WSJ Agrees with MDN on Josh Shapiro’s Blame Shift re Electric Rates
Do the editors of the Wall Street Journal read Marcellus Drilling News? No, we don’t expect they actually do. Although the editorial published by the editors of the WSJ on Feb. 4 looks like it could have been written by your humble MDN editor—because it says all the things we’ve said for months about Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and his attempt to blame the PJM Interconnection grid for causing high electricity prices that have, in reality, been caused by Shapiro and his “green” policies. Read More “WSJ Agrees with MDN on Josh Shapiro’s Blame Shift re Electric Rates”
We spotted some news on the investor website GuruFocus that surprised us. Major investment firm Wellington Management Group made “a significant” addition to its portfolio by acquiring 10,406,240 shares of Coterra Energy on Jan. 31. The company paid $27.72 per share, a $288 million investment. But that’s not the biggest surprise. Wellington already owned a significant number of shares. With the addition of the recent 10.4 million shares, Wellington now owns 81,616,253, or 11.1% of Coterra’s total shares. Wellington is one of the largest investor/owners of Coterra Energy. 
At the end of the last legislative session in December, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, an extremist liberal, signed into law a new climate bill forcing a short list of Big Oil companies to pay $75 billion in “recovery” assessments over the next 25 years for their alleged role in causing mythical global warming (see 
We’ve been pretty hard on Equinor since 2018 when Statoil changed its name to Equinor, apparently ashamed of being associated with the term oil (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Major increase in net outflows of gas from the northeast, as warmer weather cuts demand; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Judge dismisses New Jersey’s NGO-funded climate lawsuit in fiery opinion; Why oil and gas companies want state oversight for carbon dioxide injection; New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration gives up on new offshore wind; NATIONAL: Five things to know about AI’s thirst for energy; Energy industry wants DOE to eliminate seven-year export deadline; EIA natural gas storage draw of -174 Bcf exceeds analyst expectations; INTERNATIONAL: European natural gas prices surge to 16-month high amid cold snap; JP Morgan says global oil demand ‘surged’ to over 101MM bpd in January; Europe’s latest energy squabble – England versus Norway. 
Two weeks ago, MDN brought you the news about a mind-blowing announcement from the White House that OpenAI (ChatGPT), SoftBank, and Oracle have pledged to spend $500 billion (with a “b”) to build new data centers to support artificial intelligence (see 
Yesterday, Rising Phoenix Capital, an investment firm specializing in oil and gas royalty acquisitions, announced the launch of the La Plata Peak Income Fund, a $20 million royalty fund. Rising Phoenix is looking for investors to buy into the fund. Once the company hits its target (maybe before), it will go on the hunt for mineral rights and royalty rights to buy from individuals and companies. Rising Phoenix’s royalty division has previously done a number of deals in the Marcellus/Utica (
The oil and gas business is still a great place to get a job. A high-paying job. However, knowing what kinds of companies to contact and what kinds of jobs are available at those companies can be a challenge. Rigzone President Chad Norville recently highlighted some of the latest U.S. oil and gas hiring trends his organization has noticed. He says larger producers are taking a “wait and see” approach to new hiring right now, but medium and smaller producers are fast-tracking new projects and actively hiring. So perhaps focus your search on the medium and smaller producers. 
The chickens are coming home to roost for Venture Global, an LNG export company that uses loopholes and excuses to avoid selling LNG cargoes to the companies that signed contracts to buy those cargoes. The company recently launched an initial public offering (IPO), hoping to raise $2.3 billion (see 
As we reported yesterday, Chris Wright, now-former CEO of Liberty Energy (big fracking company), was confirmed on Monday to be the new Secretary of Energy (see 
Energy Sec. Chris Wright’s opening day directive (yesterday) to employees at the DOE got a fair bit of media attention (see today’s companion post). A day earlier, Lee Zeldin, the new Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, issued a similar directive to EPA employees. Zeldin announced the agency’s “Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative,” to achieve the agency’s mission while energizing the greatness of the American economy. The plan includes five pillars that will guide the EPA’s work over the first 100 days and beyond. The mainstream media has been completely silent on Zeldin’s plan. No coverage that we could find. 
We suppose we shouldn’t be shocked, but we are. Reuters is exclusively reporting that Canadian pension fund CPP Investments, the majority owner of Encino Acquisition Partners (aka Encino Energy), is considering either a sale of the company or possibly an initial public offering (IPO) that values the company at roughly $7 billion. Encino’s claim to fame is that after taking over Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica assets in 2018, it cracked the code on how to coax crude oil (condensate) out of the low-pressure Utica shale (see 