The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Vallourec reports $176M loss; EQT takes smart tech for a spin; President Trump will make Amercian energy great again; fracking played major role in election; investors snap up $28B in U.S. drillers; global shale lurking; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Nov 10, 2016”
Donald Trump’s victory in winning the presidency–whether you voted for him or not–is a victory for the oil and gas industry. Fracking is now not in danger of being banned, as it would have been with Hillary Clinton. The Washington “swamp” (“wetland” for greenies) as Trump and his running mate Mike Pence call it–is about to get drained. That includes the rogue, out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency, among others. Radical environmentalists are shocked and suicidal. We’re delighted! The people of this country have spoken…
Read More “Trump Victory Good News for the Shale Industry”
On Oct. 8, after five years in the making, Pennsylvania adopted new shale drilling regulations (see PA’s New Chapter 78a Drilling Regs Go into Effect Oct 8). Although the regs were ready at the end of the Gov. Tom Corbett Administration, Corbett fumbled the ball and the regs didn’t get adopted, which left them vulnerable to the incoming left-leaning Tom Wolf. Wolf’s people mangled the regulations under the Dept. of Environmental Protection Dictator/Secretary John Quigley, who got fired over unethical collusion with Big Green groups. Some of the good stuff remained, but onerous new elements were introduced. The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), which represents PA’s biggest shale drillers, filed an appeal in Commonwealth Court to block the most onerous aspects of the new regulations (see Marc. Shale Coalition Files Lawsuit to Block PA Chapter 78a Regs). When the court judge held a hearing on the matter, he was shocked the MSC didn’t call any witnesses (i.e. shale companies) adversely affected by the new regs (see Judge “Shocked” MSC Didn’t Present Witnesses @ Chapter 78a Hearing). However, that same judge yesterday decided the MSC has a case, at least with some of the new rules. So he has temporarily blocked some of the items the MSC objected to in its lawsuit, including rules governing freshwater impoundments…
Read More “PA Judge Temporarily Blocks Some DEP Chapter 78a Drilling Regs”
Last week Union Gas, a major Canadian natural gas storage, transmission and distribution company based in Ontario (and a subsidiary of Spectra Energy), completed the second phase of a three-phase expansion of its Dawn-Parkway System, which links markets in eastern Canada and the northeast U.S. with the Dawn Hub. The $391 million (Canadian dollars) expansion will deliver more Utica and Marcellus Shale natural gas to markets in eastern Canada and the northeast U.S. When the third and final phase is completed next year, the expanded Dawn-Parkway pipeline will flow an extra 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Utica/Marcellus gas. This is an important new market for our gas…
Read More “More M-U Gas Flows to Canada via Expanded Dawn-Parkway Pipeline”
As MDN reported in June, anti-drilling zealots in Youngstown, OH filed a petition to place a frack ban resolution on the November ballot–for the 6th time (see Brain Dead: Youngstown Antis File Petition for 6th Frack Ban Vote). The petition held up, there were just enough signatures. And once again yesterday, as the five times that preceded it, Youngstown voters rejected the misnamed, so-called Community Bill of Rights ballot measure–yet another humiliating defeat for the PA-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) which is behind the measure. The measure was voted down by an 11-point margin (i.e. landslide against it). As the five times before, recalcitrant antis say they will try yet again, and keep trying…
Read More “Youngstown, OH Frack Ban Ballot Measure Defeated for 6th Time”
We’ve written plenty in the past about the PA-based radical anti-drilling group called CELDF–Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (see our CELDF stories here). CELDF seems to have a lot of success in tricking people in Ohio into believing they can pass a so-called Community Bill of Rights to ban fracking, injection wells, etc.–illegal under Ohio state law. When such legislation is passed and then gets challenged, it loses in court. Every time. And when private companies sue for damages, taxpayers end up footing the bill and the CELDF is nowhere to be found (see Anti Group CELDF Won’t Help Grant Twp Pay $1M Judgement). The CELDF went pedaling their pap in Meigs County, OH, to the City of Waterville, and they found fertile ground, getting a “Bill of Rights Charter Amendment” on the ballot yesterday, meant to stop the NEXUS Pipeline from going through town (see PA-Based CELDF Looks for New Dupes in Meigs County, OH). Unfortunately the citizens of Waterville fell for it and voted to approve the ballot initiative. Thing is, as soon as it’s challenged in court (and you can bet your last dollar it will be challenged), it will get overturned, just like every other time these CELDF measures have been challenged. The taxpayers will have to pay to defend their folly…
Read More “Waterville, OH Passed NEXUS Pipeline Ban, Certain to Get Overturned”
In January 2014, MDN brought you the story that due to incessant nagging from the NJ Sierra Club and the NJ League of [Liberal Democrat] Women Voters the Pinelands Commission, which oversees a stand of scrub pines in South Jersey, nixed a plan for a new natural gas pipeline to bring cheap, clean, abundant Marcellus Shale natural gas to South Jersey for use by residents and to feed an electric plant a local utility wants to convert from burning coal to natgas (see Sierra Club, LWV Chooses Coal over NatGas in South Jersey). In May 2014, NJ Gov. Chris Christie replaced two of the “no” voters on the Pinelands Commission, much to the consternation of the antis (see Marcellus Pipeline May Come to South Jersey After All). In August 2015, the staffers who actually do the work of the Commission decided to act, saying that they had the authority to approve the pipeline without a full Commission vote to do so. A panel of three New Jersey Appellate Division judges on Monday rejected that claim and said if you want to build a pipeline through the scrub pines, the full Commission must vote to do so…
Read More “Court Setback for NJ Pipeline Slated to Run Through Scrub Pines”
The Sierra Club, which may have been founded for good reasons, long ago left the realm of sanity. Sierra Clubbers, as we call them, now live in an alternative universe where clean-burning natural gas and all fossil fuels are from the devil himself. The Clubbers have tried to get multiple LNG (liquefied natural gas) export facilities blocked on the theory that if you cut off the demand you can cut off the supply (i.e. end fracking of new wells). Yeah, crazy. But that’s what they’re trying. Lately they’ve tried to attack and bully both the Dept. of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. With legions of lawyers, they file frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit, hoping if they throw enough legal (ahem) feces against the wall, some it will stick. So far it hasn’t. One of the facilities the Sierra Club continues to fight against is Cove Point LNG in Maryland. They filed an appeal of a Dept. of Energy approval to allow Cove Point to export LNG to non-free trade agreement countries–namely Japan and India. Yep, the Sierra Club doesn’t want us to help out Japan or India. They’d rather have us help Saudi Arabia and Qatar, apparently. After the appeal went nowhere, the Clubbers have no sued in the uber-liberal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Thing is, that very same court recently handed the Sierra Club a defeat in a similar case…
Read More “Radicalized Sierra Club Files Cove Point Appeal in DC Court”
Rex Energy, the little Marcellus/Utica driller that could, swung things around in the third quarter. Yesterday Rex issued its third quarter update and the company is in the black–earning $5.4 million. No, it’s not much in the o&g world, but it’s a whole lot better than losing $95 million as they did in 3Q15. During 3Q16 Rex drilled 1 Marcellus and 3.5 Utica wells, completed several more wells and brought a variety of wells online in both the Marcellus and Utica. Here’s the full update with details on what Rex did in 3Q16…
Read More “Rex Energy 3Q16: Swings into the Black, Drills 4.5 New Wells”
Oilfield services company Mammoth Energy Services, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, operates in both the Utica Shale and Permian Basin. Mammoth offers services like “completion and production services, natural sand proppant services, contract land and directional drilling services and remote accommodation services.” Mammoth is a baby company, formed in 2014, but already booking $243 million in revenue for the 12 months ended June 30th. In October, Mammoth announced an initial public offering (IPO) hoping to raise roughly $150 million (see Utica Oilfield Services Co. Mammoth Energy Floats ~$150M IPO). “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” as the old saying goes. The IPO didn’t perform as well as hoped, bringing in only $112 million (see Mammoth IPO Not So Mammoth After All – Priced at Low End). Yesterday Mammoth issued its third quarter 2016 update. There is a (very) brief bullet point talking about activity in the Utica Shale…
Read More “Mammoth Energy 3Q16: “Intense Fracs” in Utica Shale”
In May 2015 the Obama rogue Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with the Obama U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released a finalized rule clarifying what “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) means vis a vis what can be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act (see EPA Power Grab: Redefines Waters of the U.S. to Include Everything). Essentially the rule change redefines everything down to mud puddles (we’re not exaggerating) as subject to the federal Clean Water Act. In October 2015 a federal judge stopped WOTUS from going into effect, while it’s litigated (see Sixth Circuit Court Stops EPA from Implementing WOTUS Anywhere). It took a year, but last week 31 states along with other entities filed briefs with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opposing the rule (see 31 States Ask Court to Dump Obama WOTUS Rule as Unconstitutional). Good news: 21 U.S. Senators and 67 House of Representatives members (Congresspersons) have filed a “friend of the court” (amicus) brief urging the court to vacate the EPA’s WOTUS rule…
Read More “21 Senators, 67 Representatives Join Case Against EPA WOTUS Rule”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Northeast drillers gear up for winter; natgas prices fall in the northeast; blocking pipelines new anti-fracking ploy; natgas output still going strong in OH; Hilcorp gets 11 new permits in Columbiana County; PA rig count goes up in Oct; LNG layoffs in NEPA; energy companies turn to drones; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Nov 9, 2016”
The only Republican New England governor, Maine’s Paul LePage, is also New England’s smartest governor. He knows New England residents are screwed bigtime without new sources of abundant, cheap, clean-burning natural gas–for heating and to produce electricity. LePage also understands the best place to get that gas is from the low cost Marcellus/Utica region–just a few hundred miles away from his state. The problem is that Maine’s neighbors have killed the only practical way to get that gas into New England–via pipelines (see MA Supreme Court Ruling Endangers New England Gas Pipelines; NH Regulators Veto Access Northeast Pipeline Contract; and CT Latest New England State to Give Up on NatGas Cooperation). But LePage isn’t ready to give up just yet. Perhaps his neighbors all want to commit economic suicide. Let them. LePage is floating an ingenious idea. It’s kind of a “going around your elbow to get to your thumb” plan, but hey, whatever works! LePage wants to run Marcellus Shale gas up into Ontario, Canada, then across that province into Quebec and from there on into Maine. The plan, which bypasses the rest of New England, is not as far-fetched as it first may sound…
Read More “Maine Wants Marcellus Gas Bad – Plans to Get it via Canada!”
MDN first told you about IMG Midstream in August 2014 (see 7 Small Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants Coming to NEPA). At the time, IMG was proposing to build seven “tiny” natural gas-fired electric plants–each plant producing on the order of 20-22 megawatts of electricity (enough to power 13,000 homes). IMG added a couple of more to their plans in November 2014 (see Details on IMG’s “Tiny” Marcellus-Powered Electric Plants in NEPA). The beauty of IMG’s tiny natgas electric plants is that they are really small–about the size of a basketball court; they produce almost no air pollution; and they are quiet. It’s a really cool concept. IMG’s very first tiny electric plant, in Susquehanna County, PA, went online in October 2015. The second plant, in Bradford County, PA, went online this past June (see IMG’s Tiny NatGas-Fired Electric Plants Take Off in the Marcellus). The former 9 planned plants ballooned with plans for 25 plants operating within the next five years! Here’s details for another “tiny” power plant on the way in the northeastern tip of PA, in Wayne County…
Read More “Another “Tiny” IMG Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant Planned in NEPA”
Do you believe the argument that says, “Natural gas is just a bridge fuel to help us until renewable energy arrives to save the day”? Let me challenge your thinking with this counter-argument: Fossil fuels, including natural gas, are BETTER than renewables. Is your head spinning yet?
Join me for a live webinar next Friday, Nov. 18, with Alex Epstein, founder of the Center for Industrial Progress and author of one of my favorite books: The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. I heard Alex deliver a live speech at the 2016 Shale Insight in Pittsburgh in September. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
Read More “Must-Attend Webinar: The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels”
While the worldwide Baker Hughes rig count slide back a bit in October, from 934 in September to 920 in October, the rig count in the U.S. once again, for the fourth month in a row, went up. The average U.S. rig count for October was 544, up 35 from the 509 counted in September. However, the rig count was down 247 from the 791 counted in October 2015–so we still have a long ways to go. The Marcellus/Utica rig count was up for the third month running. In October the M/U rig count went up by 4 with 3 additions in PA (now 25 rigs) and 1 in WV (now 10 rigs). OH stayed even running with an average of 14 rigs…
Read More “Baker Hughes Oct US Rig Count Up by 35, M-U Count Up 4”