Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia
PA & OH Natural Gas Production Nosedived Last Week, Down 2 Bcf/d
Two days ago MDN brought you news that natural gas prices in the Marcellus/Utica region are about to get really ugly, at least for the next couple of months (see Ugly Gas Prices Coming to M-U – Demand Falls More than Production). We now have the other side of the coin to share. M-U producers are shutting-in gas production like crazy. Last week M-U gas flows went down a huge 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d)–from 32 to 30 Bcf/d.
Read More “PA & OH Natural Gas Production Nosedived Last Week, Down 2 Bcf/d”
There are at least a few honest politicians in Columbus, Ohio. Last week several Ohio state legislators made the case to overturn House Bill (HB) 6. Last year FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular HB 6 (see 
In late 2018 a fringe environmental group called the Coalition to Reroute NEXUS (CORN), along with the City of Oberlin, Ohio, filed yet another lawsuit (with the D.C. Court of Appeals) to nullify the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) original decision to approve the NEXUS Pipeline project that runs through Ohio (see 
Although Joe Biden is protesting (the lefty doth protest too much, methinks) that he would not ban “all” fracking if he’s elected president, his own words and the words of his pick for VP (Kamala Harris) say otherwise. Biden has endorsed most of the Green New Deal platform pushed by crazy Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Occasional-Cortex (AOC). So yes, if Biden is elected, fracking is pretty much done. Over. Fini. If fracking is banned, according to the Ohio State Grange it will be a catastrophe for farmers in the Buckeye State. Some farmers (many) will simply go out of business.
We’ll ask the question no one else dares to ask publicly: How many more Ohio legislators are in the back pocket of FirstEnergy (i.e. Energy Harbor), guilty of taking part in an alleged $60 million bribery scandal that paid politicians to ensure Energy Harbor would get $1.1 billion of ratepayers’ money to prop up their economically failing nuclear power plants? It sure seems like there may be other Ohio legislators who have been paid off too, given their unwillingness to support the effort to overturn House Bill (HB) 6 and end the gravy train for Energy Harbor.
A group of far-left, so-called environmental groups, including, Earthjustice, Buckeye Environmental Network, Concerned Ohio River Residents, Freshwater Accountability Project, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the Sierra Club, are suing the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) in an attempt to overturn permits issued by ODNR to build an underground NGL storage hub in Monroe County, Ohio.
FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see 
FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see 
Ohio’s oil and natural gas producers via OOGEEP (Ohio Oil & Gas Energy Education Program) have just launched a major statewide public awareness campaign dubbed Essential Ohio Energy. The campaign includes (so far) two TV commercials (we have both embedded below). OOGEEP is spending big money to blanket the state and remind folks of the key role played by fossil fuels in every single aspect of their lives. We need to see more of this kind of thing.
We spotted a great editorial in an Ohio newspaper that succinctly and accurately describes what will happen in Ohio if Joe Biden’s environmental socialism program (cost of $2 trillion) actually gets implemented. What would happen? Some 700,000 jobs in Ohio will disappear. So too will some $245 billion in Ohio GDP (gross domestic product). It is, literally, a nightmare.
Another week, another look at the rig count. The onshore rig count continues to bump along near the bottom of historic lows. It’s not AT the bottom (thank God), but it does continue to flirt with low numbers. According to Enverus, which tracks rigs using GPS units, the count bottomed at the beginning of July with 264 active rigs. Since then it’s risen and currently stands around 280 rigs. Week to week it goes up and it goes down, but not down significantly. According to Enverus, the count lost a rig last week.
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 second-quarter 2020 update yesterday. The company added another 25 wells to production in 2Q and produced 2.1 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), a new company high. Unfortunately, the financial picture was not as rosy…
Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in six unconventional resource basins, including the Marcellus and Utica. The company concentrates its time and money on four “core focus areas” including the Utica, the Williston (i.e. Bakken), the DJ Basin and the Permian. The Marcellus is part of the company’s “legacy” systems that doesn’t get as much love (and money). Last week the company issued its 2Q update. The company’s Utica operation was the star performer in 2Q, increasing flows through Summit’s system by 60%.