NATIONAL: More than two-thirds of Americans, including Dems, oppose ban on gas stoves; Rubio, Cassidy introduce bill to expand gas exports to U.S. allies; Summer’s arrival to prompt surge in natural gas demand.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Jun 21, 2023”
Very quietly, without issuing a press release, CNX Resources, headquartered in Canonsburg, PA (near Pittsburgh), filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission to say that on June 15, the company entered into a “definitive purchase sales agreement” to sell various non-operated producing oil and gas assets primarily located in the Appalachian basin to a third party for $125 million. And that’s about the sum total of what we know.
Read More “CNX Unloads Non-Op Oil & Gas Assets in Appalachia for $125M”
The weekly rig count in the U.S., particularly in gas-focused plays, continues to be of concern. That is, it keeps decreasing and then not recovering the decrease. Last Thursday, Baker Hughes said the U.S. lost another eight rigs total (oil and gas)–the seventh week in a row the rig count has decreased. Two weeks ago, the cumulative Marcellus/Utica rig count was even at 49 rigs (see Baker Hughes Rig Count Down 6th Week in a Row – Indicating a Trend). But that was after the M-U had plunged seven weeks earlier, going from 53 to 49. Last week Pennsylvania and West Virginia each lost two rigs. The Marcellus (by itself) hit 35 active rigs last week, the lowest number since March of this year.
Read More “U.S. Gas Rig Count Whacked Again Last Week – PA & WV Each Lose 2”
Early last week, we published a post about the possibility that Equitrans would revive its moribund project to build the 75-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project from the current MVP terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC (see MVP Completion in 2023 Gives New Hope for MVP Southgate in NC). We told you anti-fossil fuel leftists were all atwitter that MVP Southgate may rise from the ashes like a phoenix. They were right! Late last week, MVP sent a request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking for an extra three years to build MVP Southgate.
Read More “Equitrans Asks FERC for Extra 3 Years to Build MVP Southgate to NC”
In late December 2022, piping at the MarkWest Imperial Compressor Station in Robinson Township, Washington County, PA, froze during Winter Storm Elliot. The frozen line burst, spilling roughly 10,000 gallons of condensate on the ground. On May 23, 2023, MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLC submitted a Notice of Intent (NOI) to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to clean up soil and groundwater contaminated by the spill. MarkWest’s consultant Tetra Tech sent a copy of the notice to Robinson Township–except they sent it to the WRONG Robinson Township.
Read More “MarkWest Mails Spill Cleanup Notice to Wrong Township in SWPA”
An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tackles the issues of permit reform, environmental justice, and the intersection of the two. The article asks and attempts to answer the question, “How does one shape the other?” Based on quotes and comments in the story coming from the Shapiro administration, particularly from Acting Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), Rich Negrin, it’s obvious that Shapiro intends to redefine “environmental justice” so broadly that it will become meaningless. The aim seems to be to turn environmental justice into a blunt force instrument the left can use to deny any energy permit they don’t want to issue.
Read More “So-Called “Environmental Justice” in PA Redefined as Everything”
Those part of the environmental left were some of the biggest supporters of electing then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro as Pennsylvania’s next governor. But it seems the wacko environmental movement is not happy with their boy Josh. They have buyer’s remorse. It all started when, shortly after last November’s election, Shapiro announced a deal with Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas) to settle a criminal case against the company for the decade-old matter of methane migration in Dimock, PA (see PA AG Shapiro Dismisses 14 Felony Charges Against Coterra re Dimock).
Read More “Leftist Antis are NOT Happy with Their Boy Gov. Josh Shapiro”
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse in New York, the “Empire State,” it does! In May, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (Democrat) signed a budget into law that includes provisions to ban gas stoves and furnaces in new residential buildings (see NY State has Fallen – Gas Stoves & Peaker Plants Banned in Budget). Beginning in 2025, if you build a new home (or business) in New York State, you will not be allowed to connect it to an existing natural gas pipeline system. You will be banned from installing a gas (or propane) stove in the house. We now live in a Communist, non-free state. New York has fallen. But even the budget ban of new gas hookups isn’t far enough for the Commies in the NY legislature! Senate Bill 2016 (S.2016) was just passed, a bill that bans natural gas itself–removing the right to buy natural gas–beginning in 2025.
Read More “NY Dems Attack – State Senate Passes Bill to End Use of NatGas”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Plan to convert natgas plant to burn diesel gets pushback; NATIONAL: TGS launches well data analytics; USA awards $127 million in grid modernization grant; Which USA oil major produced the most in 1Q?; Drilling stocks plunge on bets for oil price slump; Natural gas bans aren’t about your health; INTERNATIONAL: Iranian oil is quietly flooding into the global market again.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Jun 20, 2023”
Today, June 19th, is a stock exchange and bank holiday. Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the U.S. commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Juneteenth marks the anniversary of the announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, proclaiming freedom for enslaved people in Texas. Originating in Galveston, the holiday has since been celebrated annually on June 19 in various parts of the United States, often broadly celebrating African-American culture. The day was first recognized as a federal holiday in June 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. As with other bank holidays, MDN will not publish today.
In the summer of 2021, Patterson-UTI Energy, which operates 21 active rigs in the Marcellus/Utica (out of 49 active M-U rigs, nearly half of all active M-U rigs!), announced it was buying a smaller competitor, Pioneer Energy Services Corp. (see Patterson-UTI Energy Buying Pioneer Energy Services for $295M). Patterson added Pioneer’s fleet of 16 super-spec drilling rigs to Patterson’s (at that time) fleet of 150 super-spec drilling rigs in the U.S. Big news! Yesterday Patterson announced it is expanding again by combining with NexTier Oilfield Solutions in a “merger of equals.”
Read More “Patterson-UTI & NexTier to Merge, Bigger Fracker than Halliburton”
Even as the Bidenistas at the Dept. of Energy are deciding which regional hydrogen hub proposals to fund, and even though Pennsylvania, with its parochial application that competes against a much better application from West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, the Democrats in the PA House are attempting to force any new hydrogen projects in the Keystone state to NOT use fossil fuels–namely Marcellus Shale gas. Yes, they are insane! PA Dems (led by State Rep. Greg Vitali) are about to screw up PA’s already long shot at grabbing one of the 6 to 8 regional hydrogen hub projects and $1 billion in funding by promoting House Bill (HB) 1215–written by the radicals of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Talk about dumb. Wow!
Read More “Radicalized NRDC Authors Bill to Make PA Hydrogen Hub Fossil Free”
In October 2021, Cimarex Energy, a Permian driller, and Cabot Oil & Gas, a Pennsylvania Marcellus driller, merged and renamed the company to Coterra Energy (see Cimarex Takes Over Cabot, Merged Co. Called “Coterra Energy”). Cabot’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Scott Schroeder, became the CFO for Coterra. Scott has been with Cabot (now Coterra) for 28 years. Yesterday Coterra announced Scott is retiring and will be replaced by Shane Young.
Read More “Executive Changes at Coterra Energy – New CFO, CHRO”
For individuals, discretionary income is what’s left after you pay your taxes and fixed costs like housing, food, and clothing. For shale drillers, the equivalent to discretionary income is cash flow from operating activities (CFOA), which is the net income a company generates adjusted for non-cash expenses like depreciation and stock-based compensation, and for changes in working capital. Drillers can use their extra cash to grow production by spending more for drilling new wells (capital expenditures or capex). Or drillers can send some of the extra cash back to investors via share buybacks and dividends. How did Marcellus/Utica drillers spend their CFOA during the first quarter of 2023?
Read More “How M-U Drillers Spent Discretionary (Extra) Cash Flow in 1Q23”
The Bidenistas have put their anti-freedom, pro-tyranny agenda into overdrive. On Tuesday, the administration released its semi-annual Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, a report on the actions administrative agencies (part of the Executive Branch of government) plan to issue in the near- and long-term. Both the Interior and Energy departments are moving full speed ahead to try and lock in some of Biden’s most restrictive and punitive (to fossil energy) policies they can before the election, hoping to make it impossible to undo the damage after they lose the next election.
Read More “Bidenistas Unmask Aggressive Anti-Gas Agenda for Next 12 Mos.”
We’ve written about the sleazy practice of “sue and settle” in the past–a practice whereby government agencies like the EPA get their friends in the radical environmental movement to sue them, then they quickly settle the case and say, “See, we HAVE to do this because the court is making us do it.” (See our previous sue-and-settle articles here.) The EPA is doing it again. The agency, now occupied by extreme leftists, has worked out a “consent decree” with the radicals of the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club that will “require” the EPA to enact stricter limits on nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from fossil fuel (coal and gas) power plants.
Read More “EPA Agrees to Sue-and-Settle with Sierra Club, EDF re Power Plants”