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    Will Low Oil/Gas Prices Lead to ‘Social Unrest’? $25/Bbl Coming?!

    The low price of oil (and gas) is blamed for a lot of things. You can add one more to the list: social unrest. You might think oil and gas prices being obscenely high would lead to “social unrest,” but according to analysts at RBC Capital Markets, it’s the opposite. The theory goes like this…In big oil countries like the U.S., Russia or even “wealthier” Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, when the price of oil crashes, they have the national resources to ride out the price collapse (i.e. keep welfare programs going)–until the price rebounds. But not all oil exporting countries are so fortunate. What if the price of oil hits the $25 per barrel range next year, as is predicted by RBC Capital Markets? According to their analysts, there are some (socialist) countries that will stop paying for public programs, and that will lead to “social unrest” as those addicted to the public teat get weened (think Greece). Among those countries are what RBC calls “the Fragile Five”–countries where ISIS is believed to be active. Which countries are they?…
    Read More “Will Low Oil/Gas Prices Lead to ‘Social Unrest’? $25/Bbl Coming?!”

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    Paris Climate Summit Jazzes Obama…Why it Doesn’t Matter

    Yesterday our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama (BHO), addressed global warming nutters from around the world who came to Paris to agree to less freedom for citizens of the United States (and to sentence developing countries to lifetimes of misery). That about sums up what the United Nations twenty-first conference of the parties (COP-21) is all about. It’s about limiting economic activity in countries around the world under the pretense of man-made global warming. What’s funny about yesterday is that even one of their own, BHO, was a little too windy for the assembled nutters. Apparently you can have too much wind–who knew? BHO, like other world leaders to address the assembled warmers, was given a 3-minute time slot to spout his opinions blaming the USA for global warming. But BHO, like the Energizer Bunny, just kept going and going and going. At the nine minute mark the Frenchies started to hit the buzzer and kept stabbing it periodically to signal BHO it was time to get his @$$ off the stage. But the tone deaf BHO kept right on jabbering until he was done reading the last word the teleprompter told him to read–some 11 minutes after he began. Below we have the story of BHO’s long-winded address to COP-21, along with some rational views about what this ill-fated conference is really all about, and why no agreement BHO signs will ever see the light of day (or matter) in the good old US of A…
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    Free Book: Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming

    All eyes are currently on Paris and the United Nations twenty-first conference of the parties (COP-21). COP-21 is an attempt to force all of the nations of the world to sign on to the myth of man-made global warming–and force them to reduce carbon output, which they believe will lower said global warming. In reality not even the people attending really believe in this nonsense–they use it as a method of controlling the citizens of the world. It’s about power–and the abuse of power. But let’s pretend there are some who do really believe this childish nonsense. What arguments do they use? One of the chief arguments is a lie so often repeated it’s now believed–that there is a “consensus” of scientists that man-made global warming is real. Something like 97% of all scientists believe it. Thing is, that statistic is pulled from an artificially low, select number of scientists. It’s not real. Yesterday, as COP-21 got under way, the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) released a new book titled “Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Consensus” (get a free copy below). This important new book lays bare and refutes the claim that there is a “scientific consensus” on the causes and consequences of climate change…
    Read More “Free Book: Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming”

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Dec 1, 2015

    The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: natgas price expectations & EQT; PA opportunity zones for natgas; PA pipelines are for the common good; PA’s ERA (Environmental Rights Amendment); New England needs more natgas with nuke closing; hedge protection for gas producers disappearing; Chesapeake heading for bankruptcy?; the energy story Obama won’t tell; Russia & Turkey & energy; and more!
    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Tue, Dec 1, 2015”

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    PA Game Commission Keeps on Leasing, Not Subject to Wolf’s Ban

    In a companion story today, MDN brings you news that anti-drillers are taking a case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that could potentially require the state to consider “environmental rights” when considering whether or not to allow drilling on state-owned land. That is, a requirement that drilling be banned on state-owned land. One state agency that owns state land–the Pennsylvania Game Commission–continues to lease land for drilling even though there is currently an executive order by Gov. Tom Wolf that prohibits drilling in state-owned parks and forests. The Game Commission is outside of the executive branch and therefore autonomous and continues to lease land. Here’s an update on who drills the most on and under Game Commission land, and the latest leases (signing bonus and royalties) the Game Commission most recently negotiated…
    Read More “PA Game Commission Keeps on Leasing, Not Subject to Wolf’s Ban”

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    PA Supreme Court to Hear Case on Banning Drilling on State Lands

    Pennsylvania’s Democrat Supreme Court will take up the issue of whether or not private property rights still exist in the Keystone State. That’s the clear legal issue before the court over whether or not the State of Pennsylvania can continue to allow oil and gas drilling on state lands and use the revenues it receives as part of the general fund. Lower courts have all ruled that yes, the state can legally lease its own property, and allow drilling under public land for which it doesn’t, in some cases, own the mineral rights. But radical environmentalists are attempting to abuse the state’s highest court–now packed with liberal Democrats–to achieve what they can’t achieve by any other means. They’re hoping the high court will find a new cockamamie “right” to protect the environment that trumps public and even private property rights in the process. That is, they’re hoping the Supremes will rule that the state MUST ban drilling on state-owned land, in order to protect Mother Earth…
    Read More “PA Supreme Court to Hear Case on Banning Drilling on State Lands”

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    How a Louisiana LNG Export Facility is Connected to the Marcellus/Utica

    An article about Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project (LNG export plant) in remote Louisiana caught our attention for a couple of reasons. First, the plant will make its first shipment of LNG in January. Some of the natural gas the hungry Sabine Pass facility will use will (eventually) come from the Marcellus/Utica, via pipeline. That makes the Sabine Pass plant story an important story for our region. Second, the plant is a picture of/preview for what is coming to other regions where such facilities are built–like Cove Point, Maryland where Dominion is currently building (about half done) the Cove Point LNG export facility. Sabine Pass is a massive economic and job creation engine for Louisiana’s south coast. So too will Cove Point be for Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay area…
    Read More “How a Louisiana LNG Export Facility is Connected to the Marcellus/Utica”

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    State Official Calls Shale Impact “Profound” on PA Agriculture

    Recently the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department Executive Deputy Secretary, Michael Smith, addressed the Natural Gas Task Force for the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) in Hershey. He had some interesting things to say about shale development in the state. Among them: Shale’s impact on agriculture in the state will be “profound” and “transformative.” Did he mean that in a good way, or a bad way? Yes…
    Read More “State Official Calls Shale Impact “Profound” on PA Agriculture”

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    Antis Ramp Up to Discredit EPA Study that Found Fracking is Safe

    It was certainly a major blow to radical environmentalists when, after studying fracking for more than four years (reviewing some 950 studies, including conducting several original studies of its own), the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced what everyone already knew: fracking is safe (see EPA Draft Report Says Fracking Doesn’t Pollute Groundwater Supplies). Science is science and facts are facts. The announcement took the wind out of the sails for anti-fossil fuel nutters who thought they could convince everyone to return to the stone ages and eliminate the use of fossil fuels. However, science has been corrupted and politicized–just witness the global warming debate. Radical environmentalists knowing they can never convince the hoi polloi, the great unwashed, the people they consider idiots, to go along with their holier-than-thou energy plans to eliminate fossil fuels, if fracking is perceived as anything but evil–are fighting back. Here’s the plan. Get the EPA to discredit its own study. That process is now underway. In October the usual radical suspects showed up at EPA HQ to demand they turn their backs on their own study (see Anti Groups Try to Convince EPA They Got it Wrong with Water Study). Apparently they got through to at least a few sympathetic “scientists” who are members of the EPA’s own Scientific Advisory Board…
    Read More “Antis Ramp Up to Discredit EPA Study that Found Fracking is Safe”

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    Guernsey County, OH a Microcosm for Shale Economics in Northeast

    Have we entered the oil and gas apocalypse? If you’re one of some 230,000 oilfield workers out of a job in the past year, you may think so (who can blame them?). The reality is, however, that although rig counts are down (way down), permits issued are down, and in general drilling of new wells is down–drilling IS still happening. Businesses in the supply chain–those servicing the upstream and midstream sectors–are still making money. Not as much money, but we haven’t entered the apocalypse–not yet anyway. Example: Cambridge (Guernsey County), Ohio, where drilling happens less these days–but drilling still happens and local businesses like restaurants make more money than they did prior to the Marcellus/Utica fracking miracle…
    Read More “Guernsey County, OH a Microcosm for Shale Economics in Northeast”

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    Success Story: Welder Starts Pre-Fab Company in PA Shale Country

    MDN has previously marveled and talked about the amount of money welders can command in the shale industry–upward of $1,000 per day (VERY long, 12-hour days). It’s hard work out in the elements–not for the faint of heart. Today there are fewer welding jobs simply because there’s less drilling going on and therefore less wells that need pipelines connected to them. However, this is a story about a welder who didn’t just settle for welding pipelines and equipment at drill pads. This is the story of a welder who have the guts to start his own pre-fab business in the heart of Pennsylvania shale country–and hit it big. Make no mistake, this is not like hitting the lottery. Starting and running a business is HARD work. But if you have what it takes, it can pay off in spades, as it has for our latest Hero of the Marcellus, welder Bill Emick…
    Read More “Success Story: Welder Starts Pre-Fab Company in PA Shale Country”

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    Natural Gas is Killing City Trees! Tree Whisperer Tells All

    Here’s one more reason to dump evil, nasty, rotten fossil fuels–like natural gas. It kills trees. Yes, methane is a TREE KILLER. Who knew? In yet another laughable “all fossil fuels are evil” meme from the usual suspects at the Democrat house organ called StateImpact Pennsylvania, we get the latest anti-fossil fuel story about how methane leaks in cities are killing poor, defenseless trees that can’t stand up to that nasty bully, fugitive methane. Seems there’s a good business to be had being a tree whisperer…
    Read More “Natural Gas is Killing City Trees! Tree Whisperer Tells All”

  • Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Nov 30, 2015

    The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: dawn of the Utica era; the tortoise and the flare; Utica Shale Academy gets grant; Q&A with PennEast; EQT hits a gusher, stock takes a plunge; Chesapeake’s doldrums; OPEC still hasn’t killed shale a year later; China’s shale gas problems; and more!
    Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Mon, Nov 30, 2015”

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    List of 36 Oil & Gas Companies that Filed for Bankruptcy in 2015

    Whew. Dodged a bullet–this year. Haynes and Boone, LLP is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Colorado, Washington, D.C., Shanghai and Mexico City. Their HQ is in Texas. The firm has a sizable Bankruptcy and Energy practices. Unfortunately those two practices are increasingly becoming one, and the firm says they’re adding lawyers to the Bankruptcy practice. Last week Haynes and Boone issued their very first Oil Patch Bankruptcy Monitor (full copy below), a report that details the rising tide of 2015 exploration and production company Chapter 11 filings. The report lists 36 bankruptcies in 2015 totaling about $13 billion in cumulative secured and unsecured debt. With fear and trepidation we reviewed the list–and found that none of the companies listed have major, nor even minor, operations in the Marcellus/Utica. However, that may not remain the case…
    Read More “List of 36 Oil & Gas Companies that Filed for Bankruptcy in 2015”

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    Anti-Frackers Out of Control at Athens Mtg on Wayne Natl Forest

    Correction: We labeled the publication reporting on the BLM meeting in Athens as “the Athens Post.” It is, more correctly, “The Post,” a student newspaper published at Ohio University’s Athens campus. We have yet another glaring example of the outright lies and distortions of not only national, but local liberal media. In this case from the student-run  The Post — a publication of Ohio University – Athens. A “reporter” (leftie stenographer) is repeating propaganda from anti-drilling crazies who attended a recent meeting hosted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service about the plan to begin fracking in the Wayne National Forest. As they usually do, a group of hippie and hippie wannabe nutters turned out to harass people who support drilling. The antis behaved badly–as they always do. They threw things (paper airplanes, namely), they spat on fracking supporters, hollered and chanted and in general, behaved in an aggressive manner. At one point, when it became apparent the meeting was getting out of hand, a U.S. Forest Service officer used his baton to push some of the crazies back. A very short clip, taken out of context, shows it happening–and that became the focus of the story published by The Post. From start to finish the “story” is a lie. These aggressive (we’d call them terrorist) nutters are demanding the Forest Service agent lose his job for doing his job in protecting the peaceful people at the meeting…
    Read More “Anti-Frackers Out of Control at Athens Mtg on Wayne Natl Forest”