Another Powerhouse Merger: Chevron Buying Hess for $53 Billion
Not even a full two weeks ago, MDN brought you the news that Exxon Mobil, the #5 oil producer in the Permian Basin, is buying Pioneer Natural Resources, the #1 oil producer in the Permian, in an all-stock deal valued at $59.5 billion, plus assuming $5 billion in debt, for a total deal value of $64.5 billion (see Shale Megadeal: Exxon Buys Pioneer Natural Res. for $64.5 Billion). We told you that experts were predicting Exxon’s megamerger with Pioneer would touch off more mergers. And it has. Chevron announced via press release this morning that it is buying Hess Corporation in an all-stock transaction valued at $53 billion. Chevron doesn’t want to be left behind in the oil drilling wars.
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The Big Green group Save Ohio Parks is trying to block legally permitted and state-encouraged drilling under some of Ohio’s state-owned lands, including shale drilling under (not on) state parks. Save Ohio Parks recently tried to prove shale drilling is a problem in the Buckeye State by using data from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR). In a funny turnabout, the group actually proves the opposite — that shale drilling is super safe and not harming the environment in Ohio.
The U.S. rig count rose last week for the second week in a row, albeit just slightly. The national rig count added a piddly two rigs for 624 active rigs. We remain near the lowest point of active rigs running since February 2022. It feels like a dead cat bounce to us. The count in the Marcellus/Utica, after gaining one rig two weeks ago (in Pennsylvania), remained steady at 39 active rigs last week. The M-U’s biggest competitor, the Haynesville, added three rigs last week and now sports 40 active rigs, one more than the M-U. Darnit!
On Friday, Range Resources Corporation, the very first driller to sink a Marcellus Shale well (in Pennsylvania) back in 2004, announced it had appointed a new member to its Board of Directors — Charles G. Griffie. Mr. Griffie has an extensive background in the oil and gas industry with expertise in managing midstream assets. Among his previous positions, Griffie did a 2.5-year stint as Senior Vice President of Midstream and Marketing for Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration (now called Olympus Energy).
A very small but mouthy group of legislators, doctors and faux “scientists” is pressuring the weak-willed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pass the NY Home Energy Affordable Transition Act, just months after Hochul’s controversial move to ban gas stoves, furnaces and propane heating in new residential buildings in the Empire State (see 
NATIONAL: Green energy bubble about to burst, taxpayers will suffer; Democrat ‘fix was in’ when Louisiana lost out on hydrogen hub; INTERNATIONAL: Europe gas settles at week-high on Mideast conflict fears.
A Susquehanna County, PA judge recently ruled against fractivist lawyers looking for a quick payday in a “Dimock” case stretching back to 2017. In a damning decision against the lawyers, the judge said they repeatedly refused to provide documents in the case even though ordered to by the judge. Not only that, but the lawyers destroyed evidence! They destroyed computers with emails and documents, and even destroyed hard-copy documents, to avoid handing them over to the court. Next up is a trial to determine how much the plaintiff (Coterra Energy) will receive after being wronged by these fractivist lawyers.
On Wednesday, MDN pointed out that a New York-based company will play a key role in (and get gobs of money from) the WV hydrogen hub project (see 
The United States will add 8.6 gigawatts (GW) of natural gas-fired electric generating capacity in 2023, more than the gas-fired additions in 2022 and 2021, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Monday. So far, in 2023, 10 natural gas-fired power plants have come online with 6.8 GW of new capacity. Another six plants are due to come online by the end of this year, adding another 1.8 GW of new capacity. The EIA expects 20 new natural gas-fired power plants to come online in the next two years, in 2024 and 2025, with another 7.7 GW of new capacity.
We got quite a charge out of this story. It seems the oil and gas industry in building new pipelines isn’t the only group that has grown weary of so-called environmental activists — those who break the law and trespass to block new construction. A group of nuns in Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier in southern France has been trying to build a new facility that will seat 3,500 people (in a small town with 400 people) since 2018. So-called environmentalists have tried their best to block the project, claiming certain endangered species will be sacrificed in the process. Construction of the project recently restarted, so enviros tried trespassing on the property to block construction. One enviro-jerk tried it, and he got tackled (yes, tackled) to the ground by a nun!
According to analysis from Enverus Intelligence, in the first nine months of 2023, U.S. LNG developers signed 14 long-term sales and purchase agreements totaling 19.65 mtpa (million tonnes per annum). That pace is far slower than in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and set off a mass scramble by Europe to secure natgas supplies anywhere they could. One of the big beneficiaries of that scramble was the U.S. with our LNG exports. This year (so far), things have slowed down with new contracts…considerably.
New shale permits issued for Oct 9 – 15 in the Marcellus/Utica gyrated once again, dropping to about half from the previous week. There were 14 new permits issued last week, versus 23 the week before. Last week’s permit tally included 12 new permits in Pennsylvania, no new permits in Ohio, and 2 new permits in West Virginia. EQT was the top permittee for the week, drawing 6 permits in Greene County, PA. PA General Energy was second with 4 permits in Lycoming County.