NATIONAL: Why gas turbines remain vital to US power generation; Trump EO overturns “endangerment finding” from 2009; Wright faces challenges from Trump energy enthusiasms; INTERNATIONAL: Germany’s Scholz welcomes fossil gas expansion in the U.S.; Russia favors a gas transit restart through Ukraine for EU. Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Jan 28, 2025”
A fire was reported at a natural gas well near Jane Lew (Harrison County), WV, on Saturday at around 2:15 pm. Multiple fire departments responded. One media report says the well location is listed as the Stickel Pad belonging to driller HG Energy. There were no injuries, according to 911 officials. The fire was extinguished within a few hours. Other than those barebones facts and a few photos (below), that’s all we know about this incident. The incident doesn’t seem to be a priority for local news media outlets to cover. Read More “HG Energy Well Fire Near Jane Lew, WV Quickly Extinguished”
Diversified Energy, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (assets in other regions, too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. The company made a major announcement this morning. It has struck a deal to buy out and merge with Maverick Natural Resources for $1.28 billion. The deal adds over a million more acres of leases to Diversified plus significant new production. Read More “Diversified Energy to Buy/Merge with Maverick Natural Res. for $1.3B”
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision last July vacating (nullifying) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of Transco’s Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project to bring gas from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and Maryland (see DC Circuit Libs Reverse FERC Approval of Transco Northeast Expansion). On Jan. 21 (last Tuesday), the D.C. court denied a petition from Transco to rehear its earlier decision to vacate the FERC permit, meaning those portions of Transco touched by REAE were due to go offline by tomorrow, Jan. 28. Good news. On Friday, FERC commissioners thumbed their collected noses at the court and fully reinstated the vacated certificate for REAE, avoiding any downtime for the expanded pipe. Read More “FERC Thumbs Nose at Court, Reinstates Cert for Transco REAE Pipe”
We’re in full crash mode with the Baker Hughes national rig count. After losing five rigs three weeks ago, and four more two weeks ago, the BH rig count lost another four rigs last week—13 rigs out of circulation in three weeks. The number of rigs nationally now stands at 576, the lowest since Dec. 2021 (over three years ago). The Marcellus/Utica rig count was a combined 34 last week—the same number for six weeks in a row. PA has operated 15 rigs for the past 11 weeks, with the exception of one week, when the number briefly increased to 16 rigs. OH has operated nine rigs for the past eight weeks, and WV has operated 10 rigs for an astonishing 20 weeks in a row, going back to Sep. 13. Read More “National Rig Count Falls Again, Lowest in 3+ Years; M-U Steady”
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its completely dysfunctional and irresponsible cousin, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use for responsible and safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the January 25 Pennsylvania Bulletin that the Executive Director of the SRBC gave his approval to or renewed 18 general water use permits in December for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Lycoming, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties. Read More “SRBC Approves 18 New & Renewed Water Use Permits for M-U Pads”
In the space of the last year, data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) have seemingly come out of nowhere and become a major issue affecting the entire country. Data centers (banks and banks of computer servers) that serve AI are closely tied to the shale industry because shale gas is used to power big turbines to generate the electricity needed to power those data centers. When we see information about a new data center being built, we think, “Cha-ching! That’s a new customer for our natural gas!” And it is. However, how these data center projects get electricity has become an intense debate. We will explain. Read More “Amazon’s Data Center Deal in Eastern Pa. Triggers Vigorous Debate”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PennEnvironment warns artificial intelligence; Utica Shale Academy awards bid for new welding lab; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Blackstone to buy $1 billion Virginia power plant near data centers; Atlas Energy uses driverless trucks to deliver frac sand; NATIONAL: Microsoft signs 25-year reforestation deal with Re.green in Brazil; White House clarifies Trump order restricting IRA, IIJA funds; Free our energy sector from crippling regs and inflationary spending on “green energy”; INTERNATIONAL: An underestimated source of methane found in shallow coastal waters; Putin says he’s ready to discuss oil, energy issues with Trump. Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Jan 27, 2025”
Wow! Is this the Trump effect? For the week of Jan 13 – 19, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica to drill new shale wells achieved levels we haven’t seen in, oh, about four years. There were 41 new permits issued last week, up significantly from 27 issued the week before and 30 issued two weeks before. The Keystone State (PA) issued a whopping 25 new permits, with 17 (!) going to EQT spread across Greene and Washington counties. Another six permits went to Chesapeake Energy (now Expand Energy) in Bradford County. One permit each went to Range Resources and Apex Energy in Beaver and Westmoreland counties, respectively. Read More “41 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 13 – 19”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) stopped publishing its monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) last June (see Biden EIA Dumps Detailed Monthly U.S. Shale Drilling Report). Since then, we’ve included some of the missing DPR data when we report on the EIA’s monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). However, one of the metrics we used to like to follow in the DPR (but haven’t since June) was the drilled but uncompleted well (DUC) count. Tracking DUCs fell off our radar. Today, we go DUC hunting! Read More “With the Rise in Natural Gas Prices, M-U Drillers Go DUC Hunting”
In December, PA’s Democrat Governor, Josh Shapiro, filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) alleging the PJM electric grid is being mismanaged and using inflated numbers that will cause economic pain for the 65 million customers who buy electricity in the PJM region—in particular the residents of PA. What’s causing the high prices in PJM, a region rich in natural gas? The policies of Shapiro and his predecessor in proposing a carbon tax have scared away new gas-fired power plants from building in the Keystone State. As we reported yesterday, Shapiro has increased his menacing and threats against PJM (see PA Gov. Shapiro Gets Uppity with PJM, Threatens to Leave the Grid). Businesses are finally joining the battle, pushing back against Shapiro and his wild claims and menacing. Read More “Power Generators Oppose PA Gov. Shapiro’s Threats Against PJM”
President Donald J. Trump, with the sweep of his pen, canceled the cancel culture that has been deeply embedded in the federal government, attempting (under the banner of alleged racism called “environment justice”) to end fossil energy infrastructure projects like pipelines. In an executive order on his first day in office, Trump terminated all so-called “environmental justice” positions and offices across the federal government. Brilliant! Read More “Trump Cancels the Cancelers of So-Called “Environmental Justice””
In May 2023, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) proposed a new rule that would slap onerous and very expensive new requirements on pretty much all natural gas pipelines in the country, including 2.7 million miles of gas transmission, distribution, and gathering pipelines; 400+ underground natural gas storage facilities; and 165 liquefied natural gas facilities (see Biden DOT Issues New Partisan Methane Rules for All Gas Pipelines). It is yet another attempt by the left to strip away the power to regulate oil and gas from the individual states and concentrate it in unelected bureaucracies in the DC swamp. Last Friday, as the Bidenistas at the Department of Transportation (of which PHMSA is a part) were turning the lights off for the last time, they submitted the onerous rule for publication in the Federal Bulletin to make it official. Read More “Biden PHMSA Adopted Expensive Pipe Leak Detection Reg Last Minute”
As Joan Rivers used to say: Can we talk? In other words, can we have an honest and open conversation…about hydrogen energy? There’s a lot of hype around the topic of hydrogen. Some promising early innovations around hydrogen and its use in applications like gas-fired power plants exist. However, as a sobering new commentary by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy makes clear, the future of hydrogen “is not imminent.” Even fracking wasn’t an overnight hit. It took from the early 1980s until the early 2000s (about 20 years) before fracking *began* to take off in a major way. It took another decade or so before fracking went big time. Call it 30 years. So why would we expect hydrogen to be some spectacular overnight success? That’s just not how energy revolutions happen. Read More “Hydrogen Energy is Promising, but Widespread Use Decades Away”
We sometimes poke fun at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predictions, accusing the analysts of using a dart board to generate the estimates they issue, especially with the future price of natural gas. But honestly, they have a tough job. Price is a complex issue with a lot of factors. Even though the EIA’s track record has sometimes been off by a lot, it remains the one source most quoted by the media and experts worldwide regarding future price predictions. In yesterday’s Today in Energy web publication, EIA says it “expects higher wholesale U.S. natural gas prices as demand increases.” Its latest forecast for the U.S. benchmark Henry Hub natural gas spot price is that the overall average for all of 2025 natgas will average $3.10 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). EIA expects that number to increase in 2026 to an average of $4.00/MMBtu. Is that realistic? Read More “EIA Predicts Higher Natural Gas Prices in 2025/26”
NATIONAL: BMI says Trump orders poised to have profound implications for energy; Trump US energy emergency order should withstand court challenges; Senate panel approves Trump’s picks to run energy, interior departments; INTERNATIONAL: Trump browbeats Davos elite to curb oil prices, interest rates; Crude falls as Trump calls for cheaper oil; Trump says US will guarantee LNG supplies for Europe. Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Jan 24, 2025”