Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Feb 8, 2023
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Fetterman tries to straddle Democratic energy divide; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: LNG developer NextDecade blasts inaction by U.S. energy regulator; NATIONAL: Can an anti-fracking Republican compete with Trump?; Analysts tear up predictions for higher natural-gas prices; Retirees driving oil demand is an important new trend; INTERNATIONAL: Fitch solutions reveals latest oil price forecast; Why O&G players are on the brink of a super cycle.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Feb 8, 2023”
On Dec. 22, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) published a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that allows the nearly-completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish up construction through 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest straddling West Virginia and Virginia (see 
The Pennsylvania House Republican Policy Committee held a hearing yesterday in Harrisburg on the increasing energy costs that affect large and small businesses as well as homeowners. Several energy advocates, including Marcellus Shale Coalition President Dave Callahan, shared their thoughts and insights. High on the list of issues creating higher energy prices in the Keystone State are (1) the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, an obscene carbon tax), and (2) the ongoing issue of red tape from government bureaucracies like the Dept. of Environmental Protection.
Baker Hughes reported the rig count for last week saw the deepest cuts in rigs for any single week since June 2020 (just as the COVID pandemic and lockdowns were taking hold). The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by 12 to 759 in the week ending Feb. 3. That is the lowest overall rig count number since September of last year. All of which sounds rather ominous. So we grabbed the numbers and updated our own spreadsheet/chart, and found the rig count across the three Marcellus/Utica states–Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia–remained a constant 52 active rigs over the past three months. Whew.
New analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows the world will bring online the least amount of new LNG exports this year than it has in the past ten years. The world will, if the predicted four new projects come online, add another 1 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of LNG export capacity, which is piddly. But that’s not even the worst news. The worst news is that NONE of that new capacity will come from the U.S.
Last week, the oil and gas industry gathered in Houston for the 
Sigh. The Bidenistas are at it again–targeting the fossil fuel industry for extinction. The latest attempt came on January 9th when the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which serves as the White House’s environmental policy arm, issued “interim guidance” to assist federal agencies in analyzing so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) and climate change effects of their proposed actions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). One of the agencies affected by this guidance is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). However, FERC is an independent agency and does not necessarily march to the White House drummer. The question is, how much will the new CEQ guidance affect FERC’s policies as the agency evaluates oil and gas pipelines?
For almost a year, we’ve sounded the alarm about a coming change at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that will force publicly traded companies to disclose mythical greenhouse gas emissions data (see 
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Buffalo, NY, is the parent company for Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources and the parent of midstream company Empire Pipeline. Last week NFG (and Seneca and Empire) issued its latest quarterly update. NFG operates on a weird fiscal year system. This latest update for NFG is its first quarter 2023 update, which would be everybody else’s fourth quarter update. Don’t get confused. So what did the update (and conference call) reveal about Seneca and Empire? Seneca’s M-U natural gas production was 90.6 Bcfe for the quarter (just shy of 1 Bcf/d), an increase of 9.2 Bcfe, or 11%, higher than the prior year, and 3% higher than fiscal 2022 fourth quarter.
The Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) recently released the eighth edition of the organization’s “State of Energy Report” (full copy below). The report gives a detailed analysis of national and state trends in oil and natural gas employment, wages, and other key economic factors for ?the energy industry in 2022. The U.S. oil and gas industry employed 948,943 professionals in 2022, according to the report. That’s down from the all-time high of 1.3 million in 2019 but up 39,721 from 2021. When adding direct and indirect jobs, the oil and gas industry supported more than 19 million (!) jobs last year.
Below is the list of events we are aware of that will be of interest to those with an interest in the Marcellus/Utica shale region for 2023. Some events are in the region (PA, OH, WV). Some are not (TX, OK, CO). Some are virtual/online, but most have now returned to in-person. All of them are of potential interest to the MDN audience.