West Virginia

Industrywide Issues | Landfills | Tyler County | Wastewater | West Virginia

WV Marcellus/Utica Waste Processor SECUR Files for Bankruptcy
June 3, 2020June 3, 2020

SECUR O&G, LLC is headquartered in Sewickley, PA, but its main operation, a Marcellus/Utica waste processing center, is located in the Bens Run Industrial Park in Friendly (Tyler County), WV. SECUR processes both liquid and solid drilling waste and handles TENORM (technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material) at its Bens Run facility. Last Friday SECUR filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of WV.
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Fayette County | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Ritchie County | Tyler County | Washington County | West Virginia

Peregrine Energy Partners Buys More Royalty Rights in SWPA & WV
May 29, 2020May 29, 2020

Peregrine Energy Partners, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, continues a program to buy royalty rights in the Marcellus/Utica. In January 2019 we told you about Peregrine’s purchase of rights from undisclosed sellers in southwest PA (see Peregrine Energy Buys Royalty Rights in Greene County, PA). In March of this year, Peregrine purchased more rights, in Fayette County, PA. Yesterday the company announced they’ve purchased yet another round of rights–in Washington, PA and two counties in WV.
Read More “Peregrine Energy Partners Buys More Royalty Rights in SWPA & WV”
Cameron County | Clarion County | Clearfield County | Diversified Energy | Doddridge County | Elk County | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Harrison County | Indiana County | Jefferson County (PA) | Marion County | Monongalia County | Pennsylvania | Ritchie County | Taylor County | Tioga County (PA) | Tyler County | West Virginia | Wetzel County

EQT Provides More Details on DGO Asset Sale, 1.4 Bcf/d Curtailment
May 27, 2020May 27, 2020

EQT announced yesterday it has closed on a deal to sell “certain non-strategic assets” to Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) for $125 million, plus another potential $20 million later on. MDN first told you about this deal on May 13 (see Diversified Buys 900 EQT Wells (67 Shale Wells) for $125M). This is the first time EQT has commented publicly on the DGO deal. EQT’s statement differs from previous news accounts about the deal.
Read More “EQT Provides More Details on DGO Asset Sale, 1.4 Bcf/d Curtailment”
Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

More Frack Crews Now Active in the Marcellus than the Permian!
May 22, 2020May 22, 2020

This has to be a first in the modern shale era. There are now more active fracking crews working in the Marcellus Shale than in any other shale play, including the oily Permian. There are 450 fracking fleets available in the U.S., but only 70 of them are active right now. The Marcellus is using 31% of those active fleets, while the Permian is using 30%. We never thought we’d live to see the day!
Read More “More Frack Crews Now Active in the Marcellus than the Permian!”
Diversified Energy | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Diversified Buys 900 EQT Wells (67 Shale Wells) for $125M
May 13, 2020May 13, 2020

Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) continues its program of buying up mostly older conventional oil and gas wells in Appalachia. In April DGO cut a deal to buy 6,500 conventional wells spread across West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, along with a 4,700-mile gathering pipeline system located in WV, for $110 million (see Diversified Deal to Pick Up Another 6,500 O&G Wells in WV, KY, TN). DGO has done it again, this time buying 900 wells from EQT located mostly in West Virginia. The deal also includes 67 shale wells in Pennsylvania.
Read More “Diversified Buys 900 EQT Wells (67 Shale Wells) for $125M”
Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Lewis County | Pipelines | West Virginia

Mountain Valley Pipeline “Slips” in 3 West Virginia Locations
May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile Marcellus/Utica gas pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia, is 90% built and in the ground. The final 10% is waiting on various lawsuits and regulatory agencies to resolve outstanding issues brought on by radicalized green groups. One of the places the pipeline has long been done and in the ground is Lewis County, WV. It’s a mountainous area. Inspectors recently discovered there have been “slips” of the land resulting in “at least three locations” where MVP has shifted.
Read More “Mountain Valley Pipeline “Slips” in 3 West Virginia Locations”
Crude Oil | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Natl Rig Count Falls Another 59; Marcellus Loses 4 Rigs Last Wk
May 1, 2020May 1, 2020

Not unsurprisingly, the U.S. rig count (for both oil and gas, although mainly oil) continues to plummet week after week. The latest numbers show rigs taken out of active duty (laid down) decreased another 59 over the past week. That’s better than the 76 laid down the week before (see Carnage Continues: Rig Count Down Another 76, Marcellus Down 2), but still not great. Hundreds of rigs have been laid down over the past month–most of them in the oil patch. But not all. Last week the Marcellus lost four rigs after losing one the week before.
Read More “Natl Rig Count Falls Another 59; Marcellus Loses 4 Rigs Last Wk”
Energy Companies | EV Energy Partners | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Former EV Energy Partners Looks to Sell or Merge Remaining Assets
April 15, 2020April 15, 2020

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In June 2018, EV Energy Partners (EVEP), the drilling subsidiary of EnerVest, emerged from bankruptcy court a mere two months after entering with $355 million of debt erased and sporting a new name: Harvest Oil & Gas Corp. (see EV Energy Partners Emerges from Bankruptcy with New Name). Harvest’s drilling and assets are focused in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, where they own/operate 9,787 conventional wells. (The company cut a deal in March to sell off all of its Michigan assets.) In a fourth-quarter (everyone else’s first quarter) and full-year update released yesterday, Harvest announced it is “actively considering the potential divestiture of all of its remaining assets as well as a potential sale or merger of the Company.”
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Monongalia County | Regulation | West Virginia

WV Gas-Fired Elec Plant Gets Approved, Parent Files for Bankruptcy
April 15, 2020April 15, 2020

Longview Energy Center concept (click for larger version)

Last September Longview Power filed an application with the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) to build and operate a Marcellus gas-fired electric generating facility in Monongalia County, WV, near Morgantown (see 1200 MW Gas-Fired Power Plant Files to Build in Mon County, WV). The Longview Power Clean Energy Center will include a 1,200 megawatt combined cycle power plant AND a 70 megawatt solar farm–both built next to Longview’s existing state-of-the-art 710 megawatt coal-fired power plant. The PSC approved and issued permits for the project in early April. A week later Longview (the parent, not the gas-fired plant subsidiary project) filed for a “prepackaged” Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Read More “WV Gas-Fired Elec Plant Gets Approved, Parent Files for Bankruptcy”
Diversified Energy | Energy Companies | Kentucky | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Diversified Deal to Pick Up Another 6,500 O&G Wells in WV, KY, TN
April 14, 2020April 14, 2020

Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) owns close to 8 million acres of leases with some 60,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. Their focus has been to acquire quality production and cash flow–regardless of the well or commodity type (gas or oil)–in the Appalachian Basin. They currently have over 400 Marcellus/Utica shale wells in their portfolio too. DGO announced it has a conditional deal to buy another 6,500 conventional wells spread across West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, along with a 4,700-mile gathering pipeline system located in WV. The deal, “subject to ongoing due diligence,” is for $110 million.
Read More “Diversified Deal to Pick Up Another 6,500 O&G Wells in WV, KY, TN”
Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

M-U Condensate Prices Briefly Go Negative, Down 91% from Jan 1
April 6, 2020April 6, 2020

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting Marcellus/Utica condensate, produced in places like southwestern Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, briefly touched and went below $0/barrel last week, before recovering slightly. The article says the price M-U drillers are getting for condensate is down 91% from January of this year. What’s lacking in the Post-Gazette story is context for how important (or not) condensate is as a revenue stream for M-U drillers.
Read More “M-U Condensate Prices Briefly Go Negative, Down 91% from Jan 1”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Outlaws Anti Protesters Who Try to Block Pipeline Construction
April 2, 2020April 2, 2020

Last week MDN told you about a flurry of oil and gas bills passed by the West Virginia legislature signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice (see Flurry of WV O&G Bills Signed into Law Incl. Petchem Tax Credits). At the time we focused on a couple of petrochemical tax credit bills, but there’s another important bill in the batch we’d like to call your attention to today: House Bill (HB) 4615, a bill (now law) that clamps down on anti-fossil fuel protesters who like to take the law into their own hands.
Read More “WV Outlaws Anti Protesters Who Try to Block Pipeline Construction”
Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Conventional Drillers Face Tough Decisions re Stripper Wells
April 2, 2020April 2, 2020

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Although some Marcellus/Utica drillers also own conventional (vertical-only) oil and gas wells as part of their portfolio, most conventional drillers are smaller “mom and pop” types of companies. Conventional oil well owners in the M-U, as well as across the country, face some of the same problems as shale drillers with a crash in oil prices: What to do with older wells? Thousands of older conventional oil wells produce as little as 10 barrels of oil per day. These low-producing wells are called stripper wells. With oil selling at $20/barrel, some stripper wells can still break even, but many cannot. It costs an average of $20,000-$40,000 to plug an old stripper well. Sometimes it’s more economic to simply keep a stripper pumping (and losing money) rather than pony up big bucks to close the well. It’s a conundrum.
Read More “Conventional Drillers Face Tough Decisions re Stripper Wells”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Flurry of WV O&G Bills Signed into Law Incl. Petchem Tax Credits
March 27, 2020March 27, 2020

MDN previously told you about two (of a number) of bills working their way through West Virginia’s annual 60-day legislative session that will create new tax credits aimed at luring petrochemical plants to the state (see WV Advances Bills to Attract NGL Hub, Cracker Plant, Downstream). One bill, House Bill (HB) 4421, is meant to attract a natural gas storage hub and an ethane cracker plant to the state. The other, HB 4019, is meant to attract downstream natural gas manufacturing facilities. We’re delighted to tell you that both bills are now law in the Mountain State, part of a package of 13 bills related to oil and gas that Gov. Justice signed into law on Wednesday.
Read More “Flurry of WV O&G Bills Signed into Law Incl. Petchem Tax Credits”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | NiSource | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

FERC Denies Rehearing on Mountaineer XPress 2 Yrs After Approval
March 27, 2020March 27, 2020

The final bits of Columbia Gas Transmission’s Mountaineer XPress pipeline project (most of it located in West Virginia) went online just over one year ago (see FERC Says Rest of Mountaineer XPress Pipeline OK to Start Up). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the project more than two years ago. At the time FERC approved the project, anti-fossil fuelers challenged the approval, as they do every single square inch of every single new oil or gas pipeline. We have to chuckle because FERC finally responded to antis’ request for a “rehearing”…on Wednesday. FERC turned them down more than two years after their objection was lodged.
Read More “FERC Denies Rehearing on Mountaineer XPress 2 Yrs After Approval”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Kanawha County | Pipelines | West Virginia

Aimless WV Antis Protest in Charleston Against Canadian Pipeline
March 10, 2020March 10, 2020

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A group of radical anti-fossil fuel nutters who ostensibly oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that runs from West Virginia into southern Virginia are apparently without enough to do since MVP is now 90% built and close to being done. So instead of conducting a protest against MVP, members of the Appalachians Against Pipelines (AAP) protest group decided to stage an illegal protest at another pipeline builder with an office in Charleston, WV–TC Energy. TC (formerly TransCanada) has nothing to do with MVP. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.
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