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27 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Aug 14 – 20
New shale permits issued for Aug 14 – 20 in the Marcellus/Utica finally turned around. There were 27 new permits issued last week, way up from the 10 issued the prior week. Last week’s permit tally included 21 new permits in Pennsylvania, 2 new permits in Ohio, and 4 new permits in West Virginia (after no permits in WV for three weeks in a row). The top permittee for the week, for the second week in a row, was Chesapeake Energy, receiving 6 permits–5 in Bradford County and 1 in Susquehanna County.
Read More “27 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Aug 14 – 20”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Drought watch remains for 20 Pa. counties, lifted for 47 counties; Reformers say make Pa. state permits more like pizzas; Pennsylvania farmers benefit from strong natural gas industry; NATIONAL: GOP candidates embrace domestic energy production in first debate; Carbon capture faces several challenges to wider commercialization; INTERNATIONAL: IMF says fossil fuel subsidies hit record high in 2022; Citi says OPEC may need to cut again.
An Act of Congress (the Fiscal Responsibility Act) cleared away the remaining obstacles to completing the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (see 
Two Marshall County, WV landowners with the same last name (obviously related) sued Southwestern Energy (SWN), accusing the company of “well bashing,” in March of this year (see 
Two weeks ago MDN told you that eight “blue” states, including New Jersey (the Blue State Mafia), are challenging the Williams Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project, a plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland (see 
In early 2021, MDN told you about a so-called “research report” issued by a front organization for the Heinz Endowments called the Ohio River Valley Institute (see 
The stench coming from inside the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is growing. Since early this year, Kevin Mooney, an investigative reporter with the PA-based Commonwealth Foundation and D.C.-based Heritage Foundation, has been digging into potential ethics (and legal) violations by FERC commissioners. His work has focused on FERC Commissioner Allison Clements, a former attorney for the radical National Resources Defense Council (see 
Hydrogen energy continues to interest those of us in the Marcellus/Utica (and elsewhere). Why? Billions of dollars are being thrown at companies as an incentive to make hydrogen energy the next BIG THING that can potentially replace evil, vile fossil energy. Thing is, 95% of all hydrogen comes from cracking methane (natural gas), a fact that drives the left crazy, and the reason why we love it (a huge new customer for M-U gas). Widespread use of hydrogen energy will only happen by mixing hydrogen with natural gas in existing pipelines. Except that’s a problem. Existing equipment can’t flow hydrogen–at least not over a 10% or so mix of hydrogen. But, maybe it can! A researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory says math can solve the problem. Math to the rescue!
Nearly one year after EQT announced a deal to buy privately-owned Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets for roughly $5.2 billion (see 
Using data from several government agencies, the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, Inc. (GO-WV) published its annual Gas Facts report last week. According to the report (copy below), West Virginia natural gas production increased 6% to 2.8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 2022. WV has moved up from fifth to now fourth largest natural gas producer in the country, providing 10% of the entire country’s natural gas supply! Combined severance tax revenue from natural gas, oil, and natural gas liquids contributed 70% (nearly $714 million) of the over $1 billion allocated to the State General Revenue Fund for fiscal year-end June 30, 2023. The O&G sector in WV employs more than 17,000 direct jobs in the state, with an average salary of $93,739. According to a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, indirect jobs in WV related to the O&G industry number over 73,000 and contribute nearly $13 billion to the state’s economy.
Let’s face it: Josh Shapiro has been a major disappointment as Governor of Pennsylvania. He promised the moon to voters–that he would be both pro-gas and anti-gas at the same time. Some believed him, but we didn’t. Each week, new information comes along that reveals Shapiro’s true nature as a radical leftist Democrat. Shapiro said during the campaign he didn’t like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax that forces coal- and gas-fired power plants to close (see 
This is deeply disturbing and angering. The State of New Jersey passed a law in 2020 (signed into law by Phil Murphy) that requires forced teaching (i.e., brainwashing) of so-called climate change (man-made catastrophic global warming and fossil fuels are evil) to the state’s children in grades kindergarten through 12th. We have descended into full Communism. The brainwashing even happens in (of all places) ceramics class! How do you work the fairy tale of global warming into ceramics? By sculpting a crayfish on a clay tile, a species supposedly endangered by global warming. No wonder the students in other countries routinely do better than our students. This is true insanity.
The casual reader of energy-related stories can’t miss the meme spread by “mainstream” media day in and day out. That meme is that renewable energy (wind and solar) is taking over. The world is on the cusp of electrifying everything. Nasty and polluting oil and gas are yesterday. O&G’s day is over and any company that continues to invest in O&G is heading for insolvency. Except it’s all a lie. A new study by powerhouse consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY) finds “US hydrocarbons to be a viable core asset amid the energy transition.” Translation: Oil and gas aren’t going anywhere.