CONSOL Energy: Utica Drilling May Soon Replace Marcellus Drilling
The writers at NGI–Natural Gas Intelligence–continue to pump out hit article after hit article. (Full disclosure: MDN editor Jim Willis works part time for NGI on the marketing side. But hopefully by now you know that Jim doesn’t offer false praise for friend or foe. He always calls ’em like he sees ’em.) The latest article we’re excited about is one about a potential shift among Marcellus drillers in southwestern PA and WV–a shift away from Marcellus drilling, potentially replacing it with Utica drilling. Yes, you read that right. No, not all Marcellus drilling will suddenly stop–but in a continuing low-cost gas environment where every dollar counts, drillers are rethinking their strategies and where they will spend precious capital dollars. The recent blockbuster Utica well drilled by EQT in southwestern PA is catching everyone’s attention (see EQT’s 1st Utica Well Shatters Record – 72.9 MMcf/d IP Rate!). That one well changed the course of EQT’s drilling program (see EQT Releases Data on Biggest Utica Well Ever; Dumping UD Drilling). Other drillers, like CONSOL Energy, are seriously considering dumping Marcellus drilling in favor of Utica drilling…
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Liberal Democrats don’t like to play by the same rules everyone else does. They somehow think they’re better than the rest of us–above the law. That’s what happened when the arrogant, and alleged criminal PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane, decided she could flout the law by leaking secret grand jury information to a reporter (see 
The U.S. Labor Department is on a witch hunt, unfairly targeting not only the Marcellus/Utica drilling industry–but any company in the entire supply chain that benefits from drilling, including hotels, restaurants and convenience stores. When you have the full force and backing of an out-of-control president like B.H. Obama, you get kind of drunk on your own power. That seems to be what has happened at the Labor Department. The Department of Labor’s wage and hour division in Pittsburgh has been targeting Marcellus-related companies since 2012, arriving for surprise audits of how companies classify employees–and how they pay them (particularly overtime payments). The jack boots have investigated 395 companies in three years and assessed $10 million in wages, civil penalties and liquidated damages and spurred a number of lawsuits by employees (and even the Labor Dept. itself) against employers. One question: Why hasn’t the Labor Department launched ANY investigations into the employment practices of Big Green organizations like the Sierra Club, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, William Penn Foundation, Heinz Endowments, PennFuture, Clean Air Council, Food & Water Watch and a myriad of other such organizations where wild-eyed zealots appear to work 24/7 for weeks on end in their mission to end all fossil fuels? Surely there are some overtime violations happening in Big Green…
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), published an article on Friday that appears to “take sides” in the Pennsylvania debate over whether or not to institute a severance tax. Which is a disappointment. Until now the EIA has stayed above the fray in such issues. The EIA article from Friday offers a grossly misleading side-by-side comparison of where states get their primary source of revenue to feed their voracious appetites to transfer wealth from those who earn it to those who don’t–and how much is contributed by oil & gas severance taxes. The EIA compares tax revenues from five major fossil fuel generating states–Alaska, North Dakota, Wyoming, Texas and Pennsylvania. The graphic they use is powerful (and misleading) and appears to support calls to increase a severance tax in Pennsylvania. We disagree–strongly–with that position. Here is the EIA post from Friday, followed by MDN’s explanation of how it is grossly flawed…
Two Republican members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives have penned a column that points out the math for PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s so-called severance tax on the Marcellus Shale industry a) doesn’t add up, and b) doesn’t actually end up funding education. What makes the column noteworthy is that the two Republicans are not the conservative leaders of the PA House, but instead are from the Philadelphia area. Every Republican we’ve seen from the Philly area are moderate at best–usually RINOs (Republican in Name Only)–and certainly not anywhere near conservative. Yet these two, Rep. Tom Quigley from the 146th district in Montgomery County, and Rep. Warren Kampf from the 157th district in parts of Montgomery and Chester counties, ever-so-eloquently skewer Wolf and his inane high tax plan. Remarkable, coming from two Philly-area Republicans…
Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, will appear in court today to answer charges that she is, herself, a criminal. She will appear in Montgomery County court to face nine criminal charges, including perjury (i.e. lying under oath). As we have reported, Kane is attempting to divert attention away from her own criminal actions by resurrecting an old porn case, claiming angry white men are out to get her (see 
You know what happens when you elect Big Government liberals to important positions, like governor? You get high taxes and onerous regulations across all industries–but particularly on the drilling industry. Welcome to Pennsylvania and the floundering administration of Gov. Tom Wolf and his PennFuture sidekicks who pretty much run the whole show for Wolf–including the PennFuture Sec. of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley. PennFuture is an anti-drilling environmental group that Quigley used to work for prior to being appointed by Wolf to run the DEP, the agency in charge of drilling (how’s that for ironic?). On a conference call yesterday Quigley said, of the current round of new drilling rules and regulations, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. He plans to attack the Marcellus industry with even more onerous rules and regulations in the coming months and years of a (hopefully) one-term Wolf administration. Quigley is making his onerous list and checking it twice; gonna find out who’s naughty and naughtier (there is no nice in fossil fuels, ya know)…
Where does the Pennsylvania budget negotiation/standoff stand? Depends on who you ask. There have been some intense negotiations over the past few days (a room with a bunch of men hollering at each other). When he emerges from the meetings, PA Gov. Tom Wolf, the most liberal governor in the United States, paints a smile on his face and mouths unspecific platitudes about making progress. When Wolf’s top surrogate emerges, State Sen. Vincent Hughes (Democrat from Philadelphia), Hughes says they aren’t any closer to getting Republicans to cave on a Marcellus Shale-killing severance tax. And that irks him. And Hughes blusters that there will be NO budget without a severance tax as part of it. Good luck with that Sen. Hughes. We applaud Republicans for preserving the Marcellus industry–what’s left of it in this low price environment. Let’s hope Republicans don’t cave to the bluster and deceit being pedaled by the Democrats in Harrisburg. We certainly understand the Dems are in a real bind. They PROMISED the teachers unions big money in return for their support. This is a payoff–shaking down the Marcellus industry to give the money to overpaid teachers and union bosses. And if Wolf doesn’t pull it off–he can kiss a second term good-bye as far as the unions are concerned. They play for keeps and Wolf knows it. Here’s the latest in the ongoing budget battle…
Major changes are on the way for Pennsylvania’s conventional (vertical) and unconventional (shale/horizontal) drillers. In 2011 PA began a process that’s gone on way too long, to update certain regulations that apply to oil and gas drillers known as Chapter 78 of the 1984 Oil and Gas Act. Along the way the PA legislature decided there should be separate rules governing conventional and unconventional drilling–so Chapter 78 has become Chapter 78 (conventional) and 78a (unconventional). PA was close to adopting the new rules at the end of the Tom Corbett administration but then he lost his bid for re-election, throwing the process into turmoil once again with newly elected Tom Wolf and his PennFuture buddies wanting to put their own stamp on drilling regulations in the Keystone State (see