Last Wednesday Stephanie Catarino Wissman, Executive Director of API (American Petroleum Institute) of Pennsylvania provided a “State of the State” update to the PA House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee. She discussed a number of topics, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Marcellus Shale.
Read More “API’s “State of the State” for Oil & Gas Industry in Pennsylvania”
The data crunchers at the Pittsburgh Business Times have been sifting through the data for 2020 and have composed a list of the “Largest Pennsylvania Shale Gas Drillers in 2020.” The PBT list ranks drillers by the number of wells drilled in PA for all time, including right up through the end of 2020. We resorted their list to reveal the number of wells “added” (drilled) in PA for 2020, to generate the following list of the top 10 drillers from 2020:
Read More “Top 10 Shale Drillers in PA for 2020, by Number of Wells Drilled”
Apparently, the staff who run the day-to-day business of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is incompetent and can’t defend itself. Every time they are challenged in court, they run crying to mommy and daddy (Teresa Heinz Kerry at the Heinz Endowments and Shawn McCaney at the William Penn Foundation), which in turns launders money (i.e. hires lawyers) through the Delaware Riverkeeper to help bail the DRBC out of legal trouble. A federal judge (appointed by swamp-dweller George W. Bush) ruled last week to allow Riverkeeper (Heinz & Wm. Penn) to “intervene” (become a party to) a lawsuit launched by Pennsylvania Senate Republicans against the DRBC over the organization’s illegal taking of property rights by banning fracking in the river basin.
Read More “Fed Judge Allows Big Green Interference in PA Senate v. DRBC Lawsuit”
On Friday Pennsylvania state legislators held two different remote/video hearings about the future of energy and fossil fuels in the state. Radical leftists who have taken over the Democrat Party are alarmed that the House Democratic Caucus, which lists climate change as a top priority, dedicated more than half of a two-hour hearing on “21st Century Energy Jobs” to speakers extolling the virtues of natural gas and coal. In our new woke, cancel culture where free speech is dead and any idea that doesn’t agree with the left is verboten, this just isn’t acceptable (so say the wokers)!
Read More “Some PA Democrat Politicos Still Rational, Support Fossil Fuels”
It’s kind of hard to consider the City of Pittsburgh as the “energy capital of the Northeast” when its mayor and now its namesake institution of higher learning are both virulent anti-fossil fuelers. University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) trustees on Friday agreed to continue phasing out fossil fuel investments in the school’s $4.3 billion endowment and become completely divested from fossil fuels by 2035 (14 years from now). That’s not fast enough for the petulant, childish kids whose parents pay their steep tuition bills at Pitt. The spoiled kids want the university to divest NOW, darnit (feet stomping on the floor)…
Read More “Univ of Pittsburgh Divesting Fossil Fuels by 2035, Kids Throw Fit”
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), a quasi-governmental organization composed of four states (NY, PA, DE, NJ) plus the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, voted yesterday to permanently ban fracking within the boundaries of the DRBC’s jurisdiction, which includes Wayne and Pike counties in Pennsylvania where there is abundant Marcellus Shale deposits. But don’t despair. The DRBC is in the midst of two legal challenges and one (or both) is sure to win, reversing the illegal action taken yesterday. Chin up! The sun will rise again.
Read More “DRBC Jumps Off Cliff – Votes to Permanently Ban Fracking”
Remember the statement, uttered by then-candidate Joe Biden as he stood in Bucks County, PA (which sits in the Delaware River Basin) when he emphatically promised PA residents and union workers, “I’m not banning fracking in Pennsylvania or anywhere else!”? It took him slightly less than five weeks to break that promise. Yesterday the Biden administration, in the form of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (which is an Executive Branch agency) abstained and then voiced moral support for the DRBC’s vote to ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin. That action bans fracking in two northeastern PA counties where there are frackable shale deposits (see today’s lead story). FIVE WEEKS. Still happy you voted for lyin’ Biden?
Read More “Biden Breaks “No Frack Ban” Promise to PA 5th Week in Office”
Some good news to share on this Friday. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has given National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) the green light to begin construction on its FM100 pipeline project. The FM100 Project will beef up and extend an existing pipeline network in northwestern Pennsylvania to flow an extra 330 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of Marcellus gas to Williams’ mighty Transco Pipeline (see NFG FM100 Pipe Project in NW PA to Feed Marcellus Gas to Transco).
Read More “FERC Gives OK for NFG’s FM100 Pipeline to Begin PA Construction”
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is sticking its sticky fingers into the pocket of Energy Transfer/Sunoco one more time, and this time drawing out nearly half a million dollars to pay for a series of small spills of nontoxic drilling mud in Snitz Creek in Lebanon County. It isn’t the first time the DEP has fined ET for Mariner East 2 (ME2) work. We’ve lost track of how many millions of dollars ET/Sunoco has paid in various fines–some of it legit, some of it (in our opinion), not legit.
Read More “PA DEP Picks Pocket of Sunoco Another $497,000 for ME2 Pipe”
Yesterday, CNX Resources, Bettis Brothers, and The Bus Stops Here Foundation announced a partnership intended to bring greater awareness and access to opportunities in the natural gas industry to disadvantaged urban and rural communities in the Pittsburgh region. Does the Bettis name ring any bells? It should. Pittsburgh-based IntegrServ, a trucking company partly owned by former Pittsburgh Steeler Jerome Bettis, filed a federal lawsuit last summer against EQT claiming discrimination against his company (a minority-owned company) after EQT canceled a contract worth some $66 million (see Trucking Company Sues EQT for Racial Bias, Canceled $66M Contract).
Read More “CNX Gets More Diverse – Working with Minority-Owned Co. EQT Dumped”
Yesterday Cabot Oil & Gas issued its fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 update. Cabot continues to be one of the few drillers that consistently makes a profit quarter after quarter, year after year–even during a downturns like what happened in 2020. Although down from 2019, in 2020 Cabot made just over $200 million in net income. They drilled 74 wells, completed 86 wells, and produced an average of 2.3 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) last year.
Read More “Cabot 2020 Update: Drilled 74 Wells, Avg 2.3 Bcf/d, Made $200M”
In December MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is proposing and seeking comments on changes to the state’s Chapter 105 (water obstructions and encroachments) permit (see PA DEP Proposes Changes to Ch. 105 Water Permits). It’s a fundamental permit almost all outdoor construction projects in PA are required to obtain, including the drilling of shale wells. Republicans on the PA House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee voted yesterday to send a letter to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) expressing their strong disapproval of the proposed changes.
Read More “PA Legislators Strongly Disapprove Ch. 105 Water Permit Changes”
Our headline is a bit cryptic, so we’ll explain right up front that G&P stands for gathering and processing. In pipeline giant Williams’ latest update (covering 4th quarter and full-year 2020) company reps said the Northeast G&P unit “continues to come on very strong producing record results and contributing $29 million of additional EBITDA this quarter.” They also said Northeast (namely Marcellus) gathering volumes grew by 7% in 4Q, and processing volumes grew by 9%.
Read More “Williams 4Q Update: Marcellus G&P Hits Record High – G +7%, P +9%”
You have to hand it to Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw, he sure knows how to set off the crazies in the Keystone State. Yesterday Yaw issued a fantastic op-ed saying if Gov. Wolf gets his bizarre Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax adopted, Pennsylvanians can look forward to power outages like those recently experienced in Texas, which happened in large part because of the failure of “renewable” energy sources like windmills. Yaw’s comments have the lefties yammering away to “correct” Yaw’s non-standard and non-approved speech.
Read More “PA Joining RGGI Carbon Tax Will Result in Texas-Style Blackouts”
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 10 new permits. Ohio received 6 new permits. And West Virginia received 3 new permits.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Feb 15-19”
As we reported in January, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (Democrat) has, for the seventh year in a row, introduced a Marcellus-killing severance tax proposal as part of his annual budget proposal (see PA Gov. Wolf Floats Budget with Severance Tax for 7th Year in Row). Yesterday Wolf released the details on his latest severance tax abomination. As he has done in years past, Wolf has an excuse why THIS is the year a severance tax is really really really needed. The excuse this time? To put PA workers back to work.
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf Trots Out $3B Shale Severance Tax Plan – DOA”