WV Driller Northeast Natural Energy Grows – Fracking Petri Dish
Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) is a small-to-midsized driller headquartered in Morgantown, WV. It’s a young company, drilling its first shale well in 2013. In April 2017 MDN reported that NNE had obtained $300 million of investment from two investment firms (see WV Driller Northeast Natural Energy Gets $300M Investment). They’ve put the money to good use. NNE owns 56,000 acres of leases “in the heart of the Marcellus Fairway,” with 44,000 acres in WV and 12,000 acres in southwestern PA. The company has drilled and brought online 57 shale wells. By this time next year the company expects that number to be nearly 100. One of the most interesting things about NNE is its involvement with government and university researchers. NNE drilled several test shale wells near Morgantown. The wells are part of an ongoing laboratory experiment that measures and pokes and prods everything, in an effort to learn more about shale drilling and its impacts. NNE’s test wells are a sort of living fracking petri dish. Reams of data pour in and get analyzed. Our friends at Kallanish Energy have done a deep dive into NNE. Here is a portion of their insightful report on this young and growing driller…
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In July 2012, the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced a one-year study that will look at impacts on air quality from Marcellus drilling and the infrastructure (pipelines and compressor plants) that comes with shale gas drilling (see 
Unhappy that local and state political leaders refuse to shut down the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project, a small group of anti-fossil fuelers from the Philadelphia area are coughing up $50,000 of Big Green (likely Tom Steyer’s) money to fund a biased “study” that will say ME2 is too risky. Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety, working with East Goshen Safety and Environmental Advocates, has hired Quest Consultants–a company that sells itself to the highest bidder. The funny thing is, the same company (Quest Consultants) did virtually the same report for the same region last year, charging the Middletown Coalition $45,000 (see 
Over the years the Nature Conservancy, whose mission is “to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends,” has put its support behind restrictive, anti-drilling measures. However, they’re not typically one of the Big Green groups that actively goes out of its way to block all fossil fuel extraction. They’re not as bad as the Sierra Club, or NRDC, or Earthworks. In what is perhaps a new chapter in cooperation with the industry (sure to get them tossed off the Christmas card list by other Big Green groups), the Nature Conservancy worked with eight of the largest pipeline companies in the U.S. (all but one with operations in the Marcellus/Utica) to produce a report titled, “Improving Steep-Slope Pipeline Construction to Reduce Impacts to Natural Resources” (full copy below). The report’s aim is to provide a list of best practice aimed at reducing the environmental impacts of natural gas pipeline construction. Particularly in areas prone to landslides. Working with Nature Conservancy on the report was Dominion Energy, Enbridge, EQT Midstream Partners, Kinder Morgan, NiSource, Southern Company Gas, UGI Energy Services and Williams–all of which have committed to adopting the guidelines put forth in the report. Notice that Nature Conservancy’s approach is not “never build another pipeline again”–as it is for most Big Green groups (including the ones we listed above). Instead, Nature Conservancy worked with pipeline companies to develop standards and practices that will protect the environment, while still allowing for pipeline construction. That is, they are being reasonable. Hats off to the Nature Conservancy for their efforts and reasonableness. Unfortunately for them, they are now sure to be ostracized by their Big Green brethren…
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. The Marcellus/Utica region (called Appalachia in the report) continues to see production go through the roof. As has been happening for the past 6 months or so, production in the Marcellus/Utica region will grow another 1/3 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in the coming month. It’s simply amazing! Our region adds another 1 Bcf/d every three months now. With no end in sight. If you add up new gas production for all seven major plays, the U.S. will produce an additional 1 Bcf/d in August. That’s 1 Bcf more in August than it produced in July. Mind blowing. No less impressive is U.S. oil production from shale. In last month’s report, EIA said oil production would grow 141,000 barrels. This month? Oil production will grow ANOTHER 143,000 barrels per day! Once again, new records for gas (and oil) will be shattered in August…
In 2016 MDN brought you the story of researchers who found microbes (bacteria) living nearly two miles down in Utica Shale wells. They dubbed one of the never-before-seen bacterial “lifeforms” in the well Frackibacter. We immediately labeled it a different name: Frackenstein (see 
Oil and gas giant BP recently released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy–the 67th edition! (Full copy below.) A number of big energy companies, like Exxon Mobil, as well as government agencies, publish similar reports that characterize current and future world energy trends. However, one analyst we read says BP’s report is the best: “I have relied upon the BP World Energy report for years. It is not a report to be viewed with a partisan eye, but as merely one of the best, if not the best, energy trend device available anywhere. In comparison to government agencies like the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) the global International Energy Association (IEA) or OPEC’s own World Oil Outlook, the BP report has proven itself to be far more valuable in finding investable trends. I would never recommend any oil sector without having the statistical evidence of the BP World Energy Report behind me.” This year’s report finds that oil and natural gas consumption increased significantly in 2017. It also finds the U.S. best-positioned to meet that increasing demand, thanks to the shale miracle. Below we have some of the key highlights from the report, followed by a full copy…
Last December the Trump Dept. of Energy published a 45-page report called, “Natural Gas Liquids Primer: With a Focus on the Appalachian Region” (see 
Yet another wild, totally false “study” has been published by Duke University and University of Missouri researchers that finds when you pump rats full of chemicals, some of which may (or may not) be used in fracking, dosing the rats at many multiples of times more that any human would ever be exposed to, it makes the rats gain weight. And voila, a new meme in mainstream faux media is born: fracking makes you fat. How do “researchers” actually get jobs after publishing this kind of garbage? Who would hire them? Perhaps the Heniz Endowments or William Penn Foundation. This is the same “research” team that tried to connect shale drilling to impaired immune systems, low sperm counts, ovarian follicle problems and pre-cancerous mammary gland lesions, in previous fictional studies. More of the same with this study…
Another fake study is leading to a plethora of fake news stories–from the usual sources. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) used to be, once upon a time, at least somewhat reasonable. Out of the crop of environmentalist wackos, they were the best. People you could have a rational conversation with about fossil fuels. People you could carry on a civil debate with. No more. For the past few years the organization has taken a hard left turn and never looked back. Their latest annual “methane is leaking/the sky is falling” report is proof of that. Over the past six years the EDF has published study after study estimating methane leakage from gas drilling/pipelines/delivery systems somewhere between 1.2% and 1.5%. We all know that some methane leaks out–it’s inevitable. Gas companies are in the business of ensuring it doesn’t happen–it’s the commodity they sell! But sometimes it leaks–out of valves, or pipeline connections, etc. Methane is, as the false-but-popular meme goes, a “far more potent greenhouse gas” than carbon dioxide. Warmists say it so often to themselves, it’s like a mantra. “Methane is worse that CO2.” But the newest EDF “study,” which isn’t really new, pulls new numbers out of the air and now claims 2.3% of methane leaks out of the system. The EDF study is published in the so-called journal Science (which should be renamed Political Science), giving mainstream leftist news sources like the New York Times, Bloomberg and others permission to trumpet headlines that “methane leaks are far worse than the EPA, and we all, thought.” Even if we accept EDF’s new, much higher number of 2.3% leaking (which we don’t accept, but let’s pretend), even at that “high” number, EDF’s own warmist kindred admit extracting and burning natgas to generate electricity is STILL more beneficial for the climate than burning coal (Princeton University says the threshold is 3.2% leakage where natgas is no longer “good” for the climate). So while this is a big story in the leftist media echo chamber, it’s really no story at all…
Here’s a bold prediction: The Age of Natural Gas will replace the Age of Oil–within our lifetimes. That’s the thought running through our head as we read a new report from analytics/consulting powerhouse IHS Markit titled, “The Shale Gale Turns 10: A Powerful Wind at America’s Back.” IHS Markit expects natural gas production to rise by almost 8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), more than 10%, in 2018 alone. Altogether, U.S. production is expected to grow by another 60% over the next 20 years, according to the report. Additionally, IHS Markit now estimates that approximately 1,250 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of U.S. supply is economic below $4 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf). That’s up from a previous estimate of 900 Tcf in 2010. “To say that the ‘Shale Gale’–as IHS Markit originally coined it in 2010–has been anything but a veritable revolution would be an understatement,” says Daniel Yergin, vice chairman, IHS Markit and co-author of the report. “It represents a dramatic and largely unanticipated turnaround that dramatically changed both markets and long-term thinking about energy.” Indeed. Here’s more about the report…
A newly published study by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) Foundation is raising eyebrows. The study, titled “North America Midstream Infrastructure through 2035” (full copy below), says the United States and Canada together will need to invest a total of $791 billion, or an average of $44 billion per year, from 2018 to 2035, to build new natural gas and oil pipelines (and associated infrastructure). That is some serious cash! The study makes certain assumptions, like this one: “Because production costs are relatively low in the Marcellus and Utica compared with production costs elsewhere, the study anticipates both production and infrastructure needs related to natural gas will be focused in the U.S. Northeast.” Meaning a lot of the money to build pipelines will go to our region. And this: “The study estimates about 25 billion cubic feet per day of new capacity to move Marcellus and Utica supplies to consumers and export facilities through 2035.” Whoa! According to the updated EIA Drilling Productivity Report issued on Monday, the Marcellus/Utica region will produce 28.9 Bcf/d of natural gas in July. Another 25 Bcf/d on top of that (essentially doubling current production) means by 2035 our region will produce over 50 Bcf/d of natgas. Incredible! No wonder we need more pipeline investment. Here’s an overview, along with a copy of the full study…
Here’s what happens when the Heinz Endowments, William Penn Foundation, National Resources Defense Council and other far-left “environmental” funders don’t fund a study: real science gets done. We’ve knocked Yale University in the past when so-called studies (junk science) were released about fracking in the Marcellus/Utica (example from March 2018: 
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. Each month, as has been happening for months on end, the Marcellus/Utica region (called Appalachia in the report) continues to see production go through the roof. Last month (and the month before and the month before) EIA predicted M-U production would go up by more than 1/3 of a billion cubic feet (see