Biden Spending $33M to Plug 277 Wells on Fed Land Incl. PA, OH, WV
The Bidenistas at the Dept. of Interior breathlessly announced the agency is (finally) releasing $33 million to plug 277 orphaned oil and gas wells across the country located on federal lands. The average price per plugging is $119,000. Spending $33 million to plug wells on federal lands is chump change compared to the $4.7 billion allocated for plugging old wells under the so-called Biden infrastructure bill. Why is the government paying $119K to plug wells that normally cost maybe $50,000 to plug? We’ll answer that question with another question. Why does the government pay $400 for a hammer it could buy at Lowes for $18?
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Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its first quarter update earlier this week. Ascent averaged production of 2.0 Bcfe/d for the quarter, a 9% increase over 1Q21. Nearly all of Ascent’s production (93%) was natural gas, while the rest was oil and NGLs. Ascent generated -$2 million of free cash flow (yes, negative free cash flow) and lost $1.5 billion during 1Q based on bad bets on derivatives/hedging.
Riverbend Energy Group is, according to its website, “a multi-faceted investment firm, utilizing risk-weighted deal evaluation processes to deploy capital into a variety of investment theses in the U.S. energy sector.” Which is gobbledegook for “we invest in oil and gas wells.” The company mainly invests in non-operated oil and gas wells, although it also has some operated wells in its portfolio (and investments in renewables too). Riverbend is, according to sources speaking with Reuters, working with an unnamed investment bank to shop three portfolios of non-operated oil and gas assets–with one of them containing Utica Shale assets.
How much of an effort is “enough” when a surface landowner in Ohio tries to locate the owner(s) of the belowground mineral rights under his or her land using the Dormant Mineral Act (DMA), with an eye toward reclaiming those rights? Is it enough to search the public record archive in only the county where the land is located? The Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled in two cases to say no, it’s not enough to run a quick search in one county when attempting to locate mineral rights owners.
Yesterday MDN highlighted a newly published Cleveland State University study commissioned (and paid for) by the nonprofit JobsOhio (see 
KeyState LLC is developing 7,000 acres of natural gas fields and geological storage in West Keating Township, Clinton County in the middle of coal and iron country in central Pennsylvania (see 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia are all scrambling to form intrastate working groups or other alliances in an attempt to be THE state chosen for one of four regional hydrogen hubs funded by the recently passed so-called Biden infrastructure bill (see 
Last Friday the Utica Energy Alliance (UEA), which represents hundreds of landowners, businesses, community leaders and allies of the shale industry, sent a letter to the entire Ohio Congressional delegation asking the state’s Senators and Congresspeople to stand behind the U.S. initiative to support the European Union by promoting Ohio’s (and the entire Marcellus/Utica region’s) production of natural gas. The UEA says using American natgas is the only way for Europe to end reliance on Russian energy and put an end to funding Putin’s war machine. The group requested a written response from each member. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a response from U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
On Monday MDN brought you big news from Bloomberg that Gulfport Energy is in talks with Ascent Resources to merge (see 
PTT Global Chemical has reimbursed JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development office, $20 million for failing to make a final investment decision (FID) to build a multi-billion-dollar ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH. JobsOhio paid Bechtel Corp. $20 million in 2019 to complete site engineering and site preparation for the project, with a promise from PTT that it would soon make an FID and move forward with construction. That never happened, so PTT is paying up because it didn’t live up to its end of the bargain. Interestingly, PTT maintains it is “committed to building the multi-billion dollar project.” Right.