IFO 1Q24 Report – PA NatGas Production Increases Slightly YOY
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for January through March 2024 (full copy below). There were 100 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 1Q24, a decrease of 20 wells (-16.7%) compared to 1Q23. That number was also down from the 110 wells spud in 4Q23. This was the sixth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year (YOY) decline in new wells spud. Natural gas production volume was 1,881 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 1Q24, up 36 Bcf (1.9%) from the 1,845 Bcf produced in 1Q23. However, 1Q24’s 1,881 Bcf was down 3.0% from 4Q23’s 1,939 Bcf.
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Newly released information gathered from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request shows that as Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) tested its 303-mile pipeline from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, some 130 potential problem areas were located. Running a PIG (pipeline inspection gauge) device through the pipeline to check for dents and other weaknesses found 50 “anomalies” that required further excavation work to check. Another 80 excavations were needed after tests using an electric current to probe for weaknesses in the pipeline’s special anti-corrosion coating.
In February, the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) met to award contracts to drill under (not on) several Ohio state parks, including 5,700 acres of the 20,000-acre Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County (see 
In April, EQT Corporation and Equinor (formerly known as Statoil) announced a deal to swap land in Pennsylvania and Ohio (see 
Why are we not surprised? We’ve been tracking the up down up down up down situation at Freeport LNG since it came online in 2019. Freeport was mostly offline this year following an episode of cold temps in January (see 
NATIONAL: Environmentalism in America is dead; U.S. natgas jumps with much hotter weather expected in western states; INTERNATIONAL: EU, Japan hydrogen players ink partnership agreements; Oil tumbles as OPEC plan adds to bearish momentum; LNG investments to jump over 50 percent in 2029; Europe’s natgas prices soar on sudden supply outage in Norway.
On May 23, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued a pooling order to Encino Energy that combines a number of properties into a single unit for drilling wells. The total of the surface land pooled is 1,081.076 acres, located in Stock Township, Harrison County, Ohio. There are 121 (!) properties or pieces of property involved, largely due to the unit passing under what appears to be a housing development. This type of thing goes on frequently — the ODNR issuing a pooling order. What’s different and unusual about this one is that the ODRN appears to have denied a request by Encino to raise the penalty against those who refused to sign a lease but ended up being forced to participate anyway.
The country’s largest natural gas producer, EQT Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh and solely focused on drilling in the Marcellus/Utica, previously announced it had sliced 1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of its production as of late February because of the ongoing low price of natgas (see 
It’s kind of interesting to watch how the left operates. Especially the left’s favored mouthpieces that pretend to be objective news media when, in fact, it is the opposite — they are partisan hacks serving the extremist wing of the Democrat Party. We’re referring to the “news” outlet Capital & Main, a hard-left propaganda outfit based in California. Their latest attack is against CNX Resources’ Vice President of External Relations, Brian Aiello. A recent Capital & Main article refers to Aiello, who is in upper management at CNX, as a “lobbyist” four different times to drive home and make stick an inaccurate label. It’s kind of funny, actually, coming from partisan hacks. We’re going to refer to C&M as partisan hacks a few more times, just to drive home the point. 🙂
Dominion Energy plans to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, a Richmond suburb (see 
Folks, we’re not trying to beat a dead horse here, but we have to point out how the Biden administration is actively (right now) attacking the natural gas industry. You need to know this so you can educate others on what’s happening and so that you know why it’s so important that we dislodge the Bidenistas from the D.C. swamp in November. We’ll summarize the main points right here. The Biden administration is currently attacking natgas in three ways: via the EPA, FERC, and pausing LNG export approvals.
Two weeks ago, the bottom pretty much fell out of the U.S. rig count, both nationally and for the Marcellus/Utica region. We hit new lows for both counts (see 
Coterra Energy announced a large layoff of employees at its GDS (GasSearch Drilling Services) Marcellus operation yesterday. GDS was founded in 2006 as a subsidiary of Cabot Oil & Gas (now Coterra Energy). GDS is based in South Montrose, PA, and provides services including pad site development, impoundment construction, water hauling, trucking, light equipment rental, and roustabout services supporting Coterra’s natural gas drilling. GDS employs approximately 170 people in Susquehanna County at various locations. Yesterday, 55 GDS employees got a pink slip.
Two weeks ago, 16 new permits were issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica region. Last week, May 20-26, the number increased by two to 18. Two drillers tied for the top prize for most new permits. Chesapeake Energy received five new permits, all of them for drilling in Sullivan County, PA. Ascent Resources also received five new permits, with four of them to drill in Jefferson County, OH, and one in Guernsey County, OH. Antero received three permits for drilling in Wetzel County, WV. EQT Corporation got two permits to drill in Washington County, PA. Range Resources, Olympus Energy, and INR each got a single new permit (see below for where).