Dividing Line: Role of NatGas in NE PA vs. NY’s Southern Tier
MDN editor Jim Willis lives right on the dividing line between New York and Pennsylvania–in the Binghamton, NY area (on the wrong side of the line). Pennsylvania, on the right side of the dividing line, has embraced shale drilling, and enormous economic benefits have flowed to communities where it happens. Cabot Oil & Gas alone (just one company) has spent over $4.6 billion in the last 10 years in Susquehanna County, PA (see Amazing: Cabot O&G Invests $4.6 BILLION in One PA County in 10 Yrs). Meanwhile, NOTHING is spent just over the border, in Broome, Chenango, Otsego and other Southern Tier counties on the New York (wrong) side of the border. It is a heartbreaking tale. Back in 2014 the Buffalo News ran a story comparing two farmers, one on each side of the border, to illustrate how the shale revolution has changed NEPA (see PA Farmers Flourish Thanks to Marcellus While NY Farmers Fail). We now have an updated version of that story line. The Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association (PMA) recently released a 28-minute MUST SEE video titled, “The Dividing Line: PA vs. NY Natural Gas Economics” (watch it below). Listen to landowners and business owners on both sides of the border talk about their experience. New Yorkers have been shafted by a corrupt governor, that much is clear…
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The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: NEXUS says pipeline will be built by 3Q18; PA DEP hearing on natgas-fired power plant in Greene County; WVONGA urges FERC action on 11 pipelines; WV monitoring cybersecurity; Atlantic Sunrise donates $5,300 to NEPA school; Shell wants veterans for cracker jobs; Maine’s Sen. King pushes measure to speed up natgas pipeline permits; problems with rail transport of energy supplies; and more!
Ahead of providing its third quarter 2017 update, yesterday Rex Energy, a driller focused mainly on the Marcellus/Utica (headquartered in State College, PA) has issued an update on two wells recently connected to sales. The two wells are located in Rex’s Butler County, PA “Moraine East” area. What’s unique is that both wells were completed with a newly revamped/tweaked completion design. Completions is that part of drilling a well when you frack it and hook it up to production. Rex doesn’t comment on how they tweaked their completion design. Typically, changing up completions may involve how long each frack stage is, the type (and quantity) of sand or other proppant used, the kind of slick water used, etc. Rex worked with an engineering firm to review their completions process and made some changes–and they are happy with the results. Initial daily production for the two wells averaged 9.4 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d). Rex reports the methane (natural gas) portion was 4 MMcf/d, NGLs of 820 barrels per day, and condensate averaged 70 barrels per day. Looks like Rex has a couple of winners, with more on the way using the new completion design…
Sadly, the severance tax issue in Pennsylvania is not yet dead, as we had hoped. Last week budget negotiations broke down and PA Gov. Wolf took matters into his own hands by borrowing $1.25 billion from the state’s Liquor Control Board to plug a gap in this year’s budget (see 
Yesterday Utica Summit V was held in North Canton, OH. MDN could not, unfortunately, attend. But others did and the reports we’re reading indicate it was another great event. Two major news items of interest came from the event. The first was the results of a recent economic study that show an amazing $54.7 billion has been invested in the Utica Shale play from 2012-2016, across upstream ($42.7 billion), midstream ($8.6 billion) and downstream ($3.4 billion). In a surprise statement, the report’s author said, “the biggest impact of the Utica may be the development of gas-fired power plants in Ohio and surrounding states.” The second news item was a big emphasis at the event on the downstream–on the really big deal the petrochemical industry is and will be for Ohio and surrounding states. Presenters made the point that some manufacturers in Ohio were cut off from plastics supplies from the Gulf Coast after the recent hurricanes to hit that area–and that with the Shell and potentially PTT Global cracker plants coming along, manufacturers in the region change where they source their supply of raw plastics. In fact, the petchem industry will explode in Appalachia. All thanks to the Utica (and Marcellus) and the ethane produced. Here’s a pair of reports from yesterday’s event…
In August 2016, energy giant Tenaska (headquartered in Omaha, NE) broke ground to build a 925-megawatt natural gas-fueled power plant in South Huntingdon (Westmoreland County), PA (see 
Earlier this week MDN told you of the curious case of American Energy Partners, Inc.–a company headquartered in Allentown, PA that appears to have nothing to do with Aubrey McClendon’s now-closed American Energy Partners (see 
It has seemed to us that anecdotally most of the media in Virginia has tilted left and anti-pipeline when covering stories about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) projects, both slated to cross the state. So imagine our surprise in reading an editorial from the editors of the Fredericksburg, VA Free Lance-Star that gives full-throated support for fracked shale gas pipelines. The editorial begins by calling those who oppose ACP “NIMBY’s” (Not In My Back Yard). Later in the editorial, we learn this startling fact: “To prevent blackouts in Virginia this summer, Energy Secretary Rick Perry had to give Dominion Energy permission to reopen two shuttered coal-burning plants (Yorktown 1 and 2) in response to a request by PJM Interconnections, which manages the electric grid in 13 states. That’s how close the East Coast is to a real power crisis.” Yes folks, without ACP (and MVP), Virginia faces rolling blackouts. They won’t be able to produce enough electricity to meet the demand–unless they want to keep using coal. When will the NIMBYs wake up? Will it take a blackout to snap them out of their denial?…
Each year the consultants at Deloitte conduct a survey of oil and gas industry professionals. Last year the survey showed o&g execs believed we were already in the midst of a recovery for the industry (see 
It’s been a few months since we’ve brought you news about the monthly average for Baker Hughes’ venerable rig count–largely because after GE completed it’s merger with Baker Hughes they quit issuing monthly press releases from their website! We spotted a story in the Pittsburgh Business Times that talks about Ohio coming close to parity in their rig count with Pennsylvania–which is a really big deal–and the reasons for it. That story sent us looking for the latest rig count numbers and indeed, it’s true. As of September, PA averaged 33 shale rigs in operation, while OH averaged 29–the closest we’ve ever seen it. If you look at the counts for last week (BH does a weekly rig count too), the numbers are even closer: PA with 31 rigs, OH with 29. We don’t typically monitor the weekly counts as they always fluctuate up and down–better to look at monthly averages. But the fact remains that PA has been pretty steady, operating between 32 and 34 rigs per month since January of this year, while OH has gone from operating an average of 20 rigs in January to 29 last month, and West Virginia has gone from operating an average of 8 rigs in January to 15 rigs last month (nearly doubling). Yet PA is static. Is there an explanation? Some experts think there is, and it can be explained in a single word: pipelines…
Less than three weeks ago MDN told you about District 5 Investments, an energy-focused private equity firm based in Texas, which has formed a new subsidiary called Pathfinder Resources in order to invest in the Marcellus/Utica region (see 
