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Analyzing Monthly New Permit Trends for PA, OH, WV Shale
We spotted an article on the always-excellent NGI website (the Daily Gas Price Index) that said exploration and production (E&P) permitting activity shows a “summer slump” in natural gas plays, including in the Marcellus/Utica. The information in the article is from data compiled by Enverus and Evercore ISI. So, we decided to review our weekly new permit reports for the M-U to see if our data shows a slump over the past three months. Our data shows no slump in permitting but rather the opposite.
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Dominion Energy wants to build a liquified natural gas (LNG) storage facility in Person County, North Carolina, to enhance natural gas service reliability for residential and business customers in the growing region (see 
The United States has 13 courts of appeals, also known as U.S. Courts of Appeals, that sit below the U.S. Supreme Court. These courts are organized into 12 regional circuits, each with a court of appeals, that cover the 94 federal judicial districts. One of the 13 courts — for the District of Columbia — has jurisdiction over cases involving federal agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The judges of the D.C. Circuit have recently delivered a flurry of decisions that appear contradictory concerning (overturning) FERC actions.
ExxonMobil published its annual “The Global Outlook” yesterday, the company’s latest view of energy demand and supply through 2050. The document forms the basis for Exxon’s business planning and is “underpinned by a deep understanding of long-term market fundamentals.” Exxon is making short-term decisions based on this long-term document. And what does this document say? It says oil and natural gas in 2023 was 56% of all energy produced. In 2050, some 25 years from now, that number is virtually unchanged at 54% of all energy produced. Today, more than 100 million barrels per day (MMBpd) of oil is produced and used. In 2050, it will be the same.
On Monday, Meta, the company that owns Facebook, announced an agreement with a start-up called Sage Geosystems to develop up to 150 megawatts of an advanced type of geothermal energy to help power the tech giant’s expanding array of data centers. That is roughly enough electricity to power 70,000 homes. Sage will use (wait for it…) fracking. That’s right. Geothermal, as we’ve written about before, uses the same fracking that oil and gas drillers use in order to drill holes and create underground fractures where water is pumped and circulated, either heating or cooling, depending on the season (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Kamala Harris would destroy Pennsylvania energy jobs; NATIONAL: Dems admit they don’t want Kamala Harris taking tough questions.
We spotted a press release about a “wealthy Haitian-American businessman” buying “a vast 10,000-acre oil reserve in Bowling Green Kentucky.” What caught our eye was the location and the extra detail that the assets purchased included “150 oil and natural gas wells.” A few bells began to go off for us. Kentucky is not known as a hotbed of shale drilling activity. The Marcellus/Utica does not extend under the Bluegrass State. However, as we wrote back in 2017, Kentucky has the Berea Sandstone, which contains oil deposits (see 
The Fairmont Brine Processing plant, located at 168 AFR Drive in Fairmont (Marion County), West Virginia, was constructed between 2009 and 2010 by AOP Clearwater LLC. The plant was acquired by Fairmont Brine Processing (FBP) in 2012. FBP began pre-treatment operations at the site in 2013 and fully operated the plant beginning fall of 2014. In May 2017, MDN reported that FBP was not paying some of its vendors (see 
A lawsuit being heard this summer is designed to hold Big Green groups responsible for their actions. Energy Transfer (ET), the owner and operator of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP), is suing Greenpeace and other alleged instigators for $300 million for the damages sustained by the company as a result of violent protests incited by the groups in North Dakota in 2016. Big Green is scared.
We continue to be range-bound with respect to the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count. The count has gone up and down every few weeks. But since the third week of June, the range has been as low as 581 and as high as 589. And that’s it. We seem to have found the bottom (we hope we have). Last week, the national rig count lost another rig and now stands at 585. The Marcellus/Utica remained even at 35 active rigs after losing one rig two weeks ago. Pennsylvania operates 21 active rigs; Ohio operates nine active rigs; and West Virginia operates five active rigs.
Eureka Resources, which operates three frack wastewater treatment facilities in the Marcellus Shale, has idled one of its three plants, the Standing Stone plant in Bradford County, PA. According to an inspection report by the Department of Environmental Protection conducted on August 19, Bob Cooney, Vice President of Operations at Eureka Resources, told the DEP inspector that the facility’s “primary customer” had stopped sending wastewater to the plant. As a result, all plant employees were laid off as of approximately July 30. This morning, MDN spoke to Eureka CEO Dan Ertel about what’s going on at the plant and plans for the future.