Deal is Done! Chesapeake & Southwestern Announce $7.4B Merger
This morning, Chesapeake Energy Corporation and Southwestern Energy Company announced that the two companies agreed to merge in an all-stock transaction valued at $7.4 billion, or $6.69 per share, based on Chesapeake’s closing price on January 10, 2024. Under the terms of the agreement, Southwestern shareholders will receive 0.0867 shares of Chesapeake common stock for each share of Southwestern common stock outstanding at closing. Chesapeake shareholders will own roughly 60% of the combined company, and Southwestern shareholders will own 40%. In other words, Chessy is buying out Southwestern.
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Once a month, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. The EIA issued the January STEO yesterday. Among its latest predictions is that the growth rate for natural gas production will slow this year and next. Production will still grow, just not as fast as it did in 2023, says EIA. As for prices, EIA says the average Henry Hub price in 2024 will turn out to be around $2.70/MMBtu, which is dismal (but higher than 2023’s $2.54/MMBtu). They predict the price will rise to an average of $3/MMBtu in 2025 — still far below where it needs to be.
For years, anti-fossil fuel haters have made the same false claims: Drilling and fracking will destroy the environment, contaminate your water, make you sick, and create death and destruction everywhere it’s tried. Then, a responsible driller, like Olympus Energy, comes along and drills wells not far from the lefties in Pittsburgh, and none of those things happen. The air is fine, the water is fine, and nothing gets polluted or contaminated. In other words, the left’s wild claims are exposed as outright lies. But that doesn’t stop the left, funded by shadowy sources, from continuing to sue and challenge time and again — even AFTER shale wells are already drilled and online!
It’s hard to underestimate the influence and role of Pennsylvania on the world’s energy sector, especially over the past 19 years with the rise of the Marcellus Shale. However, advocates for fossil energy (like the American Petroleum Institute) are expressing concerns that PA’s dominant role may change to one with far less influence. Why? Lack of pipelines to transport PA’s production to other regions (or to export plants). Their concerns are valid (see 
If you’re a high school senior in Ohio looking for help paying for advanced education or training — whether it’s college, university, technical or trade school — listen up! The Ohio Natural Energy Institute (formerly called the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program, or OOGEEP) is now accepting 
NATIONAL: EIA expects relatively flat crude oil prices in 2024 and 2025; Distinguishing gas gathering pipelines from transmission; Why the U.S. Senate must reject Joe Goffman for the EPA; Biden uses taxpayer protections to prop up wind, gut oil; API warns against U.S. slowing LNG exports; INTERNATIONAL: USA, UK shoot down 21 drones, missiles over Red Sea; Japan’s Kyushu Electric may invest in Lake Charles LNG.
Yes, we’ve noticed. The Henry Hub NYMEX futures price for natural gas soared yesterday. It has been on an upward trend for the last six trading days in a row. Yesterday, the NYMEX price jumped $0.21 (6.6%) to close at $3.19 per MMBtu. Spot (physical) prices have also moved higher. What’s causing it? And will the futures price now stay above $3?
Last October, MDN told you that American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, with its fingers in several different pies, including subsidiaries in drilling, remediation, water, and more, changed its name to American Environmental Partners, Inc. (see 
In October, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Rich Negrin suddenly resigned after being on the job for less than a year (see 
A press release out of Oslo, Norway, caught our attention. It was issued by Hexagon Agility, a business of Hexagon Composites. Hexagon said it had received an order from REV LNG for its TITAN Mobile Pipeline® modules — compressed natural gas (CNG) containers that get stacked on a trailer and hauled from point A to point B. REV LNG is a full-service supplier of liquid natural gas (LNG), compressed natural gas (CNG) and renewable natural gas (RNG) specializing in development, production, supply, transportation, and distribution solutions. REV is headquartered in Mendon, NY, with major operations in Ulysses, PA.
The Bidenistas are conducting a secret “review,” being led by the Department of Energy, to evaluate whether regulators should consider mythical “climate change” when deciding whether a proposed natural gas export project meets the national interest. It is a prelude to introducing new guidelines that will almost certainly block the approval of ANY new LNG export project. Yet another attack by the Bidenistas against fossil fuels in general and natural gas in particular. Surprised? We aren’t.