Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA
New Study Claims PA Fracking Stops Hikers from Having Good Time
Yet another cockamamie “study” (i.e. propaganda) about the negatives of fracking–this one done by the University of New Hampshire claiming a few hikers and outdoor enthusiasts in Pennsylvania will have to find someplace else to hike and enthuse…because of evil Marcellus fracking. The thing that really angers us is that Pennsylvania taxpayers paid for this “study”!
Read More “New Study Claims PA Fracking Stops Hikers from Having Good Time”
CNX Resources, formerly the CNX Gas division of CONSOL Energy, released its second quarter update yesterday. The big news is that during 2Q CNX drilled the longest new Marcellus well ever…at 19,609 feet! The company reports production jumped 10%, from 123 Bcfe last year to 135 Bcfe in 2Q19, and net income jumped 216% from $61 million last year to $193 million in 2Q19.
The actions of one man seeking access to confidential risk assessments and plans for the Mariner East pipelines in the Philadelphia area will, if successful, put information into the public domain that terrorists can potentially use. Note we don’t believe it is the intent of this man to grant access to sensitive information to terrorists. But that is the consequence, the outcome, the result of his actions–if a court now reviewing the case grants his request.
Cabot Oil & Gas is the only Marcellus/Utica driller that is profitable quarter after quarter and year after year. So the market pays attention to what Cabot does, because they’ve figured out how to make money in a low commodity price environment. Last Friday Cabot released second quarter numbers. CEO Dan Dinges talked about the balance of 2019 and even a bit about what to expect in 2020.
In March we told you about National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) FM100 Project in northwestern Pennsylvania that will beef up and extend an existing pipeline network to flow an extra 330 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of Marcellus gas to Williams’ mighty Transco Pipeline (see 
It’s hard to miss the stories in oil and gas (even national) media: Company after company, in particular oilfield services companies, are predicting a big slowdown in drilling during the second half of 2019. Over the past few days OFS companies including Schlumberger, Halliburton, Patterson-UTI, Superior Energy Services, Helmerich & Payne, and RPC have all predicted a coming decline (crash?) in drilling in the near future. What about the Marcellus/Utica region? Does the coming slowdown affect us too?
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper has engaged in a months-long smear campaign to imply the shale industry in southwestern PA is guilty of causing a “cluster” of rare childhood cancers–even though there’s an old uranium dump in the same vicinity as those cancer clusters (see 
JKLM Energy, a Pennsylvania gas drilling company founded by Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula, is “temporarily halting” operation of its single drilling rig (in Potter County) due to the low price of natural gas.
A landowner in Pike County, PA called King Arthur Estates LP, challenged Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) over the amount of money they should receive to have a pipeline cross its land–and has won the right to use PA’s more generous laws on compensation rather than the federal government’s more stingy laws on “just” compensation. The decision sets a precedent for all PA landowners.
The City of Philadelphia owns the largest municipal-owned natural gas utility in the country, Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW). Philly sits not far from, and now benefits from, abundant, clean-burning natural gas deposits in the PA Marcellus. And yet there are those lunatic nutjobs who want Philadelphia to do what the city of Berkeley, California (which we call Beserkley) did and ban the use of natural gas in new buildings. Philly, to its shame, is conducting a “study” to figure out how to transition PGW away from selling natgas. The so-called study is being funded by Bloomberg, meaning it’s a shame from the start–not a true study but a propaganda piece.
Mainstream media, via a single Associated Press story, is reporting a decision by Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court yesterday is largely a “win” for the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection with respect to Chapter 78a regulations. The AP story de-emphasizes what we consider the larger story–that the drilling industry already won most of the case last year (see 
On Friday Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus well back in 2004, announced two deals that will net the company $634 million total. In the first deal, Range sold a 2% overriding royalty interest on 350,000 acres “in southwest Appalachia” for $600 million. In the second deal, Range sold ~20,000 non-producing acres in Armstrong County for $34 million ($1,700/acre).
A new Pennsylvania PIPE (Pipeline Investment Program) grant for $320,950 will help extend a natural gas delivery pipeline to the Keystone Cement Co. near Allentown, PA, which will allow the plant to replace coal with natural gas, used to manufacture cement. Total cost of the new pipeline project is over $2 million. The grant helps. According to the engineer working on the plan, it takes truck traffic off the roads and lowers costs to the plant.
In May 2016, a landowner in Wayne County, PA filed a lawsuit against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) asking a judge to declare that the DRBC does not have jurisdiction to prevent construction of a natural gas well (see