UGI Completes Auburn Loop Pipeline in NEPA, Benefits Cabot O&G
Way back in May 2014 MDN told you that UGI Energy Services, a subsidiary of UGI (a utility company in northeast PA) would build two new pipelines in northeast PA for $80 million that will allow them to transport cheap, abundant, locally extracted natural gas from Cabot Oil & Gas in Susquehanna County to residents in the greater Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area (see UGI Energy Building 2 New Pipelines in NEPA for Cabot O&G). One of those two projects was completed last November (see UGI Turns on New Pipeline for Cabot in NEPA). Earlier this week UGI completed the second project, called the Auburn Loop–9 miles of new pipeline that parallels existing pipeline and, along with compressor upgrades, allows UGI to pump an additional 270 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) of Marcellus Shale gas from Susquehanna County, PA to the Scranton area…
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Range Resources, the driller that started it all in the Marcellus when they drilled the very first Marcellus Shale well in 2004, released their third quarter 2015 update yesterday. There is a LOT in this very readable and informative update. For example: Marcellus production volumes averaged 1.3 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) in 3Q15, an increase of 27% over 3Q14. During the quarter Range brought online their second Utica well drilled in Washington County, PA–the Claysville Sportsman’s Unit 9H. By all accounts Range expects it will be even more productive than the first Utica well they drilled (also in Washington County). A third Utica well is being drilled now and will be completed in early 2016. Range drilled a total of 25 wells in 3Q15, and brought 31 wells online. They are on target to spend $870 million on drilling in 2015–most of it in the Marcellus/Utica. Range reports the Mariner East 1 pipeline will be, according to Sunoco Logistics, fully operational by the end of the year–with ethane beginning to flow “within the next month.” Costs are down and Range gets more than many others for the gas and NGLs they sell. But amidst all of the good news, you can’t miss the fact that they lost $301 million in 3Q15…
Along with releasing their third quarter update yesterday, Range Resources also released an updated investor PowerPoint presentation. There’s a lot of interesting slides in the deck, and we didn’t want it to get lost with the other Range news in their update, so we’re bringing you this second, separate post. Below we have the presentation embedded, along with a listing of our favorite slides and brief description of what they show/why the slides are notable…
It’s obvious that Hess has pretty much given up on its Utica Shale drilling program. Just last week we told you that Hess is shopping the rest of its remaining Utica acreage (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Equitrans files with FERC to build Marcellus pipeline; PennLive’s repackaged hit series on shale; Philly keeps pushing energy hub concept; Spectra exec says ignore the antis, pay attention to FERC instead; Duke turns its attention back to natgas; midstream dominates M&A; Big Data comes to water management; Saudis trying to torpedo climate talks; and more!
Shortly after assuming the office of Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley (who formerly worked for the anti-drilling Big Green group PennFuture) mass-fired a very important group at the DEP called the Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board, or TAB (see 
We’ve heard just about everything blamed on fracking. Global warming? Yep–blame fracking because fracking produces natural gas and natural gas, when burned, turns into carbon dioxide and and abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere supposedly heats the planet (although the average temp hasn’t gone up in nearly 19 years now). What about STDs–sexually transmitted diseases? Yep–blame fracking because nefarious roustabouts from “foreign” locations like Texas and Oklahoma show up to work on rigs, and the only off-hours things they do is screw the local women-folk and spread STDs all over the place (do you honestly think they have an ounce of energy left after working a 12-15 hour day lifting heavy stuff at a rig site?). Here’s a new one we’ve just heard for the first time: you can blame fracking in places like Pennsylvania for the high cost of firewood this winter. Say what???…
EdgeMarc Energy is a small driller headquartered in the Pittsburgh area, formed in 2012. The company has leased 50,000 acres in the Marcellus and Utica Shales. On Monday EdgeMarc issued a press release to announce they’ve attracted a new investor–the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan–which has promised the company up to $300 million in cash in return for part ownership (called an “equity commitment”). The announcement also says EdgeMarc currently drills and produces natural gas in Monroe and Washington counties in Ohio, and Butler County in Pennsylvania. In checking the latest issue of our 
EXCO Resources is an exploration and production company operating in East Texas/North Louisiana (the Haynesville Shale), South Texas (the Eagle Ford Shale), and in the Marcellus Shale region–in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. EXCO has a sizable Marcellus presence with 145,000 net acres in the Marcellus and having drilled and operating 124 horizontal Marcellus wells. EXCO is also a company in trouble. Their stock price has gone so low the New York Stock Exchange is threatening to de-list them (see 
Layoffs in the natural gas industry have cut wide and deep. We spotted one article recently that said layoffs worldwide have hit 200,000 (see Forbes: 
A gang of Big Green groups are tickled pink–or is it tickled “green”–that their continuous frivolous lawsuits against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have once again yield the desired result. Radical leftist “green” groups like Earthworks, Environmental Integrity Project, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, and yes, PennFuture (where PA’s current Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley, used to work), had previously sued the federal EPA to force onerous new reporting rules on natural gas processing plants, using lies about the kinds of air pollutants released by the plants. The EPA cooperates with these sleazy organizations in a “sue and settle” scam. “Hey, you sue us for this, a liberal judge will ‘make us’ do it–then we can bypass Congress and everyone else and set up our own laws outside of that stupid old Constitution.” That’s how these groups collude with the EPA (see