvanians to work making six figures, not $10.10 an hour.” The White Deer Energy deal will make that happen…
Southwestern Energy has just taken the next very important step in a process that frankly has us holding our breath. Two weeks ago MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Superior Court handed down a decision that has the power to greatly restrict, perhaps even stop, Marcellus drilling in PA (see 
Finally. Finally! Finally!!! The very first cargo of Marcellus Shale gas has been liquefied, loaded and as of Sunday night, set sail from Dominion’s Cove Point LNG plant–heading for we’re not sure where yet. We’ve waited YEARS for this day! Let’s pop the cork on a bottle of the bubbly and celebrate. Last week MDN told you that a ship called the Patris was due to dock at Cove Point and load the first shipment of Marcellus molecules (see 
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR is the EIA’s best guess, based on expert data crunchers, as to how much each of the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce for both oil and natural gas in the coming month. We sound like a broken record, but the numbers continue to be mind-blowing–hitting new all-time, breath-taking highs each month. This month is no exception. Example: EIA predicts that in the next 30 days natural gas output from the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will go up another 1+ billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d)! Let’s put that in perspective. Germany and France together use 10 Bcf/d of natural gas. In less than a year, the U.S. could completely meet the natural gas needs of both Germany and France–using only our increases in production! Just as mind-blowing: Last month production in the Marcellus/Utica (called Appalachia in the report) went up 359 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–more than 1/3 of a Bcf. This month? EIA says our production will grow ANOTHER 386 MMcf/d! It’s staggering the amount of natural gas our region produces. Not to be left out, the Permian Basin, long known as an oil play, is now actively competing with the Marcellus/Utica. Permian gas production is set to grow another 222 MMcf/d this month. Here’s the latest…
Underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) work done by Sunoco Logisitics Partners in Chester County to install the twin Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipelines has led to the development of three large sinkholes (see 
One of “our own” (from the Marcellus/Utica industry) is heading to Washington, D.C. to work for the Trump Administration, in the Dept. of Energy. Shawn Bennett, formerly Executive Vice President for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, is heading to the swamp to become Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oil and Natural Gas. That is, Shawn will head up the office of oil and natural gas at the DOE. How cool is that?! We sincerely hope he doesn’t get infected with swamp fever and instead works hard to promote the many benefits of fossil fuels. We’re sure he’ll be a huge success! Here’s the official announcement…
Bet you didn’t know that if a pipeline company waits until antis leave the treetops where they’ve been perched because of concerns about high winds, and then the pipeline company nips in early in the morning and cuts down those vacated trees (legally), it’s considered a “predawn timbering raid.” That’s the hilarious headline given to yet another anti-pipeline, anti-drilling article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, covering news about cutting down three trees on a property in Huntingdon County, PA. For the past two years the Gerharts have used illegal protest tactics to stall tree cutting on their property. Out-of-state Big Green radicals, along with the Gearharts’ own daughter, have lived on-and-off in the tops of three white pine trees, building magic tree houses so they can lay around and do whatever. The tree occupation has prevented Sunoco Logistics Partners from cutting the trees, which are in the path of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. At daybreak on Sunday, April 8th, after observing the greenie weenies had left the night before scared of impending high winds, Sunoco snuck in and cut down the trees, much to the consternation of the Gerharts who called it a “underhanded and cowardly attack.” We call it funny! And smart. So much for the dedication of antis. They scamper down trees when it gets a tad windy up there–something to keep in mind…
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released the results of it’s industry-leading program to monitor oil and gas wells for methane (and oil and brine) migration–that is, for anything would impact groundwater. The Mechanical Integrity Assessment Program, as it’s called, is “the most rigorous routine well integrity assessment program to protect groundwater in the United States,” requiring quarterly inspections by operators of their wells. The DEP is in the process of releasing the results of those reports for the past four years–from 2014-2017. They’ve just released results for 2014 (full copy below). What did the DEP find? “[L]ess than 1 percent of operator observations indicated the types of integrity problems, such as gas outside surface casing, that could allow gas to move beyond the well footprint.” In other words, there is virtually no methane migration happening from shale (and conventional) natural gas wells because of good well casings and regular checks. It is hard to overstate how important these findings are. The DEP’s own evidence disproves wild claims that methane is migrating from shale wells everywhere, claims made by anti-fossil fuel radicals and a colluding media (
It appears Pennsylvania is not the only state in the Marcellus/Utica region facing pressure to kill the drilling industry with high severance taxes. West Virginia is now facing a fight of its own. WV already has the highest severance tax among the three M-U producing states. Ohio’s effective severance tax rate is 1.3%. Pennsylvania’s effective severance tax rate (called an impact fee, roughly the same thing), works out to be around 2.9%. WV’s severance tax is an already-high 5%–yet in WV (like PA) teacher’s unions are pressuring politicians to raise the severance tax. In WV they want a boost to a “modest” 7.5%. It would make WV the highest severance tax in the lower 48 if it went to 7.5%. WV is rattled following an extended teacher strike, looking to prevent a future strike. While we’ve not read of any specific new proposals (bills) to increase the severance tax, folks from the drilling industry are worried enough that a past president of IOGAWV penned the following editorial on the topic…
It’s always fun to talk about strippers here on MDN. Uh, stripper wells that is. Background: In 2012 Pennsylvania passed the Act 13 drilling law that includes an impact fee on wells targeting shale layers, including the Marcellus. Snyder Brothers, headquartered in PA, drills mostly conventional (vertical only) wells in southwestern PA. In 2011-2012 they drilled 45 vertical-only wells targeting the Marcellus. All 45 of the vertical-only wells were fracked. Initially those wells produced more than 90 thousand cubic feet per day (Mcf/day), but by December of the year in which they were drilled, the wells produced less than 90 Mcf/day. The way the 2012 Act 13 law is written, if a well produces less than 90 Mcf/day during “any” month it is considered a stripper well and exempt from paying the impact fee. The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) assessed the fee anyway because for 11 months the wells produced more than 90 Mcf/day, arguing the word “any” is not a get-out-tax-jail-free card. Snyder Bros. sued and after an appeal of the case, Snyder Bros. won the case in March 2017, exempting those wells from paying impact fees (see 
Five natural gas trade associations representing pretty much the entire natgas industry (producers, suppliers, pipelines and local gas utilities) sent a joint letter to President Trump on Tuesday asking the President to clarify the role of states in administering Clean Water Act Section 401. Specifically, the groups want the president to slap around individual states that are abusing Section 401 to block critical pipeline projects–like how the corrupt Andrew Cuomo in New York is blocking the Constitution Pipeline by withholding Section 401 approval for the project. The five groups which collectively call themselves the Natural Gas Council, say in the letter that some states abuse Section 401 “to hijack the permitting process for pipelines that transport natural gas in interstate commerce.” In other words, New York’s action not only hurts the residents of New York, it hurts the residents and producers in Pennsylvania that produce the gas, and potential customers in New England and beyond who would use the gas (i.e. interstate commerce). While Section 401 gives states a say in how federally-approved pipeline projects are managed, it does NOT give states the right to outright reject those projects. The Natural Gas Council is calling attention to this ongoing violation and wants Trump to do something about it…
The hits keep comin’ from Williams. Yesterday Williams announced it has filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand capacity along the mighty Transco Pipeline to increase the amount of gas the pipeline can flow to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S by 296,375 dekatherms (296 million cubic feet) per day. The Southeastern Trail expansion project (SET), as it is called, includes building 7.7 miles of 42-inch pipeline looping (pipeline laid next to existing pipeline) in Virginia, adding extra horsepower at existing compressor stations in Virginia, and making some pipe and valve modifications on other existing facilities in South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana to allow for bi-directional flow. The project aims to bring more gas to utilities, including PSNC Energy, South Carolina Electric & Gas, Virginia Natural Gas, the City of Buford, Ga., and the City of LaGrange, Ga. Note that Mountain Valley Pipeline recently announced they want to expand the MVP project an extra 70 miles to serve PSNC Energy (in North Carolina) too. Williams is currently working to finish up the Atlantic Sunrise project, which includes new pipeline to feed Marcellus gas from northeastern PA into the Transco mainline. Bottom line: This new Southeastern Trail expansion project will bring Marcellus gas to more customers in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. And that’s a good thing!…
We’ve been monitoring the developing situation in Virginia where anti-fossil fuelers continue to protest against Mountain Valley Pipeline in the Jefferson National Forest. Some of the protesters are fueled by an irrational hatred of fossil fuels (movement people), while others are locals who believe digging a trench for a pipeline will destroy their scenic vistas. The movement people arrived from out of town and whipped up the locals. A mix of both have taken to sitting in treetops (see