Flurry of WV O&G Bills Signed into Law Incl. Petchem Tax Credits
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”
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 
While we’re sure he means well, Congressman David McKinley, a professional engineer (P.E.) from West Virginia (Republican) has thrown his support behind a “bipartisan” effort to create a new federal bureaucracy to oversee the decarbonization of the power generation sector. In other words, an effort that will end the use of natural gas to generate electricity–by 2050. We just can’t support something like that. It’s short-sighted, heavy-handed, and creating a new federal bureaucracy simply goes in the wrong direction. Period.
The work is happening fast and furious at the West Virginia state legislature right now. Legislators only have a 60-day session each year in which to pass new laws. More states should limit the time like WV! Yesterday two different Senate committees voted to pass three different bills, including SB 554, also known as the Lease Cancellation Bill.
Something of a kerfuffle has kicked up in West Virginia over the issue of drillers issuing lease “release” (some call it “cancelation”) notices–issued after a lease has expired. Senate Bill (SB) 554 dominated debate on Tuesday at a meeting of the WV Senate Energy Industry and Mining Committee. WV landowners (and rights owners) say a lot of older leases don’t have a release provision/notice, something landowners need so they can explore leasing with another driller after an existing lease expires. Drillers say the bill as proposed will create a logistical and administrative nightmare of paperwork.
Big Green is doing its best to stir up opposition to PTT Global Chemical’s proposed ethane cracker plant in Belmont County, Ohio. Big Green is also trying to hide its involvement and pass itself off as organic, local community opposition. Not true. Last week the same so-called community organizer addressed an anti meeting at a local church and organized a “protest” a few days later.
Last week the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) announced it has selected 16 projects to receive nearly $25 million in federal funding for cost-shared projects to advance natural gas infrastructure technology development. DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy will provide federal funding for these projects. Two of the 16 are located in West Virginia and will receive a cumulative $4.5 million of the $25 million (18% of the total).
In September Longview Power filed an application with the West Virginia Public Service Commission to build and operate a Marcellus gas-fired electric generating facility in Monongalia County, WV, near Maidsville (see 
If you use the number of active rigs operating in a given shale play/state as the measure for “success,” 2019 wasn’t such a good year for the Marcellus/Utica. In January, Pennsylvania entered 2019 with 48 active rigs. In December that number was cut nearly in half, to 25 active rigs. It was a similar story for Ohio, which entered 2019 with 17 active rigs and exited with 12 rigs. West Virginia, on the other hand, entered 2019 with 15 rigs and exited the year with the same number. But at one point during the year WV had 21 active rigs. We have the monthly rig stats below for all three states.