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11 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Oct 17-23
Another weak and pathetic number of new shale drilling permits were issued for the week of Oct. 17-23 in the Marcellus/Utica. Pennsylvania had only 10 new permits, with six of them going to Range Resources in Beaver County. Ohio had just one new permit, for Southwestern Energy in Monroe County. And West Virginia had a big, fat, goose egg. No new permits. Bummer.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: CNX Natural Gas funds 3 local volunteer fire departments; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Permian oil drilling nowhere near being exhausted; QatarEnergy, ExxonMobil to independently market Golden Pass LNG; NATIONAL: White House eyes expanding northeast diesel reserve; Asset-backed bonds lure shale sector away from bank loans; Biden demands oil companies help bring relief at the pump; INTERNATIONAL: Norway now comfortably Europe’s top gas supplier; Saudi Aramco creates $1.5B energy transition fund.
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject another water permit granted by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection to cross streams and rivers and swamps to finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals against the project. All three are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects.
Two days ago, we told you that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Republicans from the state legislature are reportedly working hard on a “massive development package” of tax credits that would, among other things, encourage MORE natural gas development in the Keystone State (see 
Cheniere Energy, the largest LNG exporter in the U.S., recently made a major error in judgment and a misstep that threatens the company, in our humble opinion. Cheniere, via its Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi LNG facilities, exports more than 50% of all U.S. LNG exports, and more than 10% of all LNG exports worldwide. In fact, only the country of Qatar (Qatar Petroleum) exports more LNG than does Cheniere Energy. Last week Cheniere announced it has voluntarily joined the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0, a United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) oil and gas methane emissions reporting and mitigation initiative. This is bad news.
Natural gas prices in North America hit record highs in 2022. In fact, prices quadrupled from what they were before the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Winter is the time of year when we use the most natural gas–both for heating and to power electric generation. The question arises, what will prices do this winter with an increase in demand? A McKinsey & Company analyst answers that question. He says three key factors could *decrease* natural gas prices in North America in the short term (i.e., this winter). What are those three factors?
This is a sad and very angering tale. During the Trump administration, we were close to granting waivers for the Jones Act and its archaic restrictions on transporting LNG via ships that are not U.S.-built and crewed (see 
Sometimes natural gas pipelines leak. Hey, it happens. Not often, but it happens often enough that pipeline companies must prepare risk assessments of the potential hazards posed by a pipeline leak. They now have a new tool to make those assessments. According to a new study published by researchers at Southern Methodist University, soil moisture content is the main factor that controls how far and at what concentration natural gas spreads from a leaked pipeline underground.
It seems the Bidenistas have tried every bad energy policy idea in the book to lower the cost of energy. They’ve looked at price caps, export bans, tapping the strategic petroleum reserve, and begging OPEC. None of it has worked. At the risk of helping the Bidenistas (whom we want tossed from office), there is an easy fix to the current energy crisis: Support the domestic oil and gas industry. Showing support for our oil and gas industry will build investor confidence and calm markets. But don’t hold your breath that Biden will actually reverse course and begin to support oil and gas.
Two days ago, Range Resources issued its third quarter 2022 update, and yesterday the company held a conference call for upper management to brief analysts. By all accounts, Range had a great 3Q. Range produced an average of 2.13 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), with approximately 70% of it as natural gas and the rest in NGLs. Range only spent $138 million to drill, but cash flow from operations was a staggering $550 million–the highest in company history. The company drilled 7 wells and completed 22 wells during 3Q. Range brought 12 wells online to sales in the southwestern part of PA, and it brought 6 wells online to sales in northeastern PA.
A court case decided in late April in Pennsylvania Superior Court appears (to us) to have significant ramifications for landowners and drillers with respect to deducting post-production expenses. The case is Dressler Family, LP v. PennEnergy Resources, LLC (copy of the decision below), and it addresses “market enhancement” royalty clauses found in many PA leases. Market enhancement clauses typically prohibit the deduction of post-production costs that are incurred when transforming gas into a marketable form. Some drillers ignore such clauses and deduct all “post-production costs” from the landowner’s royalty based on the drillers’ incorrect assumption that gas is “marketable” at the wellhead. This case and decision helped clear up definitions of what is and is not marketable gas.
Halliburton, the world’s second-largest oilfield services (OFS) company and the world’s largest vendor of fracking services, issued its third quarter update yesterday. Halliburton reported adjusted net income per diluted share of $0.60/share, more than double from the same period last year. Halliburton boosted sales by more than one-third to $5.4 billion, led by North America. Unlike the world’s largest OFS company, SLB (formerly Schlumberger), Halliburton has sold off its Russian operations and no longer does work in that country. SLB continues to work in Russia.
Although we didn’t watch all of last night’s debate between Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz, we’ve read plenty of accounts and have watched some of the clips. Fetterman, by all accounts, was a disaster. We read numerous accounts by both Republicans and Democrats that watching Fetterman self-destruct was “painful.” In particular, Fetterman stumbled and bumbled when rigorously questioned about his flip-flop on the fracking issue. We watched it (segment embedded below), and indeed, it is painful to watch.
For at least five years, MDN has reported that the primary source of imported LNG for Boston, Trinidad & Tobago, has seen falling output of natural gas (see