New Research Finds PA Lease Deals Not Tied to Well Productivity
Purely by happenstance, we stumbled across an interesting “working paper” published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper (we’d call it a study) is titled “Negotiations of Oil and Gas Auxiliary Lease Clauses: Evidence from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale” (full copy below), first published in December but subsequently updated in January. Researchers scanned and (using software) analyzed nearly 60,000 leases signed in the Marcellus Shale Play of Pennsylvania. They learned some interesting things about PA leases. One of the main conclusions (eye-opening for us) is that getting more money for your lease is not necessarily tied to whether or not nearby wells are good producers. At best, better lease terms have a “weak relationship” to the performance of other wells in a given geography. What is the secret to getting more favorable lease terms?
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The Marcellus/Utica region is becoming a booming real estate market and manufacturing destination in the U.S., with manufacturing investment currently estimated at over $100 billion, according to Bryce Custer from NAI Spring Commercial Realty. What’s drawing manufacturers to the M-U region? Geopolitical instability, supply chain disruption, the reshoring trend, and abundant raw materials, including cheap (and clean) M-U natural gas.
Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc., long known for providing stone quarries and asphalt plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, also provides civil construction services for shale well sites. In August 2021, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced a plea deal with Hawbaker to pay back $20 million in alleged “stolen wages” from over 1,000 Hawbaker employees (see 
Here’s a question: What are the 15 biggest (by company revenue) natural gas-owning pipeline companies in the world? The U.S. has the biggest natural gas pipeline infrastructure in the world, covering a distance of 333,000 kilometers (206,917 miles). Even so, only one U.S.-based company is in the top 5 biggest pipeline companies. Can you guess which country takes the top 2 spots on the list?
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New program helps finance natural gas pipelines into Chicago suburb; NATIONAL: Wind turbines taller than the Statue of Liberty are falling over; Exports are now the driving force in U.S. crude, gasoline and distillate markets; INTERNATIONAL: Envoy says USA to boost pressure on China to stop importing Iran oil; How will Russia’s oil and gas industry fare in 2023?; Germany still years away from replacing Russian gas capacity; The single oil spill that can disrupt the global energy supply.
It hasn’t been a problem-free startup for the mighty Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, now called the Shell Polymers Monaca facility. We’ve noted some of the more prominent issues as we’ve spotted them in the news. Things like the plant exceeding allowed air emissions (see 
Last Thursday, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court dismissed the Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) claim that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an obscene carbon tax on gas-fired power plants being forced on PA businesses (and electricity consumers) by former Gov. Tom Wolf and his henchman DEP Secretary Pat McDonnell, was unlawfully delayed by the PA Senate. It is a good news/bad news decision.
On January 18, every single Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate signed (and sent) a joint letter to newly-minted Gov. Josh Shapiro urging him to take steps “immediately” to undo PA’s entrance into the insane Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax, a plan forced on the state by Shapiro’s wacky predecessor Tom Wolf. During the campaign, Shapiro prevaricated on whether or not he would pull PA’s plan to enter RGGI.
In what has become something of a parlor game, we have yet another prediction about when the 2 Bcf/d Freeport LNG export terminal, located in Quintana Island, Texas, will return to service. Freeport has been offline since June 2022, when the plant experienced an explosion and subsequent fire (see 
Do you remember studying Prohibition in grade school? In the United States, from 1920 to 1933, a nationwide constitutional law prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. A bunch of ninny nannies thought they knew better than everyone else whether or not anyone should consume adult beverages. The ninny nannies eventually got enough politicians to vote in favor of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. The 21st Amendment, passed some 13 years later, repealed the 18th Amendment. A modern-day version of the same thing is now happening, with cities (and some states, like New York) attempting to ban natural gas stoves, based on false claims that gas stoves are a health hazard. Just like alcohol was a health hazard 100 years ago?
Zooming out for a broader view of issues around the world that affect the natural gas market here in the U.S. is helpful from time to time. What’s happening in Europe right now, and how will that affect our gas market in 2023? How about China? Is supply/demand in balance, and how does that affect the Henry Hub price? And what about LNG? Rigzone looks at six things the natural gas market can expect in 2023. Their insights give us an interesting view of what the year may hold for natgas.
New shale permits issued for Jan. 9-15 in the Marcellus/Utica included 18 new permits in Pennsylvania, 5 new permits in Ohio, and 2 new permits in West Virginia. The top recipient of permits for last week was PennEnergy Resources, grabbing 6 permits to drill on a single pad in Butler County, PA. Right behind PennEnergy was Southwestern Energy with 5 permits total spread across all three states–3 in PA, and 1 each in OH and WV.