PA Gov Shapiro Puffs His Chest to Announce Plugging 300 Old Wells
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro visited the site of an orphaned well being plugged in Washington County, PA, to celebrate and toot his own horn that this is the 300th orphaned well plugged since he became governor in January 2023. There’s nothing wrong with that, except during the same 2+ years, Ohio has plugged at least double that number. Which makes us ask: Why does it take so much longer and cost so much more to plug wells in PA than in OH? Read More “PA Gov Shapiro Puffs His Chest to Announce Plugging 300 Old Wells”
Multiple speakers at this week’s CERAWeek by S&P conference in Houston have predicted that demand for natural gas will continue to see record highs due to AI (artificial intelligence) and more LNG export facilities coming online. However, the speakers caution that while we have plenty of supply to meet the higher demand, we don’t have enough pipelines to move the molecules from where they are extracted to where they are used. In an interview on the sidelines of CERAWeek, EQT CEO Toby Rice said, “We have the gas, we just don’t have the pipelines to get it to places, so now you see a situation where it doesn’t matter how much we produce.” Never a truer word spoken. 
In January, we told you that faced with the possibility of blackouts, Connecticut’s Democrat Governor, Ned Lamont, wants to keep his nuclear and gas-fired power plants (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Cheniere wins FERC approval for Texas LNG expansion; NATIONAL: CERAWEEK Occidental Petroleum sees US oil output peaking in next five years; EPA eliminating environmental justice jobs; USA tariffs prompt criticism at Houston energy industry gathering; Polar vortex could bring cold blast to millions across US, AccuWeather says; Williams eyes expanding natural gas infrastructure; Why energy executives believe natural gas is no longer ‘just a bridge fuel’; INTERNATIONAL: Swedish battery maker Northvolt collapses, a blow to Europe; China extends subsidies for unconventional gas drilling. 
CNX Resources, one of the original founding partners in the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) project created during the Biden administration, has “paused” its participation in the project. CNX is no longer listed as a partner on the 
Hart Energy reports that Expand Energy, formed by the combination of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, drilled a massive 5.6-mile lateral in northern West Virginia’s dry-gas Utica—and it was drilled in five days with just one bit run. Expand’s Shannon Fields OHI #3H well, located in Ohio County, WV, has a 29,687-ft lateral. We always get in trouble when we make statements like this (because some drillers don’t disclose details for their wells), but we’re pretty sure this is the longest onshore shale well lateral ever drilled in the U.S. Maybe even in the world! 
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro visited Voith Hydro North America (in York, PA) to announce that key components of his extremely flawed “Lightning Plan” will be introduced in the General Assembly in the coming weeks by sychophantic Democrats. Shapiro claims his so-called Lightning Plan is “a comprehensive, all-of-the-above energy plan to secure Pennsylvania’s energy future.” Except his plan puts the thumb of the government on the scales in favor of wind, solar, and hydro and purposely disadvantages natural gas. 
Joe Stalin was a brutal dictator in the Soviet Union (Russia) who ruled with an iron fist during the early 20th century. He established the totalitarian political system known as 
Earlier this month, the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) released the 10th edition of its “State of Energy Report,” offering a detailed analysis of national and state trends in oil and natural gas employment, wages and other key economic factors for ?the energy industry in 2024 (full copy below). TIPRO’s “State of Energy Report” series was developed to quantify and track the economic impact of the domestic oil and natural gas sector, emphasizing the state of Texas. However, the report has a lot of great data, including a breakdown of key O&G employment and economic stats for Pennsylvania and Ohio. One thing that caught our attention is that nationwide those classified as working in “natural gas extraction” jobs made an average annual salary of $176,800 in 2024, up $10,740 from 2023. Hey, we’re in the wrong business! 
Up/down, up/down, up/down, up/down… We can’t count how many times the Freeport LNG export facility has come online to go offline again, with the cycle repeating (
The NYMEX natural gas “front month” futures contract (currently the April contract) closed at its highest level yesterday since Dec. 29, 2022, closing at $4.4910 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). That was a gain of 9.2 cents from Friday’s close. However, it was quite the roller coaster, at least early in the day, as the price flirted with $5. At one point the price got as high as $4.901. Although weather is typically the factor driving price gains, this time it was trader psychology and concerns that U.S. natural gas storage levels could tighten further ahead of the summer air-conditioning season (less supply with the same or increasing demand). 
