NATIONAL: Summer pump prices set to hit $4 a gallon just as Americans hit the road; Blockchain demands attention in oil and gas; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. picks Nicole Shanahan as his running mate; U.S. policymakers must adjust to energy transition wake-up call; INTERNATIONAL: Oil dips as continued OPEC cutbacks are likely; Gas-rich Australia’s looming need for LNG imports draws fire.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Mar 27, 2024”
The two Democrats and one anti-drilling RINO who run Bucks County government (a Philadelphia suburb) fell for the bait by Big Green and filed a lawsuit against Big Oil companies for supposedly, knowingly, causing the Earth to toast to a cinder (even though real science shows a slight warming on Earth due to the orbit of the planet Mars). The problem is this lawfare seemingly came out of nowhere. It was hatched secretly by green groups, including the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) – a Rockefeller-funded D.C. activist group. There were no public meetings. No public input. No public announcements. It was completely hush-hush, with a full media blackout until the lawsuit was filed. In other words, it was CORRUPT. Whose pockets are getting lined by this action?
Read More “Bucks County, PA, Sues Big Oil for Causing “Climate Change””
Last week, MDN brought you a story about the rampant cost inflation for plugging old conventional abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells in the Keystone State (see Federal Regs Push Well Plugging Costs in PA Over $100,000 per Well). While federal wage requirements are certainly the primary reason for the inflated cost to plug old wells (if you take federal money, you play by the federal government’s rules), more information is now coming to light about the sorry state of affairs in PA’s well plugging program.
Read More “Plugging PA’s Abandoned & Orphaned Wells is a Hot Mess”
According to Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association’s (TIPRO) latest State of Energy report, the U.S. oil and gas industry directly employed 2.04 million workers in 2023. That’s a net increase of 56,373 direct jobs compared to 2022. According to the report, the oil and gas industry paid a national average wage of $79,427 in 2023. Workers in Crude Oil Extraction earned the highest annual average wage of all oil and gas industry sectors at $220,863. Want a great job? Work in the O&G industry!
Read More “Want a Great Job? Work for O&G! 2 Million Employed, Average $79K/Yr”
According to Scott Tinker, CEO of Tinker Energy Associates and director emeritus of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, lifting billions of people out of energy poverty while reducing emissions is possible. But only if we ask the right questions. Tinker spoke at CERAWeek last week in Houston. He also had some blunt words about renewables, calling the very notion of renewable energy “mythical” and not anchored in reality. He also said: “Natural gas will be here for a very long time. And there’s quite a bit of it.”
Read More “CERAWeek: ‘Mythical’ Renewables Will NOT Solve the Climate Crisis”
The State of Texas just dropped a major bombshell last week. The Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) pulled $8.5 billion of its investments away from BlackRock, the world’s biggest investment firm, over the state’s determination that BlackRock is engaged in a boycott of energy companies by pressuring companies to avoid the fossil fuel sector by using ESG (environment, social, governance) litmus tests (see Texas Yanks $8.5 BILLION Out of BlackRock re ESG). BlackRock is “pushing back with force,” claiming it has $320 billion in energy investments and is not hostile to Texas oil and gas. Nice try, BlackRock, but no cigar.
Read More “BlackRock Pitches a Fit Over Texas $8.5B Divestment Due to ESG”
For more than three years, MDN has called out the International Energy Agency (IEA) and its executive director, Dr. Fatih Birol, as nothing more than tools of Big Green. We’ve reported on many of the IEA’s fake predictions about peak demand for oil and natural gas (see IEA Rushes to Change Absurd Peak Oil Prediction 24 Hrs After COP28) and about the IEA’s plea for no new oil and gas drilling worldwide, starting now, because of man-made global warming concerns (see Intl Energy Agency Says World Should Stop All New O&G Development). We told you then that IEA is not to be trusted. The Chairwoman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee are now saying the same thing — to Birol himself, in a letter.
Read More “GOP Lawmakers Say IEA Has Abandoned Energy Security Mission”
Ever hear of August “Gus” Schumacher? No, neither had we. He’s a cross-country skier from Alaska. Apparently, he’s mildly famous for being the first American to win a gold medal in an individual race at the Junior World Ski Championships in 2020. He competed in the 30-kilometer skiathlon at the 2022 Winter Olympics. And, he won the Men’s 10-kilometer freestyle race at the 2024 Stifel Loppet Cup in Minneapolis on February 18, 2024. He’s also a brainwashed tool of the left who spouts inanities about global warming and carbon dioxide. Schumacher was completely humiliated, exposed as a fool, by U.S. Senator John Kennedy at a Senate Budget Committee hearing last week (watch the video below).
Read More “Senator Kennedy Quizzes Clueless Cross-Country Skier About CO2”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Kraft Heinz gets $170M to decarbonize 10 food-manufacturing plants; Berkeley to repeal first U.S. natural gas ban after legal defeats; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Free gas and free money in the Permian Basin; Enbridge to form natgas supply venture connecting Permian and Gulf Coast; NATIONAL: Proof eco-extremists don’t want to fix the problem; Natgas has promise, but not perfect alternative for trucking; Renewables will destroy America’s lifestyle back to the pre-1800s; INTERNATIONAL: Houthis warn Saudi Arabia of retaliation if it backs USA attacks; French bank pulls funding for two LNG projects.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Mar 26, 2024”
Summit Midstream Partners, LP, which owns midstream (pipeline) assets in a number of major plays across the country, including the Marcellus/Utica, announced on Friday the sale of the company’s Ohio Utica assets, including its Summit Midstream Utica, LLC subsidiary, which includes its approximately 36% interest in Ohio Gathering Company, approximately 38% interest in Ohio Condensate Company, and other wholly-owned Utica assets. The sale was made to a subsidiary of MPLX LP (i.e., MarkWest Energy) for $625 million in cash. Summit will no longer own Utica assets in Ohio, but the company WILL retain (for now) its Marcellus assets in West Virginia.
Read More “Summit Midstream Sells Utica Pipeline Assets to MPLX for $625M”
Is Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania, with some 333 drilled and active shale wells as of the end of last year, turning against the Marcellus industry? Perhaps. And perhaps drillers will want to give the county a pass for future development following an unnecessary and illegal ban against wastewater injection wells passed last week by the three county commissioners — two Republicans (Scott Dunn and Dave Lohr) and one Democrat (Vincent Vicites).
Read More “Fayette County Adopts Illegal Wastewater Injection Well Ban”
Diversified Energy (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil), with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (and other regions, too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. Last week, Diversified issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2023 update. Part of the update included an announcement that Diversified is acquiring financial partner Oaktree Capital Management’s interests in the companies’ JV assets in western Oklahoma, East Texas, and northwest Louisiana for a net purchase price of $386 million.
Read More “Diversified Buys Out Financial Backer’s Portion of Mid-Con Assets”
Over the past year or so, there has been merger mania in the upstream (drilling) sector. And it continues even now. According to major midstream (pipeline) companies speaking at last week’s CERAWeek event in Houston, TX, pipeline companies are next in line for merger mania. However, combinations in the midstream space will not follow the same path upstream has followed. There’s a big difference.
Read More “U.S. Pipeline Companies Gearing Up for Wave of Mergers”
Is hydrogen energy a solution in search of a problem? That’s the question that keeps running through our heads. In a free market, customers buy products from companies that manufacture them. If a company is producing a product for which there is no demand, that company doesn’t stay in business long. According to a journalist at last week’s CERAWeek energy event in Houston, TX, one of the “hot topics” at the event was “hydrogen’s demand dilemma” — as in, the customers don’t exist to buy it.
Read More “The Biggest Problem for Hydrogen Energy: Nobody Wants to Buy It”
Now we’re teaching our kids how to become eco-terrorists? In Ohio?? It seems the answer to that is YES. Ohio State University (OSU) has a geography class that teaches “the political economy of climate change and the political philosophy of climate justice.” One of the books to be used in the course is: “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” Ring any bells? There was a movie released with the same title last year (see Eco-Terrorists Release Film Detailing “How to Blow Up a Pipeline”). Apparently, the movie is based on the book. And somebody at OSU thought it would be a good idea to brainwash college students into becoming eco-terrorists and planned to use the book in a course…until the O&G industry noticed and exposed this intellectual rot to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. The course is now on hold.
3/27/24 UPDATE: We have included a brief update and comment by OSU below.
Read More “Opposition Grows Against OSU Course on Blowing Up Pipelines”
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count dropped five rigs after adding seven the week before. The count went from 629 active rigs two weeks down to 624 last week. The national count is officially rangebound. 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 cumulatively lost one rig (in Pennsylvania) last week and now runs 42 rigs. The number of gas rigs cumulatively across the country fell to its lowest number since January 2022.
Read More “Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Drops 5 @ 624, M-U Drops 1 @ 42”