Chesapeake Energy Sells 2nd Tranche of Eagle Ford Assets for $1.4B
Chesapeake Energy has cut a deal to sell a second portion of its remaining Eagle Ford assets to U.K. chemical company INEOS Energy for $1.4 billion. The deal includes 172,000 net acres and approximately 2,300 wells. It is the first time INEOS will own U.S. shale assets. In 2018 Chesapeake, under the direction of then-CEO Doug Lawler, purchased 420,000 net acres in the Eagle Ford shale and Austin Chalk formations in Texas from WildHorse Resource Development Corp for $4 billion (see Chesapeake Now Gone from Ohio Utica; Spends $4B in Eagle Ford). The company grew its Eagle Ford assets with more purchases and currently owns 610,000 acres.
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Last week 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 fourth quarter and full-year 2022 update. Antero management says the company can better handle low commodity prices for natural gas than other M-U drillers because (a) it sells 100% of its production outside of the M-U region, and (b) nearly half of the company’s revenues come from liquids, not methane.
Spanish-owed Repsol owns 214,000 net acres of leases in the Marcellus Shale, primarily located in northeastern Pennsylvania in Bradford, Susquehanna, and Tioga counties. Early last year (in January 2022), Repsol closed on a deal to buy Rockdale Marcellus out of bankruptcy for $222 million (see 
Equitrans Midstream, an important midstream (pipeline) company in the Marcellus/Utica, issued its fourth quarter and 2022 update yesterday. Equitrans is the builder and soon-to-be (hopefully!) operator of the 94% complete, 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. There were some important updates on the MVP project yesterday. Along with MVP, Equitrans owns and operates the Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County, PA, which suffered a massive leak last year. Officials provided some updates on that situation as well.
UGI, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations and one of PA’s largest utility companies, is planning to build a second LNG peak shaver. The peak shaver will be located in Middlesex Township in Cumberland County, PA. In November 2020, UGI launched the operation of a new 2 million gallon LNG peak shaver in Bethlehem, PA (see 
Why would a major pipeline company (or driller) decide to cede control of the future of its company to a group of international leftists hellbent on destroying fossil energy? The answer eludes us, but it has just happened again. Yesterday, pipeline giant Williams, which owns and operates (among other major assets) the Transco Pipeline system, announced it had joined the UN’s Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0). Support for OGMP 2.0 is growing in the natgas marketplace in the U.S. We previously told you that Cheniere Energy’s LNG export plants are seeking certification under OGMP 2.0 (see 
NATIONAL: What nobody is telling you about hydrogen combustion engines; Oilfield service results, projections reflect E&P spending patterns.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a Notice of Violation (NOV) early last week to the Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, now called the Shell Polymers Monaca facility, for the third time since it officially began operation last November. In a letter dated Feb. 13 (copy below), the DEP stated the facility violated rolling 12-month emission standards in both November and December. Shell faces fines of $25,000 per day for each day the facility exceeds emissions limits. In light of this most recent NOV, two anti-fossil energy groups have asked the DEP to immediately shut down the facility to stop extra air pollution in the region.
A little over a month ago, MDN brought you the good news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved 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 
West Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 188 is aimed at making WV more competitive with its neighbors–Pennsylvania and Ohio–with respect to siting more gas-fired power plants in the state. We reported last week that the bill seemed to be on a fast track to a final vote in the House, after the Senate approved it by a wide margin (see 
Just over one year ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) voted to keep the Weymouth compressor, the final piece of the $452 million Atlantic Bridge expansion project that was years in the making, up and running (see 
Pennsylvania State Rep. Martin Causer, Republican from Bradford (McKean County), PA, is introducing a new bill to prohibit PA municipalities from banning the installation and use of natural gas stoves and furnaces. “Pennsylvanians deserve better than to have their freedom restricted by an overly involved government that thinks it knows better than they do,” Causer wrote in a memorandum to his fellow House members, asking them to join him in co-sponsoring the bill. In our opinion, every single Republican member of the PA House should be listed as a co-sponsor of Causer’s “energy freedom” bill.
The difference between the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) and the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is stark. The former is well-run and rational, the latter is disorganized and irrational. At least with respect to fracking. Over the weekend, the SRBC published a notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin to announce that during the month of January, the agency approved 38 requests for daily water use on shale well pads in the SRBC’s jurisdictional territory in Pennsylvania, totaling some 233.5 million gallons. Put another way, this is a handy list of where drilling will soon happen in northeastern PA.
The Barack Hussein Obama administration went crazy with over-regulation in many areas. One of them was to redefine “waters of the United States” (or WOTUS) as everything down to, no exaggeration, mud puddles. When Donald Trump took office, he set about to correct some of the insane abuses of the Obama era, including WOTUS. He finally got it fixed. However, the Bidenistas took up the cause once again. Radicals at the EPA announced a new rule in January aimed at re-regulating all waters, putting power over just about everything (including oil and gas drilling) into the federal government’s hands via WOTUS (see 