Pennsylvania permits to drill new shale wells hit a 13-year low in November 2021 (see Permits to Drill New Shale Wells in PA Hit 13-Year Low in November). What about December? Fortunately, PA permits for December rebounded and were slightly above the number issued in December 2020. Whew. We don’t like to see those big dips.
Read More “PA Shale Gas Permits “Back to Normal” in Dec After Nov’s Big Dip”
On January 4, Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) pipeline declared a force majeure reducing flows along the pipeline due to an unplanned outage at the Entriken (PA) compressor station in Huntingdon County. A day later, on January 5, TETCO lifted the force majeure after fixing the problems at Entriken. Whew. Just in time. There’s a major winter storm heading into parts of PA and New Jersey, where TETCO delivers its gas.
Read More “Texas Eastern Pipe Force Majeure in PA Ends in Time for Winter Storm”
Five Chinese researchers recently published a study in Springer’s Environmental Science and Pollution Research International journal that claims to have identified environmental and health threats in unconventional oil and gas by analyzing old compliance reports from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection. The study claims to have found problems with erosion and sedimentation issues and with water pollution issues. Their conclusion is that PA fines aren’t high enough to change the bad behavior of shale drillers.
Read More “Chinese Propaganda Targets Marcellus Shale with Bogus “Study””
We’re not sure why this story is not the top story on all of the state and national news networks. Using the threat of withholding public money, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf outright extorted Democrat members of the PA legislature to support his odious carbon tax plan, otherwise known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Before a key vote last month in the PA Legislature, Wolf offered a quid pro quo: Democrat legislators either support RGGI or Wolf will withhold approval for state funding for local projects in their districts. Why are there no investigations and demands for jail time?
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf Extorts Democrat Legislators to Support RGGI Carbon Tax”
In September MDN told you about an announcement by American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, to buy an unnamed “privately held energy services company” located in the Marcellus/Utica region (see American Energy Buys Second M-U Energy Services Co.). We now know who that mysterious unnamed company is: Apex Energy Service, LLC, headquartered in Canonsburg, PA.
Read More “American Energy Partners Buys Apex Energy – Doubles Size & Revenue”
In 2021 Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf advanced his plan to force PA to join the obscene carbon tax euphemistically called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Of the current 11 member states of RGGI (one of which will be unjoining this year, Virginia), all of the states joined after their respective state legislatures approved joining. Not so in PA. Wolf can’t convince the Republican-controlled legislature to join. So he’s doing what all leftist dictators do–seizing power that isn’t his and attempting to force his will on the people.
Read More “The Current State of PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s Obscene Carbon Tax”
In early December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) agreed to allow Energy Transfer to change the way it will install the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline in the Marsh Creek Lake area in Chester County, PA (see PA DEP Approves ME2 Plan to Finish Pipe Thru Marsh Creek Lake Area). Two weeks later the DEP issued the necessary permits to allow construction to commence (see PA DEP Issues Revised Permits for ME2 Pipe Near Marsh Creek Lake). The Marsh Creek Lake work is the final big project to complete ME2. Needless to say, anti-fossil fuel zealots are distraught. Antis get funny when they get upset.
Read More “Bitter Antis Admit Defeat – ME2 Pipeline to be Completed in 1Q22”
Major drillers and pipeline companies operating in the Pennsylvania Marcellus have, once again, stepped up to offer donations of money, toys, and coats during the 2021 Christmas season. Companies giving generously include Coterra Energy, CNX Resources, Diversified Energy, Energy Transfer, Equitrans Midstream, EQT, JKLM Energy, People’s Gas, Range Resources, Seneca Resources, Southwestern Energy, and UGI have given, collectively well over $100,000.
Read More “Marcellus Cos. Donate Over $100,000 to Nonprofits During Christmas”
The Republican-controlled House in Pennsylvania voted on Wednesday to approve a resolution against enrolling the state in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. RGGI is aimed at phasing out the use of coal and natural gas to produce electricity in the Keystone State–an absolute catastrophe for the Marcellus industry. The vote was 130-70, which is not enough to override a promised veto by PA’s extremely unpopular Governor, Tom Wolf, who is attempting to force the state to join RGGI without approval by the state legislature, something not done in any of the other 11 members of RGGI (mostly liberal northeastern states).
Read More “PA House Votes to Reject RGGI Carbon Tax, Gov. Wolf to Veto”
Yesterday Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP), a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, filed a proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to implement a “responsibly sourced natural gas (RSG) supply aggregation pooling service” at select locations across the TGP system. Translation: Utilities and other buyers will be able to buy RSG certified natural gas for their customers, costing them more money.
Read More “Tennessee Gas Pipeline Announces Responsible Gas Pooling Service”
Last week MDN told you about Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf’s latest attempt to force through his effort to force PA to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme (see Gov Wolf Tries to Bypass Legislature on Carbon Tax – Gets Caught). Wolf is using his patsy in the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), Secretary Pat McDonnell, to try and get the final RGGI regulation published in the PA Bulletin. That effort bombed out when the Republican-controlled legislature blocked it. That battle continues…
Read More “Wolf DEP Sec. McDonnell Tries to End-Run Legislature on Carbon Tax”
As you know, MDN monitors new shale permits in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia by bringing you the weekly new permits issued report, typically on Wednesdays (see our permits archive here). Every now and again the number crunchers at S&P Global step back and look at longer periods of time, comparing stats from a given month from year to year. The crunchers have just issued a somewhat depressing analysis that says Pennsylvania’s new shale permits issued for November 2021 were the lowest number of permits issued in the month of November stretching back to 2008–some 13 years ago.
Read More “Permits to Drill New Shale Wells in PA Hit 13-Year Low in November”
The spot price for physical natural gas traded at the Eastern Gas South trading hub near Pittsburgh (formerly called Dominion South) has taken quite a hit over the past few weeks, as evidenced by the chart at the left. However, the Eastern Gas South price most likely would have fallen even more were it not for a new pipeline expansion project for the mighty Transco system–the Leidy South project which began partial service in November with 225 MMcf/d of extra gas flows. The rest of Leidy South, a full 582 MMcf/d capacity, is set to be online sometime this month.
Read More “Transco Pipe’s Leidy South Startup Keeps Gas Prices Up in M-U”
In August of this year, co-CEO of Energy Transfer, Tom Long, said “the final phase of the Mariner East Pipeline is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021” (see Energy Transfer: Mariner East Volumes Up in 2Q, Project Done in 4Q). So much for that prediction. A few major hurdles were recently scaled in order to finally complete the project, including a slight reroute in the Marsh Creek Lake area (see PA DEP Approves ME2 Plan to Finish Pipe Thru Marsh Creek Lake Area). However, there are still a few other locations where work needs to be buttoned up across the state as well.
Read More “PA DEP Signals Reissue of Erosion & Sediment Permits for ME2 Pipe”
In December 2019 the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Environmental Quality Board (EQB) approved onerous new regulations that supposedly will capture every last molecule of stray methane that leaks from shale drilling operations (see PA DEP Goes WAY Too Far in Approving New Methane Regulations). The new regs are unnecessary and will shut down even more shale drilling operations in the state. After years of false starts and changes and tweaks, the DEP has finally issued a final version of the regs (full copy below) that the agency intends to implement beginning mid-next year.
Read More “PA DEP Releases Final Onerous Methane Regs – Antis Still Not Happy”
Hart Energy’s DUG (Developing Unconventional Gas) East event was held this week in Pittsburgh, wrapping up this morning. Unfortunately, MDN could not attend the event this year. Some major news is coming from the event. One of the headline speakers from yesterday was CNX Resources CEO Nick DeIuliis who said he thinks it’s high time to seriously look at revising the now-ten-year-old impact fee that drillers pay (PA’s equivalent of a severance tax), a fee created as part of the Act 13 law. What would Nick change about the impact fee/tax?
Read More “CNX CEO Nick DeIuliis Says It’s Time to Revamp PA’s Impact Tax”