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31 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jul 8 – 14
For the week of July 8 – 14, a total of 31 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in Marcellus/Utica. Pennsylvania had a nice increase with 25 new permits issued. A full 9 of PA’s permits went to Snyder Brothers for a single well in Armstrong County. Another 6 permits went to EQT in PA’s Greene and Washington counties. There were 5 new permits in Ohio, all of them going to Encino Energy for a single pad in Guernsey County. West Virginia had a single new permit going to EQT in Wetzel County.
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In early June, the owner of Austin Master Services (AMS), American Environmental Partners (AEP), sent a press announcement to MDN to announce he had found a buyer for AMS (see 
Environmental radicals have struck out a second time, and they’re pretty bitter about it. We’re talking about Senate Bill (SB) 831, the Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) Act. Last week, a strong bipartisan majority in the PA legislature ignored the radicals that had asked Democrat legislators to block the bill, passing the bill and sending it to the governor’s desk (see 
The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission operates the largest sewage treatment plant in the entire state of New Jersey — in Newark. When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, the sewer plant lost power and dumped BILLIONS of gallons of raw sewage into the Passaic River. The Commission has a plan to prevent that from happening again: Build a tiny natural gas peaker plant to generate electricity. It would only be used to prevent such environmental damage again (i.e., rarely used, only for emergencies). Yet Earthjustice and other radicalized leftists accuse the plan to build the peaker plant of being racist, and they oppose it (see 
Dominion Energy plans to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, near Richmond (see 
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public input on four draft environmental assessments evaluating potential impacts from the proposed plugging of orphaned oil and gas wells on public lands in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. One of the assessments seeks public input on plans to cap twenty abandoned gas and oil wells along the river flowing into the Shenango River Lake in Mercer County.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Utica Shale Academy expands welding program with $2.5M state funding; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Chicago mayor’s plan to end natural gas hookups is dead; NATIONAL: Collapse of key natgas trade points to massive supply glut; AI needs so much power it’s overwhelming the electrical grid; Are AI data centers sparking a bullish case for natural gas?; Trump’s VP pick is a climate skeptic and the knives are out; INTERNATIONAL: Germany accused of hoarding gas meant for Czech Republic; Satellite shows large oil slick in Red Sea after Houthi attacks.
It pains us to write these kinds of posts, but we can’t ignore the bad news that the futures price for natural gas (NYMEX Henry Hub, front-month) is once again crashing. It closed down just above $2.00 yesterday. Will the price actually sink below $2 once again? It’s possible. The question is, why? What is driving this latest round of low prices even as the weather has been hot, hot, hot? We almost saw prices above $3 not long ago, and yet here we are, bumping along near $2 once again. The NYMEX price has closed down (lower than the previous day) in 19 of the last 24 trading sessions.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That appears to be the philosophy of a group of radicalized “environmental” groups attempting to pressure Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to veto a new bill sitting on his desk, Senate Bill (SB) 831, the Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) Act. Last week, a strong bipartisan majority in the PA legislature ignored the same group that had asked Democrat legislators to block the bill (see 
Yesterday, Range Resources, the very first driller to sink a Marcellus shale well back in 2004, released its 2023-2024 Corporate Sustainability Report (CSR). Some companies call these CSR or sustainability reports, while others still use the now hugely unpopular ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) label. We’re glad to see Marcellus/Utica drillers moving away from using the ESG label. In this latest report, Range says it has made “significant strides” in meeting its emissions targets, including progress towards its goal of net-zero scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 2025.
Kinder Morgan (KM), owner and operator of the mighty Tennessee Gas Pipeline along with many other pipeline systems, issued its second quarter update yesterday. It was clear from the materials and the comments made during the conference call that KM is high on natural gas. The company believes natgas has a rosy future, and KM is investing to expand pipelines to flow more natgas. On the call, company CEO Kim Dang said, “[W]e’re having commercial discussions on over 5 Bcf a day of opportunities related to power demand, and that includes the 1.6 of data center demand.” She went on to say the company believes the growth in natural gas production and use between now and 2030 will be “well in excess of the 20 Bcf a day.” Another 20 Bcf/d in the next five years!
In November 2022, all five members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), including three Democrats, voted to approve an order allowing the proposed Commonwealth LNG export plant on the Calcasieu River in the Gulf of Mexico near Cameron, Louisiana to get built (see 
