White House Holds Methane Summit, Launches Climate Gestapo
The Bidenistas on Wednesday held a summit at The White House aimed at addressing the “planet-warming gas methane” and launched a new Cabinet-level task force (that we have dubbed the Climate Gestapo) dedicated to the issue. The bash-fossil energy confab curiously did not include ANY representatives from the sector that supposedly is causing all the trouble–oil and gas–which points out this wasn’t an actual effort to address the fugitive methane issue but instead was a political ploy aimed at fundraising for the Democrat Party.
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New shale permits issued for Jul 17-23 in the Marcellus/Utica saw a nice increase. There were 31 new permits issued last week, up from the 23 issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 13 new permits in Pennsylvania, 8 new permits in Ohio, and 10 new permits in West Virginia. The top permittee for the week was Coterra Energy, receiving 8 permits in Susquehanna County, PA. Coming in at a close second was Antero Resources, with 6 permits in Ritchie County, WV.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Zefiro Methane Corp. Joins Gas & Oil Association of WV; NATIONAL: It’s not climate change that’s causing heat waves this summer; OFS providers expect rig count recovery later this year; Some tout RNG to mitigate climate change, others see false solution.
EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the United States, issued its second quarter 2023 update yesterday. There was loads of news. The company reported a new world record of drilling 18,200 feet in 48 hours for a single well in Green County, PA. Also of note, CEO Toby Rice and newly appointed CFO Jeremy Knop said a long-delayed purchase of Tug Hill Operating (major new acreage for EQT in West Virginia) would be concluded within the next 30 days. Very exciting news! But it wasn’t all peaches and cream. Reading through the reports, you will discover that EQT produced 471 Bcfe in 2Q23 (an average of 5.18 Bcfe/d) versus producing 502 Bcfe in 2Q22 (an average of 5.52 Bcfe/d)–down 6% year over year. The company lost $67 million in 2Q23 versus making a profit of $891 million in 2Q22, a swing of $958 million (nearly one billion dollars). Why?
TRC Capital Investment Corporation has sent an unsolicited “mini-tender” offer to Coterra Energy stockholders looking to purchase up to 4 million shares of Coterra’s common stock (approximately 0.5% of Coterra’s outstanding shares), at an offer price that is 4.5% lower than the current share price. TRC Capital is looking to pick up Coterra shares on the cheap and turn around and flip them at a higher price. Coterra is warning stockholders they should not agree to the deal.
The problem with the pay-for-protection scam is that it never stops. A mobster comes calling on a business, and for a “small” and regular fee, the mobster will guarantee nothing “happens” to the business. “Just think of it as insurance.” It’s a shakedown–a scam. And over the years, the price keeps going up. What if the mobster is a government agency, like the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP)? The DEP keeps shaking down Energy Transfer and its Sunoco Pipeline subsidiary over the construction and operation of the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline. Over the years, the DEP has fined ET/Sunoco over $30 MILLION for so-called penalties related to building ME2. [
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. In 2021, Olympus applied to build a new well pad in a rural part of Allegheny County, in West Deer Township. So-called “concerned citizens” got amped up to oppose the project. They succeeded when town supervisors rejected the Dionysus well pad (see 
Range Resources’ new CEO, Dennis Degner, told analysts yesterday during a quarterly update that he doesn’t think the commodity price of natural gas and the overall demand for natgas will increase for the rest of this year and most of next year. So Degner will keep the company’s drilling program active enough to keep production at the current level of 2.1 Bcf/d. Range must drill 60-65 new wells yearly to maintain production.
Douglas is a small town in southern Worcester County, Massachusetts. The population was 8,983 at the 2020 census. It includes the sizable Douglas State Forest, managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), and not much else. Douglas desperately needs new businesses to move in to help with the tax base, but with no natural gas service, businesses were not interested. So Douglas officials contacted Eversource, one of the state’s largest utility companies, about the possibility of running natural gas lines into and through Douglas. And they’ve done it–behind the backs of radicalized anti-fossil fuelers, who are livid.
Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline is in the news–all over the place. Yesterday we told you about TC Energy’s plan to sell a 40% stake in the Columbia Pipeline (owned by TC) to Global Infrastructure Partners for $3.9 billion (see