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PA Manufacturers Release Study Supporting Philly LNG Export Plan
Last week, MDN told you about the third and final public hearing held by the Pennsylvania House Philadelphia LNG Natural Gas Export Task Force (see Chester Residents Oppose Philly LNG Export Project at Final Hearing). The Task Force was established by law in early 2022 to study how to establish Philadelphia LNG exports to international markets, particularly European exports. The task force is supposed to deliver its report by November of this year. We have an addendum to our previous coverage of what was (in retrospect) Kabuki theater staged by the extreme left at that hearing.
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A couple of major changes to alert you to at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC is the public utility commission in Pennsylvania. The PUC has five commissioners appointed by the Governor with the consent of the state Senate. The PUC oversees public utility and services operations in the Commonwealth, in sectors including water, energy, telecommunications, and transportation. The decisions made by the PUC impact the Marcellus/Utica–particularly pipelines, including the Mariner East pipelines. Consequently, any changes at the agency are of concern. This week, the PUC got a new Chairman and a new commissioner, both Harrisburg swamp dwellers, appointed by Gov. Josh Shapiro and confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate.
A Repsol well located on a pad in Troy (Bradford County), PA, experienced uncontrolled natural gas venting. The situation began around 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27. It continued to vent “sporadically” until about 2:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 28. Repsol called the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to report the situation at 2:02 a.m. on Monday. A DEP inspector was at the site within hours, at 5:55 a.m. The venting caused a brief evacuation order for several homes within a half-mile radius of the well pad, which was lifted hours later when the DEP determined the venting had stopped.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is once again signaling its intent to block shale drilling in certain regions of the state by using a new “environmental justice” (it’s racist to drill there) policy. We told you about Shapiro’s intent two weeks ago when the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued new so-called environmental justice (EJ) policies to go into effect in September (see 
Is there now a truce in the long-running dispute between Epsilon Energy and Chesapeake Energy over drilling new wells in Susquehanna County, PA? Perhaps! Yesterday, Epsilon, a small publicly-traded energy company that joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, with the other company doing the drilling, announced that “the operator of our upstream assets in the Marcellus recently notified us of near-term drilling plans on our acreage.” While not named, the “operator” must be Chessy. Epsilon has an ongoing lawsuit against Chesapeake for refusing to drill new wells on its jv acreage.
At the regular Murrysville, PA (Westmoreland County) town council meeting on August 16, the council voted to adopt Ordinance No. 1075-23, an ordinance amending the town code to add a provision allowing wastewater injection wells in the town. The new ordinance limits injection wells to properties zoned for business use. The prospective site must be at least five acres, and the well’s borehole cannot be within 250 feet of a property line. Other restrictions apply too. Needless to say, antis are not happy.
Two weeks ago, University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) researchers released three studies commissioned by the State Dept. of Health supposedly investigating whether or not there is a connection between shale drilling and childhood diseases, including cancer (see 
The rig count carnage continues. For the seventh week in a row and the 16th of the last 17 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. A lot of rigs. Last week, the number decreased by 10 rigs after falling by 12 for the prior week. The total is now down to 632 active rigs across both oil and gas. Oil rigs have now fallen for a ninth straight month, while the combined oil and gas count has fallen for four straight months. After losing three rigs two weeks ago, the Marcellus/Utica count added one rig last week–in West Virginia.
Last summer, Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 2644 was passed into law, becoming Act 96 of 2022 (see 
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Olympus owns a pipeline subsidiary called Hyperion Midstream that builds gathering lines to the company’s wells. Hyperion applied to build a compressor station on a recently approved Olympus well pad in rural West Deer Township (Allegheny County). The PA State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) will hold a public hearing on Sept. 26 about the proposal. Grab the popcorn.
Last November, one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania) began to leak. The well leaked roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see 
New shale permits issued for Aug 14 – 20 in the Marcellus/Utica finally turned around. There were 27 new permits issued last week, way up from the 10 issued the prior week. Last week’s permit tally included 21 new permits in Pennsylvania, 2 new permits in Ohio, and 4 new permits in West Virginia (after no permits in WV for three weeks in a row). The top permittee for the week, for the second week in a row, was Chesapeake Energy, receiving 6 permits–5 in Bradford County and 1 in Susquehanna County.
Let’s face it: Josh Shapiro has been a major disappointment as Governor of Pennsylvania. He promised the moon to voters–that he would be both pro-gas and anti-gas at the same time. Some believed him, but we didn’t. Each week, new information comes along that reveals Shapiro’s true nature as a radical leftist Democrat. Shapiro said during the campaign he didn’t like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax that forces coal- and gas-fired power plants to close (see