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    Wacky Anti-Fossil Fuelers Get Even Wackier with Trump Proposals

    Anti fossil-fuelers are fit to be tied with the inauguration of Donald J. Trump. They’ve become hysterical–as in funny and as in their pronouncements that THE END is near. Trump signed Executive Orders on Tuesday to grease the skids for both the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline (see Trump Signs Executives Orders to Restart DAPL, Keystone XL Pipes). That had the antis eyes popping out. Then came a directive to the Environmental Protection Agency freezing grants and contracts–to stem the bleeding. There’s also a “media blackout” at EPA. This has caused antis’ heads to begin spinning like the girl in The Exorcist. We enjoy spontaneous and frequent bouts of laughing out loud as we read the inane things being spouted. Here’s just a few, for your entertainment…
    Read More “Wacky Anti-Fossil Fuelers Get Even Wackier with Trump Proposals”

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    Deloitte Report: Navigating the New World of LNG

    Despite near-term headwinds, the long-term future of global liquefied natural gas is positive for participants able to adapt to a more fragmented market, new and different customer expectations and more short-term and flexible commercial arrangements, according to Deloitte’s new report “Navigating the new world of LNG” (full copy below). In the near term, the industry expects to face headwinds of slowing demand growth, recent and imminent supply capacity expansions that could overtake the pace of demand growth, and a lower price environment that challenges the economic viability of new developments. But, “Long-term, strong underlying demand drivers and the opening of new markets could provide substantial opportunity for participants”…
    Read More “Deloitte Report: Navigating the New World of LNG”

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jan 26, 2017

    The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Trump’s exec orders open the door for more Marcellus/Utica projects; Dominion adds 2 to board; pig poo to the rescue; House working to roll back Obama energy rules; EPA just delayed 30 enviro orders from Obama; Henry Hub price set to rise; Harold Hamm fires back at Russia; Trump to name LaFleur to head FERC; robots taking over drilling rigs; France can’t meet its own power demand (but bans fracking); and more!
    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jan 26, 2017”

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    PA IFO Predicts 2016 Impact Fee Revenue Will Drop Another 7%

    Click for larger version

    Each year since 2012 Pennsylvania has assessed and collected their version of a severance tax–called an impact fee. As you can see from the chart, the first three years’ worth of collections were over $200 million per year. But starting in 2015 and the collapse of oil and natural gas prices, drillers laid down many of their rigs, and the gas slowed down–resulting in lower tax (whoops, fee) collections. Which is to be expected. In PA, the impact fee is collected and disbursed by the Public Utility Commission (PUC). However, a different state agency, the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), analyzes production and does a pretty fair job of estimating what the collections will show. Last July the IFO made predictions for 2016 collections that range from $5 million to $56 million below what was collected in 2015 (see PA Independent Fiscal Office Predicts Impact Fee Revenue for 2016). With production numbers now updated by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, the IFO has re-run the numbers and now has a much better idea of what collections, which occur in April, will show. The IFO says the state will collect $174.6 million in impact fees, which is $13.1 million (~7%) less than last year. Perhaps most interesting is a number calculated by the IFO called the “Effective Tax Rate” (or ETR). The ETR is what the impact fee would be if it were called a severance tax. Last year the ETR was 6.9%. This year it will be 5%. When you add corporate income taxes paid by drillers to the ETR, you get a “severance tax” rate that is higher than any other oil and gas producing state! And still RINOs and Democrats want to tack on an extra severance tax. Blithering idiots…
    Read More “PA IFO Predicts 2016 Impact Fee Revenue Will Drop Another 7%”

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    Columbia Pipeline Launches Open Season for New M-U Project

    Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Columbia Pipeine’s Leach XPress and Rayne XPress pipeline projects (see FERC Approves $1.8B Leach & Rayne XPress Pipeline Projects). The two projects together will flow an additional 1.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of Marcellus/Utica gas to the Gulf Coast. With those two successes in hand, Columbia Pipeline Group (now owned by TransCanada) is floating another project, called Buckeye XPress. As you can guess from the name, this new project will beef up service along the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline from Ohio (and PA and WV) to send even more Marcellus/Utica gas to the Gulf via the interconnection at Leach, Kentucky. Columbia launched a non-binding open season to gauge interest in the project, which will use looping and beefed up compressor stations to increase capacity another 700 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day along the existing pipeline Columbia pipeline system, which is abbreviated TCO…
    Read More “Columbia Pipeline Launches Open Season for New M-U Project”

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    Speculation: Transco Sending M-U Gas to Louisiana LNG Terminal

    Over a year ago the mighty Transco turned bidirectional, sometimes sending gas northward from the Gulf (as it’s done for 50 years), and now, sometimes sending gas from the Marcellus/Utica southward, to the Gulf. Much more gas will head south once the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project gets built (see FERC Approves Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline! Cabot Grabs More Capacity). However, from various stories we’ve read, and from our speculation, we’ve assumed that at least some Marcellus/Utica gas now flows far enough south that perhaps some of it reaches the Cheniere Energy LNG export facility in Sabine Pass, Louisiana (see LNG Slowly Changing the NatGas Game in the Marcellus/Utica). Until now, the gas traveling from north to south has only made it as far as the Creole Trail pipeline and from there Creole Trail would conduct the gas to Cheniere’s LNG plant in Sabine Pass. But beginning yesterday Transco is now connected directly to the Sabine Pass facility. We have to confess this is speculation on our part, but we don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that Marcellus/Utica gas is now flowing to Sabine Pass for export. And if our gas is not now flowing to Sabine Pass, it soon will be. Here’s our evidence…
    Read More “Speculation: Transco Sending M-U Gas to Louisiana LNG Terminal”

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    PA Royalty Bills Approved by Senate Panel, Sponsor Chides House

    Yesterday a Pennsylvania State Senate panel met to discuss two bills that would help landowners in their quest for more visibility into how royalties are calculated–and what kinds of expenses are deducted (see 2 Royalty Bills Focus of PA Senate Hearing Today). As we said yesterday, Senate Bill (SB) 138 will allow landowners the right to review drilling company records to verify proper royalty payment. It also requires drillers to pay royalties within 90 days of production. SB 139 prohibits drillers from “retaliating” against a landowner who questions royalty payments by canceling the lease or stopping drilling activity. Both bills were unanimously approved by the Senate panel and will go to the full Senate for a vote. However, as the bill’s prime sponsor Sen. Gene Yaw indicated, the Senate is not the problem. Last session the same thing happened–speedy passage by the Senate. Then the bills got bogged down in the PA House because they were attached to another bill that guarantees a minimum royalty of 12.5% regardless of post-production costs. That bill has proven toxic–vigorously opposed by the drilling industry. Sen. Yaw’s not-so-subtle message to the House: Don’t repeat the same mistake this year. Let these bills stand on their own…
    Read More “PA Royalty Bills Approved by Senate Panel, Sponsor Chides House”

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    Patterson-UTI Floats $418M of New Stock to Pay Off SSE’s Debts

    As MDN told you in November, Patterson-UTI Energy, an oilfield services company with major operations in the northeast, is buying out and merging in Seventy Seven Energy (SSE) in an all-stock deal worth $1.76 billion (see Seventy Seven Energy Throws in the Towel, Sells to Paterson-UTI). SSE is the former Chesapeake Oilfield Operating company, the oilfield services subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy that Chessy spun out into its own company in July 2014 after it couldn’t find anyone to buy it (see Long Labor & Delivery: Seventy Seven Energy Born Yesterday). It was an ill-fated venture from the beginning. SSE never turned a profit after becoming its own company. In June of this year, SSE, which has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica, filed for bankruptcy, then emerged from bankruptcy two months later borrowing $100 million (see Seventy Seven Energy Pops Out of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 2 Mos.). In the third quarter of this year, the red ink continued to flow, with SSE losing $36.5 million. Now that Patterson is buying it, they are on the hook for SSE’s debts. So even though the deal to buy SSE is a no-cash stock swap, Patterson still needs a boatload of cash to pay off SSE’s debts. So Patterson is floating 15,800,000 shares of stock at $26.45 per share to raise $418 million. The stated reason? “To fund the repayment of the outstanding indebtedness of Seventy Seven Energy Inc.”…
    Read More “Patterson-UTI Floats $418M of New Stock to Pay Off SSE’s Debts”

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    Large Crowd Turns Out For/Against 22-Mile Pipeline in NJ Scrub Pines

    On Monday the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, which oversees a stand of scrub pines in South Jersey, held a public hearing to listen to comments on a plan to build a 22-mile pipeline through the scrub pines, burying it alongside the road so as to not disturb any spindly trees. The pipeline will supply clean-burning natural gas to a power plant currently fed by coal, cleaning up the air and lowering CO2 emissions. But dunderheads in the area are still opposed–largely incited by radical environmental groups like the NJ Sierra Club and the odious Food & Water Watch, who spread lies about the project. So many people turned up for the meeting, it maxed out the meeting room of 260 and some had to wait outside in the rain (which didn’t sit well with the pampered snowflakes). Predictably many who showed up wanted to go on record as opposed to the project. Isn’t that always the case? It’s easy to motivate people to attend a meeting when they’re against something–much harder to attract people who support something. At any rate, the surprising thing about yesterday’s meeting were the many people who turned out to support the pipeline. Also predictable, at least one anti (from the odious Food & Water Watch) couldn’t contain herself and had to be ejected for disrupting the meeting…
    Read More “Large Crowd Turns Out For/Against 22-Mile Pipeline in NJ Scrub Pines”

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    UMH Snaps Up More PA/OH Trailer Parks, Targeting M-U Workers

    You don’t often hear about a company that owns trailer parks as being a publicly-held company (trading shares of stock on the New York Stock Exchange). But such is the case with New Jersey-based real estate investment company, UMH Properties, Inc. We’ve written about UMH a number of times before (see our UMH stories here). Why? Because they keep buying trailer parks in the Marcellus/Utica with the express hope that drilling activity in the region will lead to high occupancy rates. They’ve just done it again. Last week UMH closed on two more trailer parks in Ohio, and yesterday they closed on purchasing another park in Pennsylvania. Their target seems to be workers in the shale industry. Their strategy is working…
    Read More “UMH Snaps Up More PA/OH Trailer Parks, Targeting M-U Workers”

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    Trump Signs Executives Orders to Restart DAPL, Keystone XL Pipes

    President Trump is wasting no time in correcting the mistakes of the Obama Administration. Yesterday Trump signed a pair of Executive Orders meant to restart and advance the XL Keystone Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline projects. The orders include a requirement that the pipes manufactured for the projects be manufactured right here at home, in the U.S. The orders in no way require the projects to get completed, they are simply meant to help clear regulatory hurdles so the projects’ builders can get moving again. Predictably the action is making radical fossil fuel haters apoplectic…
    Read More “Trump Signs Executives Orders to Restart DAPL, Keystone XL Pipes”

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jan 25, 2017

    The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Whatever happened to GreenHunter Resources; Marcellus money saving farmland in Blair County; Susan LeGros talks about holding drillers to higher standards; Citizens Energy sells LNG business; expect a new shale boom this spring; Trump’s ‘scary’ energy policy; Mexico preps for shale push in 2017; and more!
    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Jan 25, 2017”

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    FERC Delays PennEast Pipe 3rd Time, PennEast Spins as ‘Good News’

    PennEast Pipeline is a very important $1 billion, 118-mile, primarily 36-inch pipeline that will get built from Dallas (Luzerne County), PA to Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington (Mercer County), NJ. It will feed local utilities and power generation plants along its route. In April 2016 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which oversees permitting for the pipeline, told PennEast the agency would extend the amount of time they are taking until December 2016, rather than the original target of August, to complete their environmental review (see PennEast Spins FERC Delay as a Good Thing – Optimism or Denial?). It was (for us) a small red flag. Hey, it happens. Projects get delayed because regulatory agencies get bogged down. But then it happened again: FERC told PennEast they would once again move the goal posts and delay the final environmental review from December 2016 to February 2017 (see FERC Delays PennEast Pipeline Final Review – Again). Hmmm. Bigger red flag. Now FERC is doing it for a third time, which is a huge red flag in our book. FERC issued a statement on Friday to say the final environmental review now won’t happen until April. What’s going on? And why is PennEast once again spinning this as some sort of “good news”?…
    Read More “FERC Delays PennEast Pipe 3rd Time, PennEast Spins as ‘Good News’”

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    2 Royalty Bills Focus of PA Senate Hearing Today

    PA Sen. Gene Yaw

    Last week MDN brought you the news that several northeastern Pennsylvania counties are investigating an alliance to push for passage of a bill like last session’s House Bill (HB) 1391 to guarantee landowners receive a minimum 12.5% royalty regardless of post-production costs (see Northeastern PA Counties Explore Alliance to Pass Royalty Reform). However, landowners and those who support them in the PA legislature are not pinning all hopes on a guaranteed minimum royalty bill. Also proposed in the last session (2015/2016) were two bills meant to greatly assist landowners in their quest to monitor royalty payments and how they are calculated. In January 2015 (almost exactly two years ago) PA Senator Gene Yaw, who represents several counties in northeast PA, re-introduced Senate Bills (SB) 147 & 148 (see PA Senate Reintroduces Two Marcellus Royalty Bills, SB 147 & 148). “Re-introduced” in 2015 means both bills were introduced in the previous session (in 2013/2014). SB 147 would have allowed landowners the right to review drilling company records to verify proper royalty payment. It would also have required drillers to pay royalties within 90 days of production. SB 148 prohibits drillers from “retaliating” against a landowner who questions royalty payments by canceling the lease or stopping drilling activity. Both bills were embraced by the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO). They both passed the Senate and stalled in the House. Now, for the third time (going on the sixth year) Sen. Yaw has re-introduced both bills again. This time they are called SB 138 & 139 (full copies below). Sen. Yaw isn’t wasting any time–he’s holding a hearing today to discuss both bills. Will this time be successful?…
    Read More “2 Royalty Bills Focus of PA Senate Hearing Today”

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    RINOs and Dems Ramp Up Severance Tax Bills in PA Legislature

    “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” (Proverbs 26:11, King James Version) We could think of no better way to convey the news that no less than three so-called Republicans from the Philadelphia area, and a plethora of Democrats, are in the process of introducing severance tax bills in the Pennsylvania State Legislature, once again. The bills range from assessing a 3.5% tax all the way up to 9%. We won’t repeat our many MANY arguments for why such a tax is just plain stupid. We’ll just share with you who (in the PA legislature) wants to steal money from landowners and drillers and give it to teachers’ unions…
    Read More “RINOs and Dems Ramp Up Severance Tax Bills in PA Legislature”

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    PHMSA Publishes New Pipeline Rule on Faster Accident Reporting

    Yesterday the U.S. Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a final “rule” (actually 31 pages of rules, which we’ve included below) in the Federal Register, which will become law (i.e. official regulation) on March 24th. The new “rule” requires pipeline operators to report incidents or accidents by phone within one hour of when they become aware of the incident/accident. It also steps up drug and alcohol testing requirements for workers. Here’s the latest in unlegislated laws to come down from on (Washington, DC) high…
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