Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Mar 10, 2025
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Enbridge to invest CAD 100 million in T15 project in NC; NATIONAL: Payroll in USA oil and gas totals $168 billion in 2024; States dangle incentives and loosen laws to attract power plants; EPA says spending items greater than $50,000 must get approval from DOGE; ADNOC seeks to buy first gas fields in US; US estimates it will take $20 billion and years to refill oil reserve; Fees on Chinese vessels would disrupt U.S. ethane export markets; Momentum builds for meaningful energy permitting reform; INTERNATIONAL: Why has India promised to buy more U.S. oil?; BlackRock’s Panama Canal deal is latest win for chief Larry Fink. Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Mar 10, 2025”
For the week of Feb 24 – Mar 2, the number of permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells increased by a couple. Four weeks ago, 24 new permits were issued. Three weeks ago, the number increased to 36 new permits. Two weeks ago, the number deflated, going down to 14. Last week, we added two permits for a total of 16 new permits issued. The Keystone State (PA) issued just one new permit, which went to Snyder Brothers for a well in Armstrong County. 
One year ago in March 2024, MDN told you about a new strategy by Chesapeake Energy (now Expand Energy) to drill new shale gas wells but leave them offline (see 
Last week we told you that it is the end of an era with the retirement of Dan Dinges from the Coterra Board of Directors (see 
Sorry to be so blunt: You can’t fix stupid. You can only call attention to it, which is what we’re doing with a group of “40 to 50” protesters who gathered yesterday at the Ohio Statehouse to protest drilling for oil and gas under state-owned land, including drilling under (not on) state parks. It was cold and blustery, so they get props for coming out in the foul weather. However, all of the clothes they wore, including the coats, hats, mittens, gloves, boots, not to mention their signage, the glasses some of them wore, the cell phones in their pockets, the bullhorn and podium the used—were all made from the very oil and gas they were protesting. Not to mention none of them arrived there by horse and buggy or by walking. They all drove vehicles made from and powered by fossil fuels. Do they realize how ridiculous they looked? No, we suppose not. 
The nonpartisan S&P Global released Phase 1 of a study on LNG exports last December on the very same day the Biden/Granholm Department of Energy released its LNG export “study” (see 
Sometimes you have to toot your own horn, especially when the legacy media (which nobody watches, reads, or listens to anymore) won’t do it. On Tuesday, President Trump gave a joint address to Congress. We won’t rehash the endless coverage of that event and the juvenile (quite despicable) performance by Democrats in attendance. One of Trump’s main themes for the talk was energy. Just ahead of his speech, The White House issued a statement to identify the many ways in which his administration is “unleashing American energy.” That was the toot-your-own-horn bit. It’s a great list and his work thus far is not getting the attention it deserves. Trump has done so much in such a short time, it’s hard to keep up with it all. Let’s go through it chapter and verse… 
There are deadbeats in every industry, including (unfortunately) the oil and gas industry. Some O&G producers in West Virginia are gaming the system by not paying landowners/rights owners the royalties they are due. Typically, this does not apply to shale drillers, mostly larger companies. However, with (some, very few) smaller conventional drillers, they just don’t pay royalties owed. And if the check is for under a hundred bucks, what can a landowner do? Hiring a lawyer to litigate would cost more than the money received. A new bill making its way through the WV Senate would fix the situation. 
In January 2023, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see 
How often have we read that shale energy doesn’t create jobs and isn’t the economic boom to local communities as advertised. The enviro-left peddles the lie that oil and gas companies get fat on profits while everyone else suffers. We have the perfect story that exposes the left’s lies about the economic benefits of shale energy—and it comes from Youngstown, OH. Dearing Compressor & Pump designs and manufactures compressor packages for three major business lines including natural gas pipelines. 
In 2009, during the Obamadroid years, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted a major regulatory rule called the “endangerment finding.” The finding concluded that six so-called greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) — constitute an endangerment to public health and welfare due to their contribution to global climate change. The finding gives the EPA the power to regulate those gases under the umbrella of the Clean Air Act. The Trump administration is about to make a run at overturning the endangerment finding. This is REALLY BIG news. 
The European Union’s idiotic methane regulations will be enforced beginning this year. Domestic (European) oil, gas, and coal companies must monitor, measure and report their emissions. The same restrictions would apply to energy imports from other countries, including the U.S. (see 
Is this the beginning of the “running of the bulls” with respect to natural gas traders? According to a senior market analyst at the PRICE Futures Group, quite possibly. Yesterday the NYMEX Henry Hub “front month” futures price closed up 22.8 cents at $4.35/MMBtu—the highest closing price since Dec. 30, 2022 (more than two years). Typically, weather, like a major cold snap, is the driver. But not this time. According to PRICE Futures Group, lower natgas inventories (in storage), higher demand from Europe for our LNG, and the prospect of a dry, hot summer have combined to drive prices higher. Add to that, we now officially have a tariff trade war with Canada, with our friends to the north slapping an export tax on electricity and natural gas flowing to our country, and the gas trading bulls were on a stampede.