Pennsylvania

Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Cabot O&G 2015 Update; Cutting 2016 Drilling Budget 58%
February 2, 2016February 2, 2016

Cabot Oil & Gas, one of the premier drillers in the Marcellus Shale (operates totally within Susquehanna County, PA) released their fourth quarter and full year 2015 operational update this morning. The highlights: Cabot ended up spending $774 million on capital expenditures (mostly drilling) in 2015, down a bit from the previous estimate of $850 million. It’s down because they scaled back activity during 4Q15. They also had to write down the value for some of their non-core holdings by $73 million–what’s called an impairment charge. Looking ahead, Cabot plans to spend $615 million on capital expenditures (i.e. drilling) in 2016, which is down 58% from 2015. They will drill approximately 30 new wells, 25 of them in the Marcellus and 5 in the Texas Eagle Ford Shale. Here’s the update…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

2015 PA Impact Fee Goes Down for Drillers, Towns Get Less Too
February 2, 2016February 2, 2016

Pennsylvania’s impact fee–their version of a severance tax–was crafted and became law in February 2012 as part of the Act 13 law. Since that time the impact fee has generated $854 million in revenue, with 60% of that revenue going to the local municipalities (towns and counties) where drilling actually happens, and the other 40% going to the black hole of politicians’ sticky fingers in Harrisburg for pork barrel projects. The 40% portion is the shakedown required to get the law passed in the first place. Disgusting, we know. The impact fee itself is a somewhat complex calculation with the highest fee paid during the first year and going down from there (see below). The fees across all years are based on the average price of natural gas sold at the Henry Hub for the previous year. Because the price of natgas tanked in 2015, impact fees paid by drillers will be lower than in previous years when the average price was higher. PA drillers will save $5,000 per well drilled for the first year, $5,000 per well in the second year, and so on…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Susquehanna County | Williams

FERC OKs Tree-Cutting for Constitution Pipeline – in PA
February 1, 2016February 1, 2016

In a crushing blow to anti-drilling radicals who have tried their best to stop the Constitution Pipeline, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has granted Williams, builder of the Constitution, permission to begin cutting down trees along the pipeline’s path in Pennsylvania. Williams still cannot fell trees in New York State, where the bulk of the pipeline will be built. However, FERC would not grant permission for PA unless they intend to grant permission on the other side of the border too–and everyone knows it. Currently New York’s anti-drilling governor, Andrew Cuomo, is holding up the 125-mile project that will deliver natural gas from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY by connecting with two interstate pipelines. Cuomo is about to create a constitution crisis in which the federal government will be forced to overrule the state and allow the pipeline to be built. Cuomo is withholding stream crossing permits–the only thing left before bulldozers begin to clear a path. Cuomo is once again caving to pressure from his lunatic left base of supporters. And he’s about to turn New York into a third-rate state, controlled by the federal government, through his unwillingness to grant the permits…
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Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

New Effort to Pass HB 1391 Minimum Royalty Bill in PA
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

Garth Everett

Last June MDN told you about a renewed effort by Pennsylvania State legislators to pass a minimum royalty bill that will guarantee PA’s landowners get at least 12.5% royalties (see New Bill HB 1391 Will Guarantee PA Landowners 12.5% Royalties). House Bill (HB) 1391 is was introduced by State Rep. Garth Everett, Republican from Lycoming County, PA. Everett said in June the new bill was “narrowed” in focus from a previous bill (that had failed) and because the more narrowed focus, he hopes the Marcellus industry will not oppose it this time around. The issue of guaranteeing minimum royalties is one of those rare issues that has divided the drilling industry and landowners. Everett said he hasn’t (until now) pushed the bill because of the budget stalemate, but now that the budget impasse is mostly over, he’s going to make a renewed effort to get HB 1391 passed…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Beaver County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Beaver, PA Anti-Frackers Want County to Ban Marcellus Drilling
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

Last night a couple of anti-fossil fuel residents in Beaver County, PA addressed the new Beaver County Commissioners board at their first meeting of 2016. Both are from the Beaver County Marcellus Shale Awareness Committee, a group formed in 2010 to oppose Marcellus Shale drilling in the county. The two want the commissioners to ban fracking in the county. One of the two, with a receding hairline, gray hair and a ponytail (a sure sign he was once a 60s hippie), calls himself a Reverend and claims a bunch of liberal churches–even the pope!–are against fracking. The Rev doesn’t care much for Shell’s plan to build an ethane cracker in the county either. His alternative? Stick a bunch of solar panels on that site. Yes, we literally fell out of our chair laughing…
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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

MSC’s Dave Spigelmyer Says Rough Few Years Ahead for Marcellus
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

David Spigelmyer, who once headed up Chesapeake Energy’s efforts in the Marcellus Shale region, is and has been head of the Marcellus Shale Coalition for the past couple of years. Great guy. Smart guy. Dave published an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in today’s issue. It’s titled, “Shale hits a rough patch: But natural gas remains a boon to Pennsylvania.” The sobering news, according to Dave, is that the price northeast drillers (drillers everywhere) are getting for their gas will remain low in 2016 and 2017 “and perhaps longer.” Businesses are “in survival mode” and and the slowdown in drilling is being felt by “tens of thousands of men and women” who work for this marvelous industry. The statistics, according to Dave, are “numbing.” Sobering words. But we have to face the reality and not look away and pretend otherwise. But, according to Dave, there is hope and we will get through it. Here’s a portion of his no-rose-colored-glasses op-ed…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Corbett Official Destroys Hanger’s Claims of Low Marcellus Jobs
January 29, 2016January 29, 2016

Earlier this week MDN brought you the reckless and baseless allegations by John Hanger that former PA Gov. Tom Corbett had “cooked the books” when it came to how many jobs the Marcellus industry has created (see John Hanger Says Gov. Corbett “Cooked the Books” re Marcellus Jobs). Perhaps it’s totally unrelated, but we’d like to point out that Hanger, when he ran for governor in the primary, campaigned on a platform of legalizing marijuana in the Keystone State (see Pass One Last Joint for John Hanger). Anywho… Dennis Roddy used to work for Corbett as a speech writer. Roddy knows the jobs issue very well and was personally involved with the Corbett administration’s efforts to accurately account for the economic benefits the Marcellus industry was (and is) creating in the state. Roddy recently published a rebuttal to Hanger that completely destroys Hanger’s claims of inflated jobs figures…
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Allegheny County | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

Invenergy Eyes SWPA for Second Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant
January 28, 2016January 28, 2016

Invenergy is in the process of building a $500 million Marcellus gas-fired electric plant in Jessup (Lackawanna County), PA–near Scranton, PA in the northeastern part of the state (see PA DEP Approves Jessup, PA Marcellus Gas Electric Plant). When built, and every indication is that it will get built this year, the Jessup plant will be the largest gas-fired plant in the state, generating 1,480 megawatts of electricity by using clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas. Invenergy now has their eye on building another Marcellus-powered electric plant. This time it’s much smaller (just 550 megawatts) and it’s located in southwestern PA–in the Pittsburgh area…
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Clarion County | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Laurel Mountain Energy | Patterson-UTI | Pennsylvania

Laurel Mountain Drilling First Well in Western PA – It’s a Utica
January 25, 2016January 25, 2016

One of our ace tipsters alerted us that Laurel Mountain Energy, a relatively new E&P (exploration and production) company is firing up a drilling rig to drill one, possibly two new Utica wells in Pennsylvania. You may recall MDN brought you the news one year ago that Laurel Mountain, essentially a reborn Vista Resources with big money backing from TPH Partners (Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.), had formed and set up headquarters in Pittsburgh (see “New” Pittsburgh Company Forms to Target Marcellus/Utica in W PA). Since that time we’d not heard anything about Laurel Mountain Energy–until now. Below we’ve pieced together information from our tipster and from the forthcoming edition of the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

John Hanger Says Gov. Corbett “Cooked the Books” re Marcellus Jobs
January 25, 2016January 25, 2016

What is it about Democrats that they blame current problems on the last Republican administration. They NEVER blame themselves or their own policies. Ever notice that? Some national Dems still blame George W. Bush for today’s bad economy–even though Obama has owned this economy for seven years now. John Hanger, former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection and a former Democrat candidate for governor in PA (someone who wants to legalize pot smoking in PA) blames the Corbett administration for a lack of Marcellus jobs. According to Hanger, currently PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s Policy Secretary, in speaking about the number of rapidly-dwindling drilling-related jobs in the state: “Governor Corbett’s office cooked the books. Everyone knows Corbett was in bed with the Marcellus Shale industry.” Right. John Hanger is perhaps the biggest partisan hack in the Wolf administration, after Wolf himself…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Southwestern Energy | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Southwestern Energy Cuts Workforce 44%, 200 Marcellus Jobs Gone
January 22, 2016January 22, 2016

We have some very sad news to share today. Yesterday Southwestern Energy Company, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica and the third largest independent natural gas driller in the U.S., announced it will lay off 1,100 people and pause its drilling program. That 1,100 is out of 2,500 employees–or 44% of the company. It was just a few weeks ago that Southwestern got a new CEO, Bill Way (see Southwestern Energy Gets New CEO – What’s Ahead for 2016?). We mused at the time: “When there’s a change in leadership, it has the potential to impact company strategy. So we’re always interested when changes of this type come along. The question now is, what’s ahead for 2016 with Bill Way at the helm?” Indeed. We can see what kind of changes Mr. Way is bringing. In October 2014 Southwestern announced a deal to buy 413,000 Marcellus/Utica acres from Chesapeake Energy, most of it in West Virginia (see Chesapeake Sells Close to 25% of Marcellus/Utica Operation). Then in December 2014, Southwestern bought 46,700 net acres of leases in northeastern PA from WPX for $300 million (see First Shoe Drops: WPX Sells 1/2 Marcellus Assets to Southwestern). Southwestern holds about 755,000 acres total in the Marcellus/Utica region. When everyone else was slowing down, Southwestern was doubling down on their drilling program (see Southwestern’s Contrarian Plan: Double Down on Drilling in the Marcellus). It seems that the wind has finally gone out of Southwestern’s sails. The company did not post an official press release on their website, so we’ve pieced together coverage from a number of sources to try and give you a complete picture of what they said yesterday…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Dauphin County | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

7 Antis Arrested at Final PA Pipeline Task Force Meeting
January 22, 2016January 22, 2016

Yesterday we reported on the very last Pennsylvania Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force meeting, held in Harrisburg on Wednesday (see PA Pipeline Task Force Wraps Up – Did We Worry for Nothing?). Once again anti-fossil fuelers disrupted the meeting, which is nothing new. Last October a group of 20 or so antis showed up and behaved badly (see PA DEP Sec. Quigley Calls Pipeline Protesters “Badly Misinformed”). At Wednesday’s final Task Force meeting, seven protesters behaved badly enough that they got themselves arrested. To their credit, the Democrat-run PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania is the only “media” outlet that covered the news of the arrests…
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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Quigley Expounds on Methane Emissions Plan: Drillers to Get Hosed
January 21, 2016January 21, 2016

John Quigley

On Tuesday Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf unveiled his Marcellus-killing plan to cut fugitive methane another 40% over current levels in the next five years (see PA Gov. Wolf’s Plan to Kill Drilling via Methane Emissions Regs). Interestingly, Wolf’s Sec. of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), John Quigley, admits they don’t even know what current levels of fugitive methane emissions are–so how will they know when they’ve cut it by 40%? But we digress. Yesterday Quigley held a quick 15-minute webinar to discuss the four-point plan he and Wolf have hatched. Quigley said while the new rules may require more DEP inspectors, it “initially will require more work on the part of the operators.” Translation: Drillers and midstreamers are about to get hosed by the Wolf administration…
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Air Quality | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Radicals Praise Wolf’s Plan to Kill PA Drilling via Methane Regs
January 21, 2016January 21, 2016

As we told you yesterday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has set his sites on reducing fugitive methane emissions from the oil and gas industry in the Keystone State, all in the name of mythical man-made global warming (see PA Gov. Wolf’s Plan to Kill Drilling via Methane Emissions Regs). We gave you a few early reactions from the far-left/radical contingent, including PennFuture, Clean Air Council, and the Sierra Clubbers–all of whom love his plan to screw the shale industry. We spotted a few more accolades for Wolf’s new plan to end drilling in the Keystone State, from Environment America (which has a “Stop Drilling Program”), and the radicals at Earthworks and the National Resources Defense Council. When this rogues gallery of antis loves something, you know it’s really bad…
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Pipeline Task Force Wraps Up – Did We Worry for Nothing?
January 21, 2016January 21, 2016

Looks like we worried for nothing. Yesterday was the final meeting of the PA Pipeline Infrastructure Task Force. When it was first formed last May, we worried that local gathering pipelines would get wrapped around a regulatory axle (see Disaster on the Horizon: PA Gov Wolf Creates Pipeline Task Force). The situation seemed even grimmer when Wolf and Quigley packed the task force with government workers–half of the 48 members work for the government (see PA Gov Wolf Packs Pipeline Task Force with His Own Minions). After months of squabbling, Task Force members produced a 335-page document with 184 “recommendations” last November (see PA Gathering Pipeline Draft “Recommendations” from Wolf Task Force). As we noted at the time, “recommendations” have a way of becoming “regulations” in the hands of LibDems. But it appears the Task Force was a paper lion after all. At least one prominent member of the Task Force (Democrat Sen. Andy Dinniman) is moaning that he thinks nothing will come of the work from the Task Force…
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Bradford County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Lackawanna County | Pennsylvania | Pike County | Pipelines | Tioga County (PA)

Kinder Morgan 4Q15: Cutting Dividend, PA Pipeline Progress
January 21, 2016January 21, 2016

Yesterday Kinder Morgan, the largest midstream company in the U.S., released their fourth quarter 2015 update. The update starts with the news that KM is lowering the cash dividend in order to avoid chasing new loans. KM says by cutting the dividend they will be able to self-fund new projects, which ultimately benefits everyone, including shareholders. The update also chronicles progress made on three Pennsylvania pipelines: the Susquehanna West Project (Tioga and Bradford counties, the Orion Project (Pike County), and the Triad Expansion Project (Lackawanna County). Below is the full update from KM…
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