Forced Pooling (Unitization) in Ohio Sees Big Jump Last 3 Years
Forced pooling is the practice of forcing landowners (rights owners) who don’t want to allow drilling under (not on top of) their land from blocking such drilling for their neighbors. Underground horizontal drilling used in shale wells often crosses borders into neighboring land. There’s no way around it. There is no surface disturbance for those who don’t want to lease. In Ohio, the practice of forced pooling is called “unitization.” At least 65% of landowners in a proposed unit must be leased in order to force the others in the unit to accept drilling under their land.
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Wednesday evening, the supervisors of West Deer Township (Allegheny County), PA, held a regular monthly meeting. One item on the agenda was the potential adoption of revisions to the town’s oil and gas drilling ordinance. A number of (supposed) residents showed up to question the revisions and ask for stricter setbacks (a bigger distance from drilling to homes and other structures). Ultimately, the supervisors decided to delay a vote on the revisions, pushing it off until next month’s meeting.
Although Shell maintains flaring and accidental emissions from its multi-billion-dollar ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA, have not violated state and federal air standards, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) says they have — on numerous occasions. Shell didn’t argue the point, and in May 2023, the company agreed to pay nearly $10 million in fines and “contributions” to benefit the local community (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Energy fabulism in New Jersey; NATIONAL: GOP lawmakers urge FERC to process LNG project applications; Goldman Sachs discusses what’s next for natural gas prices; WM explores $3 billion sale of renewable natural gas unit.
Austin Master Services (AMS) is a radiological waste management solutions company operating in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), OH, close to the Ohio River. Media accounts report that AMS has stored at least 10,000 tons of fracking waste (drill cuttings with low radioactivity) at the facility. The facility is rated and permitted to hold 600 tons. In March, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asked the Belmont County Common Pleas Court to block AMS from receiving more waste and order it to clean up and comply with its rating. The court granted both requests with a deadline of April 17 to comply (see 
It’s clearly a case of sour grapes for the same three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus clowns) who tried to block the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) by rendering arbitrary decisions that caused years of delays for the pipeline. We’re talking about Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama (she likes to quote from Dr. Seuss books in her opinions); Judge James Wynn, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; and Chief Judge Roger Gregory, appointed by William Jefferson Clinton. All three are (in our opinion) corrupt and should immediately be impeached and removed from the bench. Congress finally had enough of their judicial malpractice in blocking MVP and passed a law overriding the clowns, signed into law by Joementia last June (see 
Isn’t this interesting? Two days ago, MDN published a post pointing out that a bill passed by both houses of the New York State legislature to ban so-called carbon dioxide (CO2) fracking had still not been signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul (see 
TransCanada Corporation, which renamed itself TC Energy in 2019, made a play for and bought out/merged with U.S.-based Columbia Pipeline Group in 2016 (see 
CNX Resources Corp., KeyState Energy, and Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) are working together on a $1.5 billion project that, if completed, would make sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at PIT from coal mine methane gas. But only if the Bidenistas deeply embedded in the IRS allow coal mine methane to qualify for green energy tax credits. That’s a really big IF. CNX and KeyState announced yesterday that the two companies signed a letter of intent (non-binding for now) to build a SAF facility at PIT to turn coal mine methane into hydrogen that would be used as aviation fuel.
Antero Resources Corporation announced yesterday that it received an investment-grade BBB credit rating from S&P Global Ratings. S&P upgraded Antero’s corporate and issuer credit ratings to BBB—from BB+ with a stable outlook. Antero has maintained an investment-grade credit rating from Fitch Ratings since September 2022. This credit upgrade means the company will not need as many letters of credit and will lower the interest rates it pays on borrowed money.
On the demand front, we’ve been tracking the up down up down up down and now up again situation at Freeport for weeks (months, years). Freeport had been mostly offline following an episode of cold temps in January (see 
The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for May, issued Monday (below), shows EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for June will decrease production from the prior month of May. This is the eleventh month in a row that EIA has predicted shale gas production will decrease for the combined seven plays and (according to Reuters) will hit the lowest production level in five months. However, gas production won’t decrease everywhere. Gas-focused plays like the Marcellus/Utica and the Haynesville will see the most significant drop in production (a combined loss of 443 MMcf/d). In contrast, the oily Permian play will see a massive boost in the production of “associated” natural gas — the gas that comes out of the ground along with oil — up 143 MMcf/d. The Permian also adds another 18,000 barrels per day of oil production in June.
ECA Marcellus Trust I, the royalty interest holder in some of the wells drilled and maintained by Greylock Energy in Greene County, PA, announced it would issue a 2.1-cents ($0.021) dividend to unitholders for 1Q24. The company paid 4.3 cents per unit in 1Q23, nothing in 2Q23, six-tenths of a penny ($0.006) in 3Q23, and 3.0 cents per unit in 4Q23. The company continues to hold back some profits ($90,000 in 1Q24) to build a cash reserve for “future known, anticipated or contingent expenses or liabilities.”
In the fall of 2021, President Biden signed into law the so-called Infrastructure bill, some $1.2 trillion in pork barrel spending, passed with the help of turncoat Republicans (see 
The Bidenistas at the EPA attacked coal and gas-fired power plants in April, threatening to destabilize the existing electric power grid with new regulations (see