Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA
Sue-and-Settle: DRBC Bans Conventional Fracked Water Road Spreading
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), which treats the 17 counties in Pennsylvania under its jurisdiction as a fiefdom, has colluded with the leftists of the Big Green group Damascus Citizens for Sustainability to “settle” a lawsuit brought by the group against DRBC “forcing” the DRBC to further restrict and ban wastewater from conventional wells from being spread on roadways (dirt roads) in the 17 PA counties located behind the Iron Curtain of the DRBC.
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Last summer Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 2644 was passed into law, becoming Act 96 of 2022 (see 
During the second week of May, Marcellus driller Northeast Natural Energy will begin to drill a geothermal and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) data collection well–all the way down to 15,000 below the surface. The test well is being done in cooperation with (under the direction of) West Virginia University and the U.S. Dept. of Energy. The study and the data collected from the well aim to test the potential of geothermal energy in the region and gather information on the potential for underground CCS in the Appalachian basin.
To store carbon dioxide (CO2) underground, you need a Class VI CO2 injection well. Currently, the federal EPA is the primary regulator (has “primacy”) in regulating Class VI wells in all but two states (neither of which is a Marcellus/Utica state). PA and other oil and gas states are seeking to become the lead regulator for Class VI CO2 wells, which we explained in a post in March (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Impact of obstacles to gas production frustrating; NATIONAL: Former Williams CEO Joseph H. Williams dies at 89; Orbiting methane ‘speed cameras’ are catching polluters in the act; Green inflation and the end of capitalism; INTERNATIONAL: Japan’s JERA sees more LNG going to Asia as domestic demand shrinks.
EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., issued its first quarter 2023 update yesterday. The company reported a profit of $1.2 billion in net income during 1Q23 versus losing $1.5 billion in the same quarter a year ago. That’s nearly a $3 billion swing in one year! The company generated $774 million in free cash flow in 1Q. Production was 459 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent) for the quarter, which works out to be 5.1 Bcfe/d, down 7% from last year’s 1Q, which was 492 Bcfe (or 5.47 Bcfe/d).
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 first quarter 2023 update. The company reports net production averaged 3.3 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), an increase of 3% year-over-year. Of that production, liquids (NGLs) averaged 187 thousand barrels per day (MBbl/d), an increase of 17% from the year-ago period. Natural gas production averaged 2.2 Bcf/d, a decline of 3% from the year-ago period.
The war of words continues. Two days ago, MDN told you that the liberal owner of two hotels in California, Jon Handerly, who happens to own a few thousand shares of CNX Resources stock, wants shareholders to approve his cockamamie proposal to force the company to produce an annual report detailing the company’s “efforts” to comply with the nonsensical “Paris Agreement” to reduce so-called greenhouse gas emissions (see 
You’ve gotta give Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw credit–he sure knows how to get under the skin of the wackadoodle left! Yaw is the Majority Chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee. His committee oversees (among other things) the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is the state agency that oversees energy industries, including shale drilling. Yesterday Yaw tweaked the left by announcing he will soon introduce a bill to remove the word “Protection” from the DEP’s name, and replace it with…
Although the Bidenistas are now in control of the formerly objective U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and try to hide the truth about fossil energy, the truth has a way of coming out. In March, we told you about the latest edition of the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook for 2023 (see 
New shale permits issued for Apr. 17-23 in the Marcellus/Utica picked up five from the prior week. There were 25 new permits issued in total last week, up from 20 in the prior week. Last week’s tally included 21 new permits for Pennsylvania, 2 new permits for Ohio, and 2 new permits in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits was Range Resources with 7 permits issued in Washington County, PA. Greylock Energy was number two with 6 new permits issued in Greene County, PA.
As we have said many times, if we could have anyone else’s brain but our own, it would be Tom Shepstone’s. He is brilliant. Tom wrote a post on his 
Air monitors at Shell’s ethane cracker plant detected elevated levels of benzene (which can cause cancer in humans) following an April 11 malfunction. However, an industrial hygienist told attendees at Tuesday night’s webinar session with local residents that the levels of benzene detected at the cracker’s community-adjacent fenceline during and after the release were too low to cause “even transient discomfort or irritation.” The highest concentrations found outside the fenceline were “in the parts per billion range.”