The Constitution Pipleine from northeastern Pennsylvania into east-central New York State is not the only pipeline project to get delayed. It is one of five highly important projects for drillers in the Marcellus/Utica region that are either delayed–or even canceled. What are the other four projects? Read on…
Read More “List of 5 Pipeline Projects in Marcellus/Utica Delayed or Canceled”
What will it take for drillers to begin drilling again? That’s a question getting asked frequently by analysts on quarterly earnings calls with Marcellus/Utica drillers. The short answer is for the price of natural gas to go up and stay up. How high? Here’s some interesting economics from Southwestern Energy CEO Bill Way: every time the price of natural gas increases another quarter ($0.25), it translates into $185 million in cash flow for his company. If the price went up 50 cents, Southwestern would reactivate two drilling rigs. Another key factor in when drillers will start drilling again are DUCs–drilled but uncompleted wells. The DUC inventory is going down–but many drillers still have a year’s worth of DUCs they can leverage before they have to sink new holes…
Read More “When Will Drilling Pick Up in the Marcellus/Utica? It Depends…”
Yesterday MDN’s favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report–the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR is the EIA’s best guess, based on expert data crunchers, as to how much each of the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce for both oil and natural gas in the coming month. Our first interesting observation from the May report: The EIA projects that in June (the report is a forecast looking forward) that once again the Utica Shale will be the only play out of the seven major plays that will continue to produce more natural gas than it did the month before. In April the EIA said the Utica would produce 1 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) of natural gas above what it did the month before, and this report says the Utica will produce 4 Mmcf/d more than it did last month. Second interesting observation: Production in the Marcellus Shale, while it continues to produce each month than it did the month before, is slowing down. That is, the rate of decline is slowing, which means we may be getting close to the point when Marcellus production begins to pick up again. Keep a close eye on Marcellus production, because it’s the largest producing shale play in the country…
Read More “EIA May DPR: Utica Production Up, Marcellus Loss Slows”
We’ve heard of microwaving popcorn (one of our favorite things to microwave), but we’ve never heard of microwaving “nanoribbons.” We suspect you haven’t either. All’s it takes is a 30-watt microwave to nuke nanoribbons and voila–drillers have a new, cheap and better way to seal up tiny fractures in wellbores. Researchers at Rice University have discovered wellbores drilled to extract oil and gas can be “dramatically reinforced” with a small amount of modified graphene nanoribbons–added to a polymer and microwaved. Think of it as nuking a tiny bit of plastic over a rock and the plastic melts into and firms up the rock. It’s quite possible there will be a microwave coming to a well pad near you!…
Read More “Microwaves – Coming to a Well Pad Near You? Maybe!”
We don’t run every “hey we have new business starting up to service the oil and gas industry” story that’s sent our way. But we do sometimes–especially those that catch our eye and tickle our fancy. Pipeline Compliance Group is one such startup. Dan Garcia, a pipeline safety attorney (we didn’t know there were such things) has started up a new consulting company in Pittsburgh to provide pipeline safety consulting to local governments, regulators and even pipeline operators. We took a look at the website (www.pipelinecgllc.com) and liked what we saw–including the fact that Mr. Garcia is a veteran…
Read More “New Pipeline Safety Company Launches in Pittsburgh”
You may recall a few months back when President Barack Hussein Obama signed the Paris climate treaty, referred to as COP21. As we wrote at the time, the treaty is not binding on the U.S. because it’s not been ratified by the Senate (see Paris Climate Treaty Signed by Obama NOT Binding on U.S.). Nice try O. Close, but no carbon-emitting cigar for you. The treaty aims to force the countries of the world to subjugate themselves and their national sovereignty to the United Nations, who will impose draconian steps to lower the amount of carbon dioxide (the stuff you breathe out with every breath you take) in an idiotic attempt to solve man-made global warming. We know we know, global warming doesn’t exist. But you can’t tell that to people with closed minds. Here’s the thing: Obama’s own executive branch in the form of our favorite government agency–the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)–has just released a report that says even with COP21 the amount of carbon that will be emitted into the atmosphere by 2040 will go up at least one-third! Why? Because the countries outside of the group signing COP21 have absolutely no plans to shoot themselves in the head and will continue to belch out carbon as fast as they can. So yes, COP21 was futile and meaningless…
Read More “CO2 Emissions Will Go Up 33% Despite Paris Summit, Obama Bluster”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Columbia files app with FERC for Mountaineer, Gulf XPress pipelines; anti-oil protest in Albany rail yard fizzles; court won’t dismiss class action by PA landowners against XTO Energy in royalty case; surviving the slump in natgas industry; Trump appoints ND Congressman as energy advisor; EPA violating Supreme Court; Chesapeake pushes a boulder up a hill; and more!
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, May 17, 2016”
Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) pushed and prodded and poked and cajoled and insisted, and finally with the help of an inside corporate raider, forced Williams to agree to a buyout/merger (see Williams Accepts ETE’s “Indecent Proposal” – Price Went Down $10B). Then the bottom dropped out of the price of natural gas and drillers scaled back drilling and consequently midstream (i.e. pipeline) companies like ETE and Williams got pinched. And ETE got cold feet (see ETE Wants Out of Williams Merger/Takeover, Offering $2B Breakup Fee). Williams said “not so fast, you wanted us, you’ll be taking us” and consequently sued ETE to force the merger to happen (see Merger Turns Sour: Williams Sues ETE/CEO Kelcy Warren). On Friday, Williams filed their third lawsuit to force ETE to complete the merger. ETE’s CEO Kelsey Warren says Williams is “meritless” and will “lead to delays” in the merger. What in the world is going on?…
Read More “Williams Files 3rd Lawsuit Against ETE to Force Merger by June 28”
It only took nine months, but the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), which moves like a glacier, has finally responded to a request by a group of farmers in Tioga County, NY to use propane fracking technology (also known as LPG fracturing or “liquefied petroleum gas”) on a shale well. Last July a group of landowners flying under the name of The Snyder Farm Group (five families make up the group) contracted with Tioga Energy Partners (based in Texas) to drill a fracked Utica Shale well, and follow it up with drilling a fracked Marcellus Shale well, using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or propane) and sand (see NY Landowners File to Frack Horizontal Well w/Waterless Tech and NY Heroes: More Details on NY Propane Fracking Proposal). The wells will not use water for fracking–and therefore, according to the landowners, avoid the ban on high volume fracking recently imposed by Andrew Cuomo. It’s just coming to light that last month the DEC issued a “notice of incomplete application” for the proposal (see a copy below) and requested more information on things as truck traffic, how long it will take to frack, the type of storage tanks that will be used, etc. This is more Cuomo tried and true delay as long as you can, then delay some more. It’s always worked so well for the corrupt Cuomo, why not keep doing it? Here’s the details…
Read More “NY DEC Calls Propane Fracking “Unique Technology”; Wants More Info”
The process of screwing over existing stockholders in favor of debtholders continues at Seventy Seven Energy (SSE). In April, MDN told you that SSE–the old Chesapeake Oilfield Operating unit that was spun into its own company a few years ago–was ordering up one prepackaged bankruptcy to go (see Seventy Seven Energy Filing for Bankruptcy, Converting Debt into Stock). Following the path of other oil and gas-related companies, SSE plans to convert existing debt into equity–turning IOUs into shares of stock. Magnum Hunter Resources just completed the process of doing the same thing and had now emerged from bankruptcy (see Magnum Hunter Emerges from Bankruptcy with CEO Gary Evans Gone). Everybody is sort-of happy under that scenario–except the original stockholders who see the value of their shares of stock turned into toilet paper. They become worthless. (Note to self: Always buy bonds in the future!) SSE continues their march toward renegotiating with existing noteholders, as they announced last Friday…
Read More “Seventy Seven Energy Makes Progress in “Pre-Packaged” Bankruptcy”
EXCO Resources was once a sizable player in the Marcellus. They still have 145,000 net acres in the Marcellus, with 124 horizontal Marcellus wells drilled and in production. However, EXCO, as we pointed out in March, has pretty much abandoned the Marcellus at this point (see EXCO: No Marcellus Drilling in 2015/2016, NYSE Threatens Delisting). Things are getting bleaker at the company. On Friday EXCO announced they’ve formed a special committee from their board of directors to evaluate “options” for the company’s future. One of those options on the table for discussion is “restructuring,” which is coded language for bankruptcy. As soon as the news hit last Friday the companies stock went down even further. It pretty much went over a cliff–from $1.81 last Thursday to $0.72 this morning (down 60%). Here’s the announcement which details which kinds of options are under consideration by the board…
Read More “EXCO Resources Board Looks at “Restructuring” – Stock Nosedives”
Although headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia), Penn Virginia Corporation is an oil and gas driller with only a small presence in the Marcellus Shale: 21,700 net acres with no drilled wells. They concentrate on oil drilling the Texas Eagle Ford Shale play. Penn Virginia is one of the Philly area’s oldest companies, started in 1882 by Philadelphia coal barons. It later transitioned into an oil company. MDN told you in March 2015 that Penn Virginia’s top stockholder, the vile corporate raider George Soros, forced the company to put itself up for sale so George can line his pockets with more cash (see George Soros Finally Bullies Penn Virginia into Selling Itself). We’re happy to report that didn’t work out so well for old George (who reminds us of a dried-out, shriveled up prune). Last week the company, which is now a penny stock trading on the Pink Sheets, filed for bankruptcy…
Read More “George Soros’ Penn Virginia Corp. Files for Bankruptcy”
Last year MDN reported that anti-drilling landowners in Nelson and Augusta counties (Virginia) who don’t want a pipeline to mar their weekend horse farm pastures refused to allow surveyors for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline access to their precious pastures. Dominion, the company building the 550-mile, $5 billion natural gas pipeline that will run from West Virginia, through Virginia and into North Carolina, took the antis to federal court and won (see Fed Judge Tosses VA Landowner Lawsuit to Stop Pipeline Surveys). The same landowners won’t leave it alone and took Dominion back to court (county court in this case) over the surveys. The county judge found that Dominion’s survey notices are “insufficient” because they use imprecise language about when the surveys will take place. But the judge essentially threw out everything else. In other words, this was yet another victory for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline–a pipeline that WILL get built…
Read More “Atlantic Coast Pipeline Wins Another Virginia Court Case”
The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) selected Penn State University to lead a consortium of nine universities in all that will study fossil fuel technologies for the next six years. NETL is giving Penn State $20 million of your money (i.e. taxpayer’s money) “to accelerate the development and deployment of fossil fuel-based technologies.” We can certainly think of worse uses for the money. Penn State will lead the Lucky University CoalItion for Fossil Energy Research (LUCiFER). Uh no! That’s not right! Let’s try it again: Penn State will lead the University Coalition for Fossil Energy Research (UCFER). There, that’s it! Here’s what the feds said, and what Penn State said, about the new grant and the new UCFER coalition…
Read More “Feds Give Penn State $20M to Lead Fossil Fuel Research Effort”
Fitch Ratings, one of the world’s top ratings services (rates stocks, bonds and more), issued a press release/opinion on Friday that tackles the issue of LNG (liquefied natural gas) and how the LNG market is rapidly and radically changing because of U.S. shale gas. Historically the price for LNG and oil have been linked. When the price of oil goes up or down, so too does LNG. But that’s now changing, because of the super abundance of U.S. shale gas. Fitch points out that with the U.S. now in the LNG export game, the link between LNG, natural gas and oil has “weakened.” They also say the U.S. natural gas market is “too big and too well supplied” for LNG exports to affect natgas prices here at home. In other words, we can export all of the LNG we want and it still won’t raise the domestic price of natural gas for consumers…
Read More “Fitch: US Can Export All the LNG is Wants, Won’t Affect Consumers”
A general warning and heads-up on the newest/latest attack in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Well, maybe it’s not all that new–it’s been going on for a few years–but the intensity and pace of the attacks have picked up. We’re talking about the argument being made by anti fossil-fuelers that FERC doesn’t, by law, consider all pipelines when it evaluates a single pipeline–i.e. “cumulative effects.” For example, if three different pipeline requests for the same region are filed with FERC, FERC does not have the authority to decide only one of the three is really “needed” and that building all three would be “overbuilding.” FERC evaluates them one by one and (properly so) and lets the free market (i.e. capitalism) decide which one(s) will get built. FERC is not in the business of Communistic command-and-control decisions over private companies. FERC’s concern is that a given, single pipeline project doesn’t harm the environment and shows a need. Period. Antis, detecting an opportunity, want to force FERC, either by social pressure or by the courts, to take into consideration larger regional concerns–and even mythical global warming concerns–before making decisions. Here’s the latest example, from Virginia…
Read More “Antis Want FERC to Use Communism Instead of Capitalism”