MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – Apr 10, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Thu., Apr. 6, 2023. The numbers below reflect last Thursday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Apr 10, 2023
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian in $1 bln deal for Driftwood LNG project land, shares surge; NATIONAL: USA pipelines get $196 million in repair grants; INTERNATIONAL: Saudi motives for 2020 shakedown revealed; Putin pushes Russian oil exports to record high.
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MDN Will Not Publish Today – Good Friday 2023
As we have in previous years, MDN will not publish today (Friday) in observance of Good Friday and the Easter holiday. We hope you enjoy this blessed time of year!– Jim Willis, Editor
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EPA Approves Potter County, PA Injection Well, Waiting Now for DEP
An issue that’s been festering for more than two years appears to be coming to a head in western Potter County, PA. In early 2021, Roulette Oil and Gas applied for a Class II Injection Well Permit to drill an injection well in Clara Township. The leftists from Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) immediately began to whisper the siren song of “home rule” into the ears of Clara’s residents (see Clara Twp, PA Considers Illegal Home Rule to Stop Injection Well). Since that time, the federal EPA granted its approval for the project. It’s now over to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to issue a final permit, and the locals are not happy that they haven’t “had a say” to try and convince the DEP to deny the permit.
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PA DEP Finds 2 Repsol Wells in Susquehanna County Venting Methane
During a routine inspection conducted earlier this week by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), an inspector discovered two of 12 Repsol wells on a pad in Susquehanna County were (gasp!) venting methane into the atmosphere. Call the methane police! There’s fugitive methane escaping! The wells were drilled in 2016. Apparently, there has been an ongoing issue with these two wells since 2017, when the DEP determined the wells have defective casing and/or cementing.
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Court Allows LG&E to Build Tiny Pipe Thru Kentucky Arboretum Land
click for larger version In May 2021, MDN told you that Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) had won Kentucky state approval to build a new 12-inch, 12-mile pipeline near Louisville to supply gas to homes and businesses that can’t connect to LG&E’s local natgas utility system because it is currently maxed out (see Pass the Jim Beam! Judge Clears Way for Gas Pipe Near Louisville, KY). The local Bernheim Arboretum has resisted attempts to build across three-tenths of one percent (0.028%) of Arboretum land–along an existing cleared path where electric lines already go. LG&E took the Arboretum to court, and last week the court ruled in favor of LG&E and its right to build the pipe through a small section of Arboretum land.
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2023 CapEx Spending on Shale Drilling Shifts Dramatically to Oil
In 2022, the first full year after emerging from the worldwide COVID pandemic, the U.S. and world economies rocketed. Inflation rocketed too, but that’s a different story. Because of the high price for natural gas and oil last year (in response to Russia illegally invading Ukraine), U.S. shale drillers increased capital expenditure spending by a whopping 54% over what they spent in 2021. What about this year? The analysts at RBN Energy have analyzed the announced spending by 42 shale oil and gas producers (with a market cap of at least $500 million) and find this year, shale drillers will only expand spending by a “modest” 17%. What about spending in the Marcellus/Utica?
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Court Rejects Republican Case re Biden EPA Social Cost of CO2 4X
In his first two days in office, Joe Biden declared war on the oil and gas industry. One of the first things he did was to revive an interagency working group on the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and directed the issuance of an “interim” cost (see What Biden’s First Two Days on the Job Mean for the O&G Industry). The social cost of carbon dioxide emissions is a metric that regulators use to assess the monetary impact of emissions increases. On his very first day in office, Biden restored the so-called climate cost estimate to $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions after the Trump administration had reduced the figure to $7 or less per ton. If the Biden EPA has its way, that $51 per ton metric will seem cheap. The EPA wants to 4X that cost to $190!
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Weak NY Governor Caves to Climate Crazies re Methane Acctg
Gov. Kathy Hochul, cooking in a gas stove Yesterday MDN told you about pressure from the lunatic left being brought on the liberal governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, to keep in place a 2019 climate law requiring the so-called effects of burning methane be calculated as having an impact across a 20-year timeframe rather than the 100-year timeframe used by most other states, including California (see Antis Oppose New York Changing Methane Accounting Timeline). Hochul knows the shorter timeframe is dramatically increasing the cost of energy in the state and driving people out of the state. She wanted to adopt the longer timeframe. Yet, she caved to the uber-radicals–because she’s so weak and ineffective as governor.
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Debunking the Fiction of So-Called “Renewable” Natural Gas
We don’t write much about RNG because, quite frankly, it doesn’t interest us. We’d rather punch holes in the ground to get natural gas than cap a manure pile to collect it. There’s a lot of hullabaloo about RNG these days, some of it coming from shale circles (which we find odd). Here’s the thing: If you believe producing and using RNG is going to address the concerns of anti-fossil fuel nutters, you are deeply mistaken. The wacko left that hates fossil fuels, including natural gas, hates RNG too.
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Ascent Resources | Bradford County | Butler County | Chesapeake Energy | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Fayette County | Harrison County | Jefferson County (OH) | Ohio | PennEnergy Resources | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Susquehanna County | Washington County | Weekly Permits
21 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Mar 27-Apr 2
New shale permits issued for Mar. 27-Apr. 2 in the Marcellus/Utica dropped quite a bit from the prior week. There were 21 new permits issued in total last week, down from 32 in the prior week. Last week’s tally included 15 new permits for Pennsylvania, 6 new permits for Ohio, and no new permits in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits was Ascent Resources with 6 new permits, 5 in Jefferson County, OH, and 1 in Harrison County, OH. Chesapeake Energy took the #2 slot with 5 new permits in Bradford County, PA.
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MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – Apr 6, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Wed., Apr. 5, 2023. The numbers below reflect yesterday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Apr 6, 2023
NATIONAL: USA more than doubles EU LNG delivery target; One shale executive correctly called OPEC+ surprise cut; Where will WTI oil price be at end-2023?; Biden NHTSA nominee bundled funds for climate litigation; US cities receive nearly $200M in grants to upgrade natgas pipelines; Rural America needs permitting reform; Banking crisis adds to shale industry pessimism.
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Diversified Energy | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Statewide WV | West Virginia
Fed Court Rules EQT, Diversified Must Face WV Class Action
Last summer, MDN brought you the news about a lawsuit against Diversified Energy and EQT over the issue of old and “abandoned” wells in West Virginia (see Big Green Uses WV Landowners to Sue EQT, Diversified re Old Wells). In June 2018, MDN exclusively brought our readers the news that Diversified Gas & Oil (now called Diversified Energy) had purchased EQT Corporation’s Huron Shale assets, with a bunch of conventional wells, in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia for $575 million (see Diversified Gas & Oil Adds to Conventional Assets in KY, VA, WV). Several WV landowners, prompted (and supported) by Big Green groups, sued the EQT and Diversified last July, alleging the wells no longer produce and (under law) must be plugged. The new news is that a federal judge in WV ruled yesterday that a proposed class action by the landowners against the companies can proceed.
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U.S. LNG Exports Hit New All-Time High in March Thx to Freeport
Freeport LNG is back online, sucking up 2.1 (or more) billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas, some of it from the Marcellus/Utica, exporting LNG to other countries. Freeport was out of commission following an explosion and fire in June 2022 until several weeks ago (see Freeport LNG Plant Back to Full Capacity Using 2.1 Bcf/d of NatGas). Some new export capacity came online while Freeport was down. Now that Freeport is back, combined with new capacity from LNG exporters, the U.S. exported more LNG in March than it ever has–7.73 million tonnes.
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The Golden Age of U.S. LNG Provides Energy Security for World
Within two years, LNG replaced all of the gas world markets lost coming from Russia. U.S. export revenues from LNG grew exponentially over the last six years. Export volumes and wealth from LNG could potentially lead to an astonishing $100 billion in new LNG developments in the U.S.! LNG will be a strong driver of U.S. natural gas production over the next seven years. The U.S. may double its exports, or more, from now to 2030. We are, writes author and petroleum engineer Ian Palmer, in the midst of a “Golden Age” for LNG. What is a Golden Age? And what does it mean for LNG?
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