NatGas Traders Keep Eye on $3.14/MMBtu “Pivot” – Bears or Bulls?
You can go crazy trying to forecast where the price of natural gas is heading—and why. Lately the price has stayed above $3/MMBtu. That’s always a happy thing. Will the price stay continue to stay above $3? Will it go up even more? Or fall below $3? Are the “bulls” (those who think the price will go higher) or the “bears” (those who believe the price will go lower) in charge at this point? These are all great questions, and the answer is, “It depends on who you read and listen to.” Read More “NatGas Traders Keep Eye on $3.14/MMBtu “Pivot” – Bears or Bulls?”
In January, Joementia announced a “pause” on any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people pretend to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve a project (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Encino Acquisition Partners board of directors adds Brent Smolik; Rulli named to House Energy and Commerce Committee; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Consumers Energy announces new plan to continue upgrading Michigan’s natural gas system; Abbott says Texas economy will top France’s thanks to Trump; NATIONAL: Biden-Harris admin backs lawsuits against O&G for global warming; U.S. LNG exports buzzing, with 27 shipments setting sail from U.S. terminals; Trump’s climate threats rattle world’s biggest science meeting; Inflation Reduction Act’s energy provisions a prime target to reduce government waste; Trump SEC pick wants to ditch landmark climate disclosure rule; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices settle lower on China demand concerns; New retrofit lets micro-turbines burn both hydrogen and natural gas. 
The Baker Hughes national rig count dramatically increased two weeks ago, adding seven rigs for a national count of 589 (see 
We’ve brought you the news (a number of times) of how Encino Energy was the first driller to figure out how to coax large quantities of oil from the Ohio Utica Shale (see 
The Kosciusko Junction Pipeline Project, led by Gulf South Pipeline Company, LLC (a subsidiary of Boardwalk Pipelines), involves constructing approximately 110 miles of 36-inch natural gas pipeline. The project has an estimated cost of $1 billion and is supported by a 20-year agreement with an anchor customer. It is designed to transport up to 1.16 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) initially, with potential for expansion to 1.58 Bcf/d. The pipeline aims to connect gas supplies from key basins, including the Marcellus/Utica, Haynesville, and Fayetteville, to power markets in the Southeastern United States. Last week, Boardwalk pulled the trigger and made a final investment decision (FID) to move forward with the Kosciusko Junction project. 
A December 11 Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) inspection of a shale gas well pad and water impoundment owned by Nucomer Energy LLC in Hickory Township, Forest County, found the company still had not done final cleanup of the site more than 12 years after the wells were completed and 33 months after DEP issued the original violations for failure to restore the site. While we won’t defend noncompliance, the big story is why in the world the DEP didn’t follow up on the original construction from 12 years ago, and why, after issuing a notice of violation in April 2022, it took another 33 months before the DEP returned to check. Is the DEP asleep at the switch?! 
As we told you on Friday, it was looking like Venture Global’s Plaquemines LNG export facility (Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana) would start to liquefy natural gas as early as Friday (see 
WhiteHawk Energy is smitten with PHX Minerals. For the last 16 months, WhiteHawk has been trying to get PHX down the marriage aisle in any way it can. PHX has repeatedly given WhiteHawk the cold shoulder. WhiteHawk’s latest attempt, which we told you about in November, was an appeal to PHX shareholders to pressure the board to sell at $4 per share (see 
For the week of Dec 2 – 8, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica bounced back nicely. There were 28 new permits issued last week, more than doubling the 12 issued the week before (and matching the 28 issued three weeks ago). The Keystone State (PA) issued 18 new permits, with eight going to EQT spread across three counties: Jefferson, Lycoming, and Washington. Chesapeake Energy (now Expand Energy) received four permits, all of them in northeastern PA’s Wyoming County. CNX Resource scooped up two permits, both in Westmoreland County. The final four permits were singles issued to Blackhill Energy (Bradford County), XPR Resources (Centre County), Inflection Energy (Lycoming County), and Olympus Energy (Allegheny County). 
Yesterday, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NOG) announced it had entered a Joint Development Program with an unnamed Marcellus/Utica driller to invest $160 million in 2025 for new well drilling. In return, NOG will receive a 15% working interest (i.e., ownership) in the assets. NOG did not identify the driller but called it “one of Appalachia’s most capital efficient operators.” 
We spotted an interesting article in the Steubenville, Ohio, Herald-Star newspaper that tackles the issue of using eminent domain in the state for various kinds of pipelines. It provides an excellent history of eminent domain used not only for oil and natural gas pipelines but also how the Mariner East pipeline project led to “expanding” eminent domain to include NGLs like ethane and butane. Now, a couple of new types of pipelines are being contemplated in the Buckeye State—hydrogen pipelines and carbon dioxide (CO2) pipelines. Will eminent domain laws expand again to include the new kids on the block? 
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 for responsible and safe shale drilling. Yesterday, the SRBC board approved 14 new (or renewed) water withdrawal requests within the basin, four for water used in drilling and fracking shale wells in Pennsylvania. Coterra Energy received two water request approvals, and Expand Energy (Chesapeake Energy & Southwestern Energy) received the other two. 
We’ve discussed shale wastewater, sometimes called brine or “produced water,” many times over the years. When drilling an oil or gas well deep in the earth, the hole releases naturally occurring water from the depths (far, far below the surface water table) for years after the well is drilled. The water coming out has a LOT of minerals, sometimes mildly radioactive, and is usually called either brine (meaning salty) or produced water. Traditionally, there are two ways to handle all of that water coming out of the ground: (1) recycle it and reuse it for more oil and gas drilling, or (2) pump it back down into the ground from whence it came via an injection well. Ohio University (in Athens, OH) has just won a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study how produced water can be cleaned up and used outside the oil and gas sector.