Coterra Scales Back in Marcellus in 1Q in Favor of More Oil Drilling
Coterra Energy, formed by the merger of Cabot Oil & Gas (drills for natural gas in the Marcellus) and Cimarex Energy (drills for oil in the Permian and Anadarko basins), issued its first quarter 2024 update on Friday. The company turned in respectable financial numbers, making a profit of $352 million in 1Q24, albeit down 48% from the $677 million it made in 1Q23. The company produced 2.31 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) in the PA Marcellus during 1Q24, up 8% from 2.13 Bcf/d in 1Q23. However, the money it received for its natgas production dropped like a rock. The average sale price for its gas in 1Q24 was $2.20/Mcf, down 41% from $3.71/Mcf in 1Q23. No wonder the company has pivoted to spend more time and money on oil drilling rather than gas drilling.
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Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count lost another eight rigs, down to 605, the lowest the count has been since January of 2022. Since last October, the national count had gone as low as 616 and as high as 629, and that was it. No higher and no lower. That is, until two weeks when it crashed through the floor and went lower, down to 613. And now, it has gone even lower, down to 605. The Marcellus/Utica remained even at 40 rigs after losing one rig two weeks ago. Pennsylvania operates 21 rigs; Ohio operates 11 active rigs; and West Virginia operates 8 rigs.
Two weeks ago, during the week of April 15 – 21, there were 16 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica. Last week, for the week of April 22 – 28, there were 26 new permits issued. Finally! A little good news on the permit front. Snyder Brothers took the top prize with eight new permits issued, all of them for a single well pad in Armstrong County, PA. Chesapeake Energy scored five new permits, all of them for a single pad in Bradford County, PA. EQT Corporation (using its Rice Drilling subsidiary) received four permits in Greene County, PA. Encino Energy also received four permits, all for one pad in Harrison County, OH. Antero Resources received three permits in Wetzel County, WV, and Southwestern Energy received two permits in Brooke County, WV.
The great state of Pennsylvania has an Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), created by Act 120 of 2010 and Act 100 of 2016. The IFO analyzes fiscal proposals made by state agencies and is nonpartisan in its analyses. PA State Senator Gene Yaw, from Lycoming County (and Chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources & Energy Committee), introduced a bill last June to create an Independent Energy Office (IEO) modeled along the same lines as the IFO (see 
UGI, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations in the Marcellus and one of PA’s largest utility companies, hinted last summer that it was looking to sell or spin off its propane subsidiary into a new company (see 
Private companies create jobs and economic stimulus, not “the government,” as the left convinces you. Companies, especially manufacturing companies, locate where there is cheap energy. In Pennsylvania, there is abundant cheap (and CLEAN) energy from Marcellus gas in the northeastern part of the state. And indeed, that is exactly what is happening. Businesses are locating in what locals call the “Inland Triangle” of PA — seven counties with numerous major interstate highways running through them in the heart of the Marcellus.
When the Bidenistas announced a $750 million “investment” of taxpayer money would flow to the Philadelphia region (actually Delaware and New Jersey, and a little bit of Philly) for a “green” hydrogen hub, wackadoodle antis pitched a fit (see 
Greg Wrightstone, a Pennsylvania native, is a geologist, the executive director of the CO2 Coalition, and an author. Wrightstone recently published an article detailing how Pennsylvania’s environment is not in the state of crisis that alarmists say it is. He implores Gov. Josh Shapiro to get his head out of his…mental morass…and stop worrying about mythical catastrophic global warming. Overall, the weather has been getting better and agricultural production is up in Pennsylvania. Shapiro needs to drop the doom and gloom routine.
Permitting in Pennsylvania, especially permits overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six to eight months for approval — instead of the law-mandated 14 days. It got so bad that in the fall of 2019, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw introduced a bill to allow third-party reviews of these permits in an attempt to speed it up (see 
In addition to opposition from the editors of the Wall Street Journal to the Biden EPA plan to ration electricity by prohibiting existing coal and any new gas-fired power plants (see today’s companion story), prominent Republican legislators in Pennsylvania issued statements challenging the new regulations. The Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair, and Chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee all issued statements describing how the EPA regs will kill gas-fired power in the Keystone State.
Isn’t it interesting how the devil continues to use the same tactics he has used since the very beginning of time? Lucifer (the Center for Climate Integrity, or CCI) is whispering lies to Eve (the Allegheny County Council) located in the Garden of Eden (Pittsburgh region, the unofficial headquarters of the Marcellus/Utica shale), enticing Eve to bite the fruit (launch a lawsuit against Big Oil & Gas companies), promising she’ll have more money than God if she sues and wins. Lucifer always leads with a lie. The end result is always the same — death. In this case, the death of Pittsburgh as the headquarters of the Marcellus/Utica. Will Eve do it this time? Or resist?
A team led by Penn State researchers has developed a new tool that can estimate the emissions potential of shale wells after they are no longer active. The researchers claim drillers can analyze their own drill cuttings (samples of shale rock) to determine how much potential there is for methane leakage after a well is abandoned. Which is interesting and perhaps even useful information for Marcellus/Utica drillers. However, a tangential factoid in the news story is what caught our interest and got our mental wheels churning. The factoid is this…