PA Study Finds Marcellus/Utica Can Support 4 More Ethane Crackers
Back in January MDN reported that Denise Brinley, a special assistant to the Secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, spilled the beans on an upcoming report PA had commissioned. Brinley said the report would be released “in the coming weeks” and it would show that Pennsylvania can easily handle another two ethane cracker plants (aside from the already under construction Shell cracker), and that Ohio or West Virginia could also handle another two cracker plants (see PA Report Says Marcellus/Utica Can Support Up to 4 More Crackers). In other words, there’s enough ethane in the Marcellus/Utica to support a minimum of five ethane cracker plants. It’s been more than a few weeks, but finally the report is out. On Monday, Team Pennsylvania Foundation co-chairs Gov. Tom Wolf and Stephen Tang, President and CEO of Philadelphia’s University City Science Center, released “Prospects to Enhance Pennsylvania’s Opportunities in Petrochemical Manufacturing” (full copy below). The report comes from a comprehensive study conducted by powerhouse oil & gas consulting firm IHS Markit. According to the study, natural gas from the Marcellus/Utica accounted for 25% of all natural gas produced in the U.S. in 2015, and is expected to account for more than 40% by 2030. Wow! Additionally, 40% of Marcellus/Utica natural gas produced is rich in natural gas liquids (NGLs). Most of the NGLs produced (70%) are ethane and propane, used by petrochemical plants and plastics manufacturers. You can see why our region can handle a lot of crackers. Here’s the announcement and a copy of the full (exciting) report…
Read More “PA Study Finds Marcellus/Utica Can Support 4 More Ethane Crackers”
We are super excited to bring you an exclusive report that has just been released by MDN subscriber 
Regina Mayor is leader of energy and natural resources for the consulting firm KPMG. She’s located in Houston. However, she recently made a trip to California to speak at the Stanford University Precourt Institute for Energy. Her topic? “How Energy CEOs are Adapting in the Downturn.” We have a video of her full talk below. It’s compelling. Mayor recounts how oil and gas companies had to figure out how to make money in a low price environment. She also observes that all sectors of the energy industry are pumped on Trump: “Everyone in the industry seems to think that they’re going to be a winner under this administration. The wind and solar guys and gals, the coal folks, the gas, the upstream, the downstream, everyone believes that they’re going to win…where I come from, you always know that that can’t be the case. Logic tells you that can’t be the case. But I do find the level of optimism quite fascinating.” Below is a summary of her talk, and the video…
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) has just issued production numbers for the fourth quarter of 2016. The bad news is that oil production continued to slide in 4Q16, down 44% from the same quarter in 2015. The good news continues to be natural gas production, which was up 14% over the same period in 2015. The even better news: Natural gas production in Ohio for all of 2016 was 1.37 trillion cubic feet, vs. 955.61 billion cubic feet in 2015. Awesome! Ascent Resources (formerly Aubrey McClendon’s American Energy) continued to dominate in natural gas production. Ascent had the top producing well in 4Q16, as they did in 3Q16. In fact, Ascent had 9 of the top 10 producing natural gas wells in Ohio during 4Q16. Gulfport Energy was the only other producer to break the top 10, with one well. Over on the oil side of the isle, Eclipse Resources once again had the top producing oil well with their Purple Hayes well–currently the longest horizontal well drilled in the United States at 3.5 miles long (located in Guernsey County). Purple Hayes is the gift that keeps on giving, quarter after quarter! Below we have the ODNR’s high level overview of the numbers, along with MDN’s own exclusive analysis showing: the top 25 producing gas wells, the top 25 producing oil wells, and then the top 25 gas and oil wells as ranked by average production per day. There is a difference…
The International Energy Agency (IEA) works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 29 member countries and beyond. IEA’s mission focuses on four main areas of focus: energy security, economic development, environmental awareness and engagement worldwide. A somewhat self-important group that issues reports periodically–particularly on mythical man-made global warming. The core of the man-made global warming argument is that mankind is burning fossil fuels, releasing loads of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The CO2 in the atmosphere acts as a canopy to trap the earth’s heat and to (someday soon) catastrophically warm the planet, killing off species, causing sea levels to rise, melting polar ice caps. Except none of that is actually happening (the Emperor has no clothes). Which we keep pointing out over and over. We won’t head down that rabbit trail again right now. CO2 levels are important for the eggheads at IEA. In conducting research for the next release of the IEA’s World Energy Outlook report (for 2017), researchers at the agency say worldwide CO2 levels were “flat” in 2016, even though economic activity (or the use of energy) increased. One of the major points in the IEA’s preview of what’s to come in the World Energy Outlook report is this: “The biggest drop [in CO2] came from the United States, where carbon dioxide emissions fell 3%, or 160 million tonnes, while the economy grew by 1.6%. The decline was driven by a surge in shale gas supplies and more attractive renewable power that displaced coal. Emissions in the United States last year were at their lowest level since 1992, a period during which the economy grew by 80%.” Translation: Shale gas is good for global warming, if you believe in global warming…
Pennsylvania moved to the head of Marcellus pack when it comes to production reporting back in 2015. Until January 2015, drillers in PA were required to file production numbers with the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) every six months, in October 2014 the Republican state legislature passed a bill that then-Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law moving reporting from every six months to every month (see 
Yesterday MDN’s 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. For the past five reports, estimating production for November, December, January, February, and March, Marcellus natgas has increased. The trend continues in this latest report, which forecasts production for the coming month of April. In fact, EIA says natgas production for all seven major shale plays will go up–the first time we can remember that happening in more than a year. Last month EIA predicted the combined output of the seven major shale plays would hit 49.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), a new record (see 
A group of anti-fossil fuel nutters from the Philadelphia suburb of Middletown, PA (Delaware County) spent good money to buy themselves a report from an “independent” consultant that they say proves the Mariner East 2 Pipeline is too dangerous to build through their township. We don’t know how much the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety blew on the study, but we do know that Middletown Township is blowing $45,000 of taxpayer’s hard-earned money for a similar study (see 
Last week the Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA) held its 70th annual Winter Meeting in Columbus. One of the speakers was Martin Shumway, president of Shumway Resources–an engineering/geophysical consulting firm that specializes in the Appalachian Basin. Shumway shared details from the latest DeBrosse Memorial Report (full copy below). What does the report show for 2016? There were 620 oil and gas wells completed last year, of which 77% were Utica wells. Belmont Count saw the most wells drilled (120) with the most drilled footage (1.94 million vertical+lateral feet). Chesapeake Energy drilled the most wells last year in Ohio (99 wells), although that number is down 31% from 2015. The #2, #3 and #4 drillers last year were close: Ascent Resources, drilled 66 wells; Antero Resources drilled 64 wells; and Gulfport Energy drilled 62 wells. This is one of our favorite Ohio Utica reports each year, have a look…
A fake report recently issued by the anti-drilling, radically left and biased Public Herald (populated with activists masquerading as “journalists”) claims that some 9,400 residents in Pennsylvania have filed complaints that fracking has caused them ill-health in one way or the other. It is, according to anti-drillers, a public health “crisis.” How do we know this so-called report is TOTAL BS? Look at who wrote it, and look at who funded it: community organizers wrote it, the Heinz Foundation funded it. This is another sterling example of Joseph Goebbels-like propaganda. The Harrisburg Patriot-News allowed one such community organizer/anti-fossil fueler to run an article on the opinion-editorial page touting the report as legitimate. You can fool some of the people some of the time…
Two days ago MDN brought you Shell’s very first LNG Outlook report, which says demand for LNG around the globe will increase by a very brisk 4-5% per year from now until 2030 (see 
Naysayers and peak oil & gas theorists always ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room when they make their pessimistic predictions that “any day now” oil and gas production from shale will decline into oblivion. The 800 pound gorilla? Shale drillers keep getting better at what they do. Technology is changing. Techniques change. And drillers get more out of the holes they drill today than they did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. Across all American shale plays, wells in January 2017 produced an average of three times more gas and oil than they did in January 2014. Let us put that another way: Today’s wells are producing 300% more than wells drilled just three years ago! Here’s another startling fact: the shale play with the most improvement in production is the Utica. Wells in the Utica are producing, on average, 4.2 times (420%) more today than they did three years ago…
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy has just released a full report of LNG (liquefied natural gas) imports and exports for all of 2016. The history books will look back at 2016 as the year when the world of LNG changed. Although it seemed like it took forever, in February 2016 Cheniere Energy shipped its first LNG export cargo from its Sabine Pass facility in southern Louisiana (see Cheniere Finally Ships First Sabine Pass LNG Export – to Brazil //marcellusdrilling.com/2016/02/cheniere-finally-ships-first-sabine-pass-lng-export-to-brazil/). From February through the end of December, Sabine Pass, which (we believe) included some Marcellus/Utica gas, exported an astounding 60 cargoes of LNG, moving nearly 184 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of American-made natural gas to other countries. Prices ranged from $3.72 to $6.21 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf). Cheniere (and others) are just getting started! Below is the full report from the DOE Office of Fossil Energy…