Supreme Court Overturns 4th Circuit, MVP to Restart Construction
In an act of Supreme justice, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts, issued an order yesterday overturning the stays imposed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit) that were blocking the completion of the 94% done Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Let the bulldozers start their engines! We expect work to resume immediately (today) to finish this critical link from the Marcellus/Utica to the Southeastern U.S. The best part is that the decision was announced as the three radicalized leftist judges of the 4th Circuit were hearing arguments that a portion of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023 forcing the completion of MVP is unconstitutional. Roberts’ order effectively shut down any further shenanigans by these three clowns.
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TC Energy, formerly TransCanada Corporation, has been in the news all week. Tuesday morning, a portion of the Columbia Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by TC Energy) in rural western Virginia exploded and caught fire (see 
Yesterday MDN brought you jammed-packed news about EQT Corporation, the country’s largest natural gas driller and producer, from the company’s second quarter update (see 
Yesterday Antero Resources, which is 100% focused on the Marcellus/Utica with over 500,000 net acres under lease (and the largest M-U driller in West Virginia), issued its second quarter 2023 update. The company reports net production averaged 3.4 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) during 2Q23, an increase of 5% year-over-year. Of that production, liquids (NGLs) averaged 192 thousand barrels per day (MBbl/d), an increase of 16% from the year-ago period. Natural gas production averaged 2.2 Bcf/d, the same as the year-ago period. The company lost $84 million in 2Q23 versus making a profit of $563 million in 2Q22–a swing of $647 million into the red.
Increasingly ours is a world run by computers. Even in-the-ground pipelines are monitored and controlled by computers. The ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline in 2021, a pipeline that flows a significant amount of refined products (gasoline and diesel fuel) from the Gulf Coast, where it’s refined, as far north as New Jersey, was a wake-up call for all pipelines. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) heard the call and responded. In July 2021, the TSA issued an initial “security directive” requiring pipelines, including natural gas pipelines, to do certain things to protect themselves and the public they serve (see 
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.
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 