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Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Loses 7 @ 622, M-U Even @ 44

Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count lost seven rigs after gaining three rigs the week before. The count went from 629 active rigs two weeks ago to 622 last week. The national count has consistently stayed between 620 and 625 (or one or two above or below that range) since last October until recently, when it went higher for a few weeks. But now it’s back in the same long-term range. The Marcellus/Utica remained the same last week with Pennsylvania at 24 rigs (the most since last June), Ohio with 12 rigs, and West Virginia with 8 rigs. The M-U combined is running 44 rigs, which it has run in four of the last five weeks.
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PA DEP Claims Progress in Reducing Out-of-Control Permit Backlog

Permitting in Pennsylvania, especially permits overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), has been broken 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 PA Sen. Yaw Intros Bill to Allow 3rd Party Review of Erosion Permits). In June 2023, then-DEP Sec. Rich Negrin told lawmakers at a Senate hearing that he was making good progress on his 10-point plan to speed up permits and cut down on red tape (see DEP Sec. Negrin Focused on Cutting Red Tape, Speeding New Permits). PA Gov. Josh Shapiro introduced a “money-back guarantee” on slow permits last November, which we exposed as bogus (see Shapiro’s DEP Money-Back Guarantee for Permit Delays is Bogus). The DEP says thanks to the guarantee and other changes, the agency is getting much better with turnaround times for permits.
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PA Supreme Court Debates State vs. Federal Power Over Pipe Permits

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday debated whether the federal National Gas Act empowers the state to review permits for a pipeline project or bars it from doing so — a question that hinges on whether appeals to a state board are preempted civil actions or administrative proceedings that would fall under the state’s purview. It’s an important distinction. The case can potentially set a precedent that could influence future infrastructure projects and “state-federal power dynamics.”
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New Poll Shows 58% of PA Voters Oppose Biden’s LNG Export Ban

A new poll released by Axis Research and Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance (PEIA) shows 58% of Pennsylvania voters disagree with Joe Biden’s infamous “pause” on approving new LNG export permits. Here’s the astounding part: 57% of poll respondents were Democrat and Independent voters! Yes, a majority of Democrats and Independents in PA disagree with old Joe. But that’s not all. After learning more about Biden’s LNG pause, 41% of those surveyed said they were less likely to vote for Biden because of his LNG pause. Joementia is in trouble in PA.
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PA Gov. Shapiro Gives Biden Love Tap re LNG Pause

Democrat Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told Bloomberg reporters the Biden administration’s recent pause in LNG export licenses should be “limited in time.” Shapiro stopped short of outright criticizing Biden’s pause, something that could undermine job creation in a state that’s relying on energy to drive growth. Shapiro couldn’t even stand up Joementia, what a wimp! What Shapiro said amounts to a tiny love tap. It’s completely meaningless. Shapiro is standing by while Biden DESTROYS Marcellus drilling in the Keystone State.
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Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Adds 3 @ 629, M-U Adds 1 @ 44

Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count gained three rigs after losing two rigs the week before. The count went from 626 active rigs two weeks ago to 629 last week. It is the highest total rig count in the U.S. since September 22, 2023! The national count had consistently stayed between 620 and 625 (or one or two above or below that range) since last October, but now appears to be breaking out of that pattern and moving higher. The Marcellus/Utica regained the one rig it had lost two weeks ago. Pennsylvania remained at 24 rigs (the most since last June). Ohio stayed at 12 rigs. West Virginia regained a rig it had lost in the prior week and now operates 8 rigs. The M-U combined is running 44 rigs.
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Chemstream to Reveal Full List of Chemicals Used in PA Fracking

Last November, CNX Resources CEO Nick Deiuliis signed a voluntary deal with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to expand drilling setbacks and several other regulatory steps not mandated for shale drillers under PA law, calling it “radical transparency” (see CNX Signs Deal with PA Gov. to Increase Setbacks, Other Changes). In December, Gov. Shapiro’s office announced that CNX had begun to deliver by providing a list of the chemicals used in fracking and by posting air monitoring results in real-time for two of its well pads, with plans to expand the program across its operations statewide (see CNX Delivers on Promise to Shapiro re Chemicals List, Air Results). CNX’s main chemical provider, Chemstream, has just publicly announced it will no longer withhold “proprietary” chemical names but will now share full details for all of the chemicals it provides for drilling and fracking.
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PA Dem Senator Bob Casey Faces No-Win Situation re LNG Pause

Earlier this month, MDN told you about Pennsylvania’s two U.S. Senators, John Fetterman and Bob Casey, and their wishy-washy, mild criticism of Joe Biden’s decision to “pause” any new LNG export permits (see PA’s 2 Democrat U.S. Senators Mildly Chide Biden for LNG Pause). We published their joint statement, which appears to criticize Biden’s LNG pause without actually doing so. Typical political double-speak. One of the two, Bob Casey, is up for re-election this year, and he’s walking a razor-thin tightrope of trying to keep union votes while at the same time not alienating his wacko environmental leftist supporters. A new article looks at Casey’s chances of pulling off such an electoral miracle.
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Pa. 2023: NatGas Production Up 1%, Wells Drilled Lowest in 10 Yrs

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Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for October through December 2023 (full copy below). There were 110 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 4Q23, a decrease of 26 wells (-19%) compared to 4Q22. However, 4Q’s spud number was up from the 102 drilled in 3Q23. Natural gas production volume was 1,939 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 4Q23, up 82 Bcf (4.4%) from 1,857 Bcf produced in 4Q22. There were two pieces of big news in this report: (1) Production for all of 2023 actually went up (now down) by 1%; (2) The total number of new wells drilled in 2023 was the lowest it has been in a decade.
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Antis: PA DEP Plugging Easy-to-Get Orphan Wells, Not Most Critical

In December, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued a press release and rang the bell to announce his administration had (at that point) plugged 132 orphaned and abandoned wells in just 11 months, surpassing the total over the previous eight years combined, with big plans to expand the program (see PA DEP Spending $44M This Yr, $76M Next Yr to Plug Orphaned Wells). Now comes word, more like an accusation, from Shapiro’s environmental left that the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) plugging program is picking the lowest of the low-hanging fruit (wells) to plug instead of tackling the more critical (leaky) wells that could and should be done first.
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Washington County, PA Panel Discusses Future of ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub

The Washington County (PA) Chamber of Commerce held an event last week with a panel of experts involved with the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) to discuss the long-term impacts of the project on the local economy and job market. ARCH2 was first proposed by (mainly sponsored by) West Virginia. Ohio and Pennsylvania later joined in supporting the ARCH2 proposal, which was selected by the Bidenistas as one of seven regional hydrogen hubs to share in a $7 billion pot o’ gold (see Hydrogen Hub Winners Announced – WV Takes Prize in M-U Region). ARCH2’s portion of the money is $925 million.
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Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Adds 5 @ 626, M-U Loses 1 @ 43

Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count gained five rigs after losing two rigs the week before. The count went from 621 active rigs two weeks ago to 626 last week. The national count has consistently stayed between 620 and 625 (or one or two above or below that range) since last October. The Marcellus/Utica lost one rig last week. Pennsylvania actually added two rigs last week and now operates 24 rigs (the most since last June). Ohio and West Virginia each lost one rig, with Ohio now at 12 active rigs and West Virginia at seven active rigs.
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Layoffs Hitting the Gas Fields, Including Marcellus/Utica

According to Reuters, oilfield service companies and drillers have put the brakes on hiring and “further job cuts could loom” as natural gas producers respond to sliding prices by slashing spending on new wells to reduce excess production. We told you yesterday that Chesapeake Energy announced a coming rig and frac crew cut in the Marcellus (see Chesapeake Dropping 1 Rig in Marcellus as it Waits to Merge with SWN). But it’s not some far-off “maybe it will happen” thing. Layoffs in the M-U are already happening. For example, fracking company NexTier merged with Patterson-UTI last September. Because of duplication of services, Patterson recently announced it will close a facility in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, affecting some 104 employees.
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PA DEP Wants RGGI Carbon Tax Forced on Everyone for Everything

Democrats will never be satisfied until they tax you for breathing and even existing, which was perfectly illustrated by a proposal submitted by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to its so-called Climate Change Advisory Committee on Tuesday. Not satisfied to try and force a Marcellus-killing carbon tax (called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI) on gas- and coal-fired power plants, the DEP now wants to grow RGGI or some facsimile thereof to “all sectors” of the PA economy. Are they TOTALLY INSANE? We have to say the answer to that rhetorical question is YES!
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PA Towns Grapple with Zoning O&G for Other Uses Like Cryptocurrency

Townships and local municipalities in Pennsylvania are now beginning to deal with a new issue, particularly where there is active natural gas drilling. For years, local towns in PA have dealt with the issue of zoning and where to allow gas drilling. A recent (past few years) development is that cryptocurrency “miners” are beginning to locate their computer server farms near gas wells (in particular stranded gas wells) to purchase the gas and use it to generate the enormous amounts of electricity such installations require. So now township zoning boards have to deal not only with where to allow gas wells but where (and if) to allow cryptocurrency farms that take advantage of those wells.
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Making the Case for Carbon Capture & Storage in Rural PA Communities

Last week, MDN told you about landmen knocking on doors in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, looking to sign up landowners for a big carbon capture and sequestration project (see Landmen Knocking Doors in PA, OH, WV to Sign for CCS, Pore Rights). Tenaska is looking to sink 20-30 wells across a massive 80,000 acres to create a storage field that can hold upward of 5 million tons of CO2 injected annually for 30 years. But the question is: Is CCS a good thing for landowners and the rural communities where they live? One landowner argues that CCS is a good thing.
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