Quantum Capital Buying Cogentrix Gas-Fired Plants for $3 Billion
A major change in ownership is coming for gas-fired power plants through the Marcellus/Utica region as well as New England. Quantum Capital Group announced yesterday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Cogentrix Energy, an independent power producer, from another investment firm (Carlyle) for $3 billion. The Cogentrix portfolio is comprised of 5.3 gigawatts of natural gas-fired power plants located throughout PJM (the M-U region), ERCOT (Texas), and ISO-NE (New England). M-U molecules feed most power plants in PJM and ISO-NE, ergo our molecules will feed the plants changing hands.
Read More “Quantum Capital Buying Cogentrix Gas-Fired Plants for $3 Billion”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: CNX expands Mentorship Academy program to new fields; Energy Innovation Center Institute lines up utility workers; NATIONAL: Polar bears, dead coral and other climate fictions; Far-left climate activists say Kamala Harris is one of them; Kamala Harris’ energy policy catalog is full of whoppers; No debate required with natural gas; Global energy transition will cost $3 trillion a year; INTERNATIONAL: Green-energy flops revive bets on natural gas; Satellite images show LNG ship at sanctioned Russian plant; A gas carrier faking its location helps Russia avoid sanctions.
Coterra Energy, formed by the merger of Cabot Oil & Gas (drills for natural gas in the Marcellus) and Cimarex Energy (drills for oil in the Permian and Anadarko basins), issued its second quarter 2024 update on Friday. The company turned in respectable financial numbers, making a profit of $220 million in 2Q24, up 5% from the $209 million it made in 2Q23. Unfortunately, there was bad news for the Marcellus. The company has just trimmed another 325 MMcf/d of production across the Marcellus basin, and once the three pads it is actively drilling have concluded in October, no new drilling is planned.
Antero Resources, which is 100% focused on the Marcellus/Utica with over 500,000 net acres under lease (and the largest M-U driller in West Virginia), issued its second quarter 2024 update last week. The company reports net production averaged 3.4 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) during 2Q24, an increase of 1% year-over-year (i.e., pretty much the same as last year). Of the company’s 2024 production, liquids (NGLs) averaged 212 thousand barrels per day (MBbl/d), an increase of 10% from 2Q23. Natural gas production averaged 2.1 Bcf/d, down 4% from 2Q23. The company lost $66 million in 2Q24 versus losing $83 million in 2Q23. The bleeding slowed, but the company is still bleeding.
In March 2021, Eureka Resources announced plans to build a Marcellus Shale wastewater treatment facility in Dimock (Susquehanna County), Pennsylvania (see 
Writing for Hart Energy’s Oil and Gas Investor magazine, author Nissa Darbonne penned a fabulous overview of the Utica, bringing us the history of oil drilling in Ohio (in the 1800s) all the way up to the present day and Encino Energy’s dominance in oil drilling in the Utica. The article includes details about Encino and other companies, including Infinity Natural Resources and EOG Resources. On Friday, we brought you excerpts from the article about Encino Energy (see 
The “front month” NYMEX natural gas price, based on the Henry Hub in Louisiana, closed below $2/MMBtu on Friday. It was the second day in a row the NYMEX price closed below $2. The cash price was even worse, averaging $1.89 on Friday after bottoming out earlier in the week at $1.80. Geesh. We thought we left that bottom-bumping low-price stuff behind a while ago, but apparently not. What’s going on? Even though temps have been hot hot hot, there are concerns over an uptick in production over the past week. Too much supply with the same demand equals lower prices.
The U.S. national oil and gas rig count lost ground last week it had gained the week before. The national combined Baker Hughes oil and gas rig count now stands at 586 rigs, down three from 589 two weeks ago. The Marcellus/Utica lost one rig last week. Pennsylvania lost a rig and now operates 20 active rigs. Ohio operated 11 active rigs. West Virginia remained the same with five active rigs. The M-U is operating a combined 36 rigs. The M-U’s primary competitor, the Haynesville, was down one rig from two weeks ago and now operates 34 rigs.
For the week of July 22 – 28, a total of nine permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica. Pennsylvania had the fewest with just two new permits, one each for Seneca Resources and Rice Drilling (i.e., EQT). Ohio had the most with four new permits, all of them for EOG Resources for a single pad in Noble County. West Virginia came in between with three new permits, all three for Antero Resources in Tyler County.
On July 12, Williams asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to bring the final pieces of the Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project online by the end of July (see 
An important milestone was reached on Wednesday regarding the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2). You may recall that ARCH2 was one of seven projects to win the Bidenista Hunger Games competition to receive a chunk of $7 billion to build a regional hydrogen hub (see 
On Friday, June 14, the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that runs from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, announced the pipeline had, after a decade of planning and building, finally begun to flow Marcellus/Utica molecules (see 
We’ve written a number of times about the Ohio Utica Shale and its beginnings with gas legend Aubrey McClendon, who, as CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was one of (if not THE) first to recognize the Utica as an oil play. However, it was a successor company, Encino Energy, that figured out how to coax large quantities of oil out of the Utica shale. Encino is one of the big success stories of drilling for oil in the Ohio Utica Shale. Roughly six years ago, Encino, in partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), closed on buying Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica assets for $2 billion (see 
One thing we admire about the left is that they never give up. Yes, they cheat. Yes, they lie. Yes, they use foreign money. But the environmental left never, ever, gives up. An example: The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) has filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reverse a Commonwealth Court decision that led to its voiding the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI is an obscene carbon tax that will (a) raise the price of electricity for residents in PA and neighboring states that use PA’s electricity and (b) stop any new natural gas-fired power plants from being built in the state. In time, RGGI will also kill off existing PA gas-fired power plants. That’s precisely what the left wants to see happen, and it is using its resources (money and lawyers) to try and make it happen.