Baker Hughes March Rig Counts: Rocket Ride Continues, U.S. Up 45
The Baker Hughes rig count in the U.S. continued to rocket skyward in March. In January the average number of U.S. rigs was 683. In February, the count zoomed to 744, up 61 rigs in just a month. And in March, the U.S. rig count zoomed to 789, up another 45 rigs in a month. Each active rig translates into hundreds of jobs, both directly working at the rig and indirectly in services delivered to the rig and its workers. It also means more landowners will soon have royalty payments heading in their direction. When rigs are active, life is good. What about rig counts in the Marcellus/Utica? Disappointingly our region’s rig count lost a rig in March. PA lost two rigs, OH gained a rig, and WV stayed even. What does it all mean? It means that this zooming up in rig counts is happening in other locations–primarily in the Permian Basin in Texas. That is, oil rigs rushing to take advantage of an increase crude prices to a sustained $50+/barrel. While we’re happy the rig count is up, we’re not happy more it is not happening in the northeast. But honestly, without pipelines to take away an increase in production, can you blame our drillers? Once there is more takeaway capacity, you’ll see rig counts begin to climb again in our neck of the woods…
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MDN first told you about IMG Midstream in August 2014 (see 
Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) provides revenue projections for use in the state budget process along with impartial and timely analysis of fiscal, economic and budgetary issues to assist Commonwealth residents and the General Assembly in their evaluation of policy decisions. It’s only been around since 2010 and in the past we’ve wondered if it’s populated with liberal Democrats that don’t hew to the state mission of being objective in their analysis. However, our confidence in the organization has grown over the past year or so. Recent IPO predictions about Marcellus Shale impact fee revenues have been pretty accurate (see 
Last July anti-frackers at the Johns Hopkins-Bloomberg School of Public Health expelled another bought-and-paid-for (by anti-drillers) “study” that implies the presence of fracking in Pennsylvania leads to causing, or making worse, asthma attacks (see 
On Monday Pennsylvania House Republicans released their version of a state budget, and yesterday (Tuesday) they voted to pass it. Ba-boom! The budget is noteworthy for many reasons. Of prime interest to MDN is that the budget does NOT include PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s insane 6.5% severance tax (see 
Pennsylvania State Rep. Jason Ortitay, Republican who represents of Washington and Allegheny counties in southwestern PA, last week introduced PA House Bill (HB) 1003 which would require the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to compile, organize and list all permits related to oil and gas drilling in two places: in one location in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, and on the DEP website. At first blush this seemed a bit odd to us. In the past MDN published a research report called the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook. In producing that work, MDN editor Jim Willis would regularly (3x per year) access DEP permit data–which is available from the DEP website. Granted, the information is not the easiest to find, and when you locate it, you must download it and suck it into a database to get any meaningful value out of it. However, on a basic level, permit data IS available to the public from the DEP website–right now. We read a copy of the proposed bill (see it below). MDN’s takeaway after reading the bill: This bill has more to do with “encouraging” the DEP to speed up permit approvals than it does with making information publicly available…
In 2014 MDN brought you the interesting story of strippers in the Marcellus–stripper wells, that is (see 
Yesterday President Trump made a trip to the Environmental Protection Agency to sign an executive order titled the “Energy Independence Executive Order” which takes aim at rolling back Obama’s disastrous Clean Power Plan. The new executive order also lifts a ban on leasing federal lands for coal mining, nixes new regulations aimed at trapping every last molecule of methane from oil and gas drilling & pipelines (unrealistic and very costly), and reduces, but does not eliminate, the role of so-called global warming when making decisions about authorizing new infrastructure projects. It was, by all accounts, a red letter day for responsible environmental policy–a day to correct some of the extreme overreach we’ve seen by the EPA over the past eight years under the Obama regime. Below we have a copy of the executive order and some of the reaction to it…
Last December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) said it would go on a “listening tour” in early 2017, to focus on so-called environmental justice–whatever that is (see 
In May 2016, Williams’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company (Transco) pre-filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a project called the Northeast Supply Enhancement project (see 
Radical green agitating groups, including the Sierra Club, Lancaster Against Pipelines, Lebanon Pipeline Awareness, Allegheny Defense Project, Clean Air Council, Concerned Citizens of Lebanon County, and Heartwood, have filed a lawsuit in the liberal U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in an attempt to block construction of the $3 billion Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project in Pennsylvania. Instead of waiting for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to consider a so-called re-hearing of their decision to authorize Atlantic Sunrise, a group of radical green organizations are jumping the queue and going directly to court, demanding that a judge stop construction until a quorum is in effect at FERC. Yes, it’s all complicated. We’ll break it down for you. What you need to know up front is that more Big Green money is behind the lawsuit to stop Atlantic Sunrise…
Delays in turning around permit applications for new Marcellus drilling is hurting the industry, according to the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC). MSC president Dave Spigelmyer says lack of certainty in the PA Marcellus means more drilling goes to neighboring West Virginia and Ohio–even to Louisiana. The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), responsible for reviewing and issuing permits, sounds somewhat defensive about their lack of performance, blaming delays on staff shortages, staff turnover, and “enhanced scrutiny of permit applications.” The Pittsburgh office now takes over 200 days (over 6 months!) to process an erosion control permit–up from 139 days in 2015. Simply not acceptable…
There are signs that the Marcellus industry in Pennsylvania is beginning to rebound. We’ve been noting it for months. Our early prediction of an upswing came last June (nine months ago) when we noticed an uptick in the number of drilling rigs operated by Patterson-UTI changed from a monthly drop to a monthly gain (see 
As MDN previously reported, anti-fossil fuelers opposed to the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project–a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County–are using the same (losing) playbook to oppose Atlantic Sunrise as they used to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline (see 
We spotted an article on The Motley Fool website by one of our favorite authors, Matt DiLallo. The article shines a light on the states that produce the most shale oil. Surprisingly (for us), the Marcellus/Utica was in the list. Appreciable amounts of shale oil are coming from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, from both the Marcellus and Utica formations. Of course the amount produced in our neighborhood pales in comparison to the enormous amounts of oil coming from the Texas Permian and North Dakota Bakken. But hey, the fact that we even show up in such a list is kind of exciting…