Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Jul 15, 2024
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Supreme Court should protect PA energy from dog-and-pony show; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Inslee vows to defend Washington State climate law under attack; For now, natural gas is here to stay in Connecticut; Maryland “can’t import itself out of energy crisis”; INTERNATIONAL: Oil demand averages over 103 million barrels per day in July; UK Energy Dept confirms no new leases for offshore drilling.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Jul 15, 2024”
Operators and investors are more concerned than ever about the remaining inventory of drillable locations. Who has it? Where is it? Will it be economic? The North American inventory rankings by shale play are always of interest. Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), a subsidiary of Enverus, recently issued a report that ranks the plays by the number of economic-to-drill locations each play has left. Unfortunately, Marcellus Shale play is on the list of “losers” in this latest report. Why? A huge jump in Bidenflation — rig day rates were up 25% year-over-year in September in the Marcellus, compared to about 15% across the other plays. Also a factor is dropping productivity in the Marcellus (“productivity degradation”), particularly in northeast PA.
In January 2023, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see 
A civil war in the Pennsylvania environmental movement is not getting any attention from mainstream media. Why are we not surprised? We told you about the civil war earlier this week (see 
Permitting in Pennsylvania overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six to eight months for approval — instead of the law-mandated 14 days. It got so bad that in the fall of 2019, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw introduced a bill to allow third-party reviews of these permits to speed up approvals (see 
On Tuesday, we told you that Freeport LNG closed its export plant on Sunday in anticipation of Hurricane Beryl hitting the Texas Gulf Coast (see 
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade increased 3.1% globally in 2023 to an average of 52.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), an increase of 1.6 Bcf/d from 2022, according to a recently released report from the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL). Expanded export and import capacity and increasing natural gas demand drove the growth in the global LNG trade last year.
We noticed that permit data has already been updated for last week, so we’re bringing you our weekly permit report a day early. For the week of July 1 – 7, a total of 18 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica. There were six new permits issued in Pennsylvania, with four of them going to Range Resources for a pad in Washington County. There were four new permits in Ohio, all of them going to Encino Energy for a pad in Guernsey County. West Virginia was the surprise with eight new permits, six of which were issued to Antero Resources in Tyler County.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai last December to participate in the COP28 confab, where he released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions by using budget-busting new technologies and onerous (frequent) inspections (see 
Yes, we’ve been keeping an eye on the (pathetic) price of natural gas as it flounders and flops. The NYMEX Henry Hub front-month contract briefly went above $3/MMBtu earlier this year, but since that time, it’s had a hard time staying above $2. It’s depressing. From time to time, we bring you predictions from various studies and government agencies. Just yesterday, we told you that EIA’s monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook predicts an average HH price of $2.50 in 2024, and $3.30 in 2025 (see 
No, we’re not talking about transitioning from male to female and female to male, a mental disorder that’s celebrated in popular culture these days. We’re talking about the “other” transitioning — from using fossil fuels to…using nothing, because without fossil fuels, you get nothing when it comes to energy. The left pretends solar and wind energy can power the world, and it’s coming any day now. Except, as we pointed out yesterday, 81.5% of all energy used throughout the world in 2023 came from fossil fuels (see 
Maybe the oil and gas industry will get the last laugh after all. We’ve written many posts comparing carbon offsets/credits to the practice of the Catholic Church selling indulgences in the Middle Ages to absolve you of your sins (