NATIONAL: NA natgas demand to soar in ‘25 and beyond, says Halliburton; Bidens doing everything they can to stop LNG development, exports; AI boom to fuel natural gas demand in coming years, report says; INTERNATIONAL: Rising spot LNG prices starting to bite some Asian buyers; Environmentalists’ silence on humanity and environmental atrocities.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Apr 24, 2024”
Here’s something we had not previously heard: Investors (at least some investors) have “mixed or negative sentiment towards EOG Resources, particularly concerning its activities in the Utica Shale.” Some investors, according to Investing.com, are unsure that EOG’s Utica operation will perform well for the company and may be a drag on the company. An analyst with KeyBanc takes the opposite view and believes EOG’s Utica program will help the company.
Read More “Investors Not Convinced re EOG’s Utica Shale Drilling Program”
Encino Energy is one of the big success stories of drilling for oil in the Ohio Utica Shale. Roughly 5 ½ years ago, Encino Energy, in partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), closed on buying Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica assets for $2 billion (see Encino Takes Over from Chesapeake in Ohio Utica; Big Plans). A few months after the purchase, Encino management boasted they would run a better drilling program in Ohio than did Chesapeake (see Encino Says They’ll Do it Better in the Utica than Chesapeake Did). By all accounts, Encino has lived up to its big boast. The company’s financial partner, CPP Investments, is investing another $300 million into Encino’s Utica oil drilling operation.
Read More “Encino Gets $300M from Canada Pension Plan to Fund Utica Oil Dev”
West Virginia natural gas drillers are excited at the prospect of the soon-opening Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which will carry WV gas 303 miles from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA. During a recent meeting of the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Energy and Manufacturing, the CFO of Pillar Energy said it’s only a month or two until MVP will be online and flowing. Hallelujah! We [the O&G industry] were finally able to get this one done.
Read More “MVP Will Boost WV Gas Producers – Coming Online in “7 to 8 Weeks””
A new bill proposed by two Republican state lawmakers in Ohio would make it easier to site and build natural gas pipelines to areas of the state where pipelines currently don’t exist. If our reading of the bill language is correct, it is aimed at stimulating new jobs by running pipelines to industrial parks and businesses that currently are not serviced by natgas. The aim is to stimulate new jobs and opportunities in the Buckeye State. Smart.
Read More “Ohio Bill Encourages New NatGas Pipelines to Spread Across State”
CNX Resources has partnered with NuBlu Energy, an EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) company, to introduce two exciting new solutions that use Marcellus/Utica gas — one solution for CNG (compressed natural gas) and the other for LNG (liquefied natural gas). The solutions are called ZeroHP CNG and Clean mLNG. Zero Horsepower (ZeroHP) CNG creates a decentralized CNG production market to meet better the growing demand for clean, affordable CNG energy. ZeroHP CNG eliminates the need for compressors to compress the CNG. How cool is that? As for LNG, a new low horsepower solution called Clean mLNG™ advances cost-effective and lower emissions production of small-scale LNG. We’re talking micro-scale LNG, making LNG available for just about anyone to use.
Read More “CNX, NuBlue Energy Team Up to Deploy CNG & LNG Solutions”
Isn’t it interesting how the devil continues to use the same tactics he has used since the very beginning of time? Lucifer (the Center for Climate Integrity, or CCI) is whispering lies to Eve (the Allegheny County Council) located in the Garden of Eden (Pittsburgh region, the unofficial headquarters of the Marcellus/Utica shale), enticing Eve to bite the fruit (launch a lawsuit against Big Oil & Gas companies), promising she’ll have more money than God if she sues and wins. Lucifer always leads with a lie. The end result is always the same — death. In this case, the death of Pittsburgh as the headquarters of the Marcellus/Utica. Will Eve do it this time? Or resist?
Read More “CCI Tries to Tempt Allegheny County into Suing Oil & Gas Cos.”
A team led by Penn State researchers has developed a new tool that can estimate the emissions potential of shale wells after they are no longer active. The researchers claim drillers can analyze their own drill cuttings (samples of shale rock) to determine how much potential there is for methane leakage after a well is abandoned. Which is interesting and perhaps even useful information for Marcellus/Utica drillers. However, a tangential factoid in the news story is what caught our interest and got our mental wheels churning. The factoid is this…
Read More “PennState Estimates Methane Emissions for Closed Shale Wells”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: This is why New York will ultimately collapse; NATIONAL: Energy prices skyrocket nearly 30% under Biden; Having Biden declare a climate emergency is a crazy idea; Biden’s energy policies harm U.S. producers, Help America’s rivals; GALACTIC: Why is there fugitive methane on Mars?
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Apr 23, 2024”
On Friday, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission upheld a regulatory order from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) suspending operations of three wastewater injection wells located in Torch (Athens County), OH, owned by K&H Partners, a subsidiary of Tallgrass Energy. ODNR “temporarily” suspended the operations of four fracking waste injection wells (the three K&H wells and one other) in Athens County last September (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down 4 Injection Wells in Athens County). ODNR said the wells presented an “imminent danger” to health and the environment.
Read More “Ohio O&G Commission Votes to Shut Down 3 Athens Injection Wells”
Shell’s 97-mile Falcon ethane pipeline, which feeds 100,000 barrels a day of Marcellus/Utica ethane to the mighty cracker plant in Beaver County, PA, was built and running as of January 2021, well before the cracker itself was finished (see Shell Cracker Construction “in the Home Stretch” – Ready in 2022). Ironically, more of the ethane pipeline was built in Ohio and West Virginia than in Pennsylvania. Only 45.5 miles of the system is located in PA. Yet the Pennsylvania Attorney General, Michelle Henry (an anti-drilling Democrat hack), is using the testimony of two fired Shell employees to charge the long-done pipeline with crimes for how it was constructed.
Read More “PA AG Files Bogus Charges Against Long-Done Shell Falcon Pipe”
Pennsylvania State Senator Katie Muth’s attempt to block a proposed frack wastewater treatment plant in Dimock (hours away from her own district) has bombed out yet again. Muth tried to challenge and block a permit for the plant, an effort which was mostly rejected in court in June 2022 (see PA EHB Dismisses Senator’s Request to Block Dimock Wastewater Plant). The PA Environmental Hearing Board (EHB), a special court set up to hear challenges to Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) decisions, allowed Muth one final remaining way to continue her challenge — by claiming she has “individual standing” to challenge the permit as a resident of the state. That effort bombed out when the EHB ruled against her in November 2022 (see Sen. Katie Muth’s Attempt to Block Dimock Wastewater Plant Dismissed). But, you know, antis have endless reserves of money from shadowy sources. Muth appealed it again, this time to the PA Commonwealth Court.
Read More “Sen. Muth’s Attempt to Block Dimock Wastewater Plant Dismissed Again”
Last Wednesday, EQT Corporation held its annual shareholders meeting. These sorts of meetings are typically short and sweet, as was EQT’s meeting last week. Ahead of annual meetings, various resolutions are circulated for shareholders to vote on (by proxy before the meeting). There were three such resolutions on EQT’s agenda this year: Election of board members, hiring an accounting firm to do an independent audit, and executive compensation for 2023 (last year). In the bowels of the paperwork, we discovered that EQT CEO Toby Rice was being paid $10.6 million for his work last year, reckoned as $1 dollar in salary plus $9.6 million in shares of EQT stock and $1 million in incentive compensation. Rice’s compensation last year is actually down from 2022 ($11.6 million) and 2021 ($16.9 million).
Read More “EQT Shareholders Approve $10.6M Compensation for Toby Rice 2023”
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count regained a couple of rigs; for the first time in five weeks, the count has gone up instead of down. The count went from 617 active rigs two weeks ago up to 619 last week. Since last October, the national count has gone as low as 616 and as high as 629. And that’s it. No higher and no lower. The Marcellus/Utica lost one rig last week and now runs 41 rigs. Pennsylvania remained constant with 22 rigs; Ohio lost a rig and now operates 11 rigs; and West Virginia remained the same with 8 rigs.
Read More “Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Adds 2 @ 619, M-U Drops 1 @ 41”
Things may finally be turning around for the problem-plagued Freeport LNG export facility located in Quintana, Texas. Last week we reported gas flows to the facility had dropped to “near zero” for at least five days in a row (see Freeport LNG Still Mostly Shut Down – 5 Days in Row at < 5% of Gas). Reuters is out with a pair of reports. One report says feedgas is finally beginning to flow to one of Freeport’s three trains again. The other report says the State of Texas recently levied fines on Freeport for violating state air pollution emissions rules between 2019 and 2021.
Read More “Texas Fines Freeport LNG – Some Feedgas Starts to Reflow”
Today is the annual day when environmental wackos demand fealty to Mother Earth. You WILL bow down and worship the creation (instead of the Creator) or risk being excommunicated from polite company. We thumb our noses at Earth Day worshipers and declare our love for the miracle of fossil energy on this Earth Day. We invite you to join us in celebrating the greatest invention of mankind–fossil fuels!
Read More “Celebrating Fossil Fuels on Worship the Earth Day – April 22, 2024”