Chesapeake Energy Stock Joins S&P MidCap 400 Index as of Today
Chesapeake Energy’s stock (CHK) is getting an upgrade–at least in reputation and stature. Beginning today, CHK will join the S&P MidCap 400 stock index, replacing Mercury Systems Inc. (MRCY). The announcement was made last Wednesday after the close of the financial markets. Traders liked the news and immediately bid up shares of CHK in after-market trading. Chessy’s stock price is up 3.5% over the past five days. It seems the company has finally gotten its fiscal house in order after years of mountainous debt that led to bankruptcy in June of 2020 (see Chesapeake Files for Bankruptcy – Debtors to Take Ownership).
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It’s getting even uglier out there. For the sixth week in a row and the 15th of the last 16 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. A lot of rigs. Last week the number decreased by a whopping 12 rigs after falling by five rigs per week for the three weeks prior. The total is now down to 642 active rigs across both oil and gas. Sadly, the Marcellus/Utica dropped three rigs last week (after losing two the week before) for a combined M-U rig count of 40–the lowest this year. Last week Pennsylvania picked up two rigs after losing two the week before, but the additions in PA came at the expense of Ohio (lost 2 rigs) and West Virginia (lost 3 rigs).
In August 2020, MDN brought you the news that Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) wanted to build a state-of-the-art 1,250-megawatt natural-gas-fueled, combined-cycle electric generation facility in Grundy County, Illinois (see 
This is so frustrating. Last week, the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) issued fake research reports that supposedly link proximity to shale wells with a minuscule (less than one-tenth of one percent) rise in one type of childhood cancer (see 
Last week we told you about a new $2 billion hydrogen project coming to West Virginia (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Congressman tours gas sites, meets with employees in Sayre; Gas and oil operators talk innovation at annual summer meeting; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Energy Transfer seeks new LNG export license after extension denied; NATIONAL: Electric vehicles run on natural gas; INTERNATIONAL: A progressive’s case for getting rid of ‘ESG’; Is oil and gas in a jobseeker or jobgiver market right now?; European natgas prices jump as Australia LNG workers poised to strike.
We should have known there was a price to pay, a “pound of flesh” to be exacted, when we read the announcement that the Bidenistas of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) had approved EQT’s deal to buy Tug Hill’s West Virginia assets. Two days ago, EQT issued a press release to announce the deal had been blessed by the FTC and would happen within the next seven days (see 
Yesterday we told you about a new $2 billion hydrogen project coming to West Virginia (see 
We’ll say aloud what no one else appears ready or willing to say: The long-ballyhooed PTT ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, Ohio, announced eight years ago, is dead. That’s our humble opinion. We periodically look for signs of life in the project, and it has been a flat line for YEARS. Nothing. A local news article from earlier this week asked, “What is the future of the Belmont County Ethane Cracker plant project?” Local county leaders are still “very optimistic” it will get built. We say it’s time to face reality.
On August 17, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) posted an Interim Final Environmental Justice Policy to guide DEP’s permit application reviews and outreach efforts in environmental justice areas throughout the Commonwealth. New Environmental Justice (or EJ) policies are a euphemism for regulations that prohibit drilling and pipelines built in neighborhoods of color or economic hardship zones because, says the left, those people can’t fight them. It is a uniquely dystopian and prejudiced view of the world. We call it “all shale drilling is racist” regulations. Completely repugnant. The DEP will publish their new anti-shale regs in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on September 16 and immediately implement them on the same day. Meaning the DEP will begin to slow or deny new permits for wells and pipelines as of that date–based on violating made-up EJ standards. We hope the Marcellus industry sues the DEP to stop it.
Last week S&P Global Ratings, the largest and most important of the Big Three credit-rating agencies, which include Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, announced it is ditching its system of numerically ranking corporate borrowers on their ESG risk (see 
New shale permits issued for Aug 7 – 13 in the Marcellus/Utica crashed for a second week in a row. There were 10 new permits issued last week, down 14 issued the previous week (half of the 29 issued three weeks ago). Last week’s permit tally included 10 new permits in Pennsylvania, no new permits in Ohio, and no new permits in West Virginia (third week in a row for WV). The top permittee for the week was Chesapeake Energy, receiving 6 permits–4 in Bradford County and 2 in Susquehanna County.
In 2018, Pennsylvania’s then-Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, assembled a grand jury to “investigate” Marcellus drillers. He lied to them for over two years and eventually got them to indict a number of Marcellus companies on trumped-up charges. The so-called grand jury issued a report (which was actually authored by Shapiro and his minions) in June 2020 (see 
Last September, EQT Corporation announced it was buying privately-owned Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets for $5.2 billion (see