Expand Energy’s “Just in Time” Program Equals “Profits on Demand”
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 Chesapeake Brings Japanese “Just in Time” Concept to Gas Wells). As explained in that article, the company does more than drill DUCs (drilled but uncompleted wells). They complete the wells but do not “turn them inline” (or TILs), meaning they aren’t yet connected to the pipeline network. In writing about the strategy, Bloomberg called it “suspended animation wells,” noting the company planned to use that strategy for 80 wells in 2024 (see Chesapeake Plans to Place 80 Wells into “Suspended Animation”). Read More “Expand Energy’s “Just in Time” Program Equals “Profits on Demand””
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… 
NATIONAL: How many people did USA oil and gas employ in 2024?; U.S. butane exports reached a new record in 2024; Wright, Burgum visit Louisiana liquefied natural gas facility amid $18B expansion; INTERNATIONAL: European Commission schedules new round of coordinated gas deals. 
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. 
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), reported its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 numbers last week. The company drills Utica and Marcellus wells in Ohio. It also has an active drilling program in the Oklahoma SCOOP shale play. Gulfport’s net daily production in 4Q24 averaged 1,055.5 MMcfe/d (1.06 Bcfe/d), down slightly from 4Q23’s average of 1,063.3 MMcfe/d. Gulfport’s net daily production for the full year of 2024 averaged 1.05 Bcfe/d, consisting of 841.7 MMcfe/d in the Utica and Marcellus and 212.4 MMcfe/d in the SCOOP. Put another way, the M-U produced 80% of the company’s production. For the full year of 2024, Gulfport’s net daily production mix comprised approximately 92% natural gas, 6% NGLs, and 2% oil and condensate. According to the 4Q update, Gulfport plans to boost liquids production by 30% in 2025. 
In something of a bombshell announcement, the CEO of Mon Power parent First Energy said the company plans to replace its West Virginia coal plants with natural gas plants. Mon Power’s Harrison and Fort Martin coal-fired plants are scheduled to shut down between 2035 and 2040. The company will construct 3 to 4 gigawatts (GW) of combined cycle natural gas plants to replace them, beginning in the next five years. That will use somewhere between one-half and three-fourths of a billion cubic feet of Marcellus/Utica natural gas to power these beasts. This is big news indeed!