Allegheny Twp Leases Under Tredway Trail to Olympus for $2,200/Ac
These days we don’t often see the contract details for new leases signed by landowners to allow shale drilling. We used to see and report on large landowner coalitions and the deals they had struck back in the earlier days of the Marcellus/Utica. But today, about the only time you get any kind of insight into deal amounts comes when municipalities lease land for drilling, given that the business dealings of a municipality must be disclosed publicly. We’re always on the lookout for such deals. Allegheny Township in Westmoreland County (near Pittsburgh) has just approved a shale lease with Olympus Energy to drill under (not on) 27.7 acres of the Tredway Trail. The terms of the deal are…
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Banpu is Thailand’s largest coal mining company. But Banpu is far more than just a coal company. It has multiple subsidiaries in various energy industries scattered around the globe. For example, here in the U.S., Banpu partners with Kalnin Ventures and operates BKV Corporation (Banpu Kalnin Ventures), the American shale drilling arm of Banpu (96% owned by Banpu). Over the past seven years, BKV has become one of the top 20 gas-weighted natural gas producers in the U.S. BKV is now (with recent purchases) the largest natural gas producer in the Barnett Shale. Yesterday, BKV (i.e., Banpu) announced it would soon launch an initial public offering (IPO) and trade its stock on the New York Stock Exchange.
In April of this year, Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester County, NY, and to New York City, called the East 300 Upgrade Project, took a giant leap forward when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued permits that allow TGP to upgrade two existing compressor stations (in PA), and build a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County, NJ), just across the border and not far from Westchester County (see 
The Freeport LNG facility, which has been out of commission since early June, has once again changed the target date it will restart. According to Freeport officials, the export facility will restart incoming gas flows to the plant in mid-December. That is, provided Freeport gains permission from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to do so. In an announcement issued Friday, Freeport said full production of 2 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of incoming gas won’t happen until January 2023, and using both docks for cargo vessels won’t happen until March 2023. Net net: Freeport won’t return to full, 100% service until next spring.
House Republican leaders said last Thursday the party is preparing an energy and environment package that will likely emerge in January as one of the first pieces of major legislation passed by the Republican-controlled chamber. The Republican leaders of the House energy committees said they have an interest in tackling permitting reform (proposed by Joe Manchin) in the next Congress as well. They say it’s doubtful a permitting reform bill can move in the next month before the current Congress adjourns.
NATIONAL: Oil tumbles as demand fears reignite; House Republicans plan to kill Democrat climate crisis committee; Working natgas stocks end refill season near five-year average.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced that CNX Resources has paid two civil penalty assessments totaling $200,000 for violations at two different well sites in Richhill Township, Greene County. According to the civil penalty assessment paperwork, CNX spilled “production fluids” (wastewater, drilling mud, etc.) and didn’t clean it up quickly enough. Tallying all of the spills, CNX inadvertently spilled 2,170 gallons of production fluid at two sites, and ended up removing roughly 3,400 tons of “contaminated” soil.
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) voted to approve the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its Environmental Quality Board’s (EQB) rammed-through (in a rush) regulation to control volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and by extension methane, for conventional drilling sites throughout the state (see 
Equitrans Midstream (formerly EQT Midstream) owns the Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County, in Pennsylvania. Beginning Nov. 6th, one of the wells at the Rager Mountain area (a depleted conventional well drilled in 1965) began leaking methane around the well casing (see 
Earlier this week, Shell announced its mighty ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA (near Pittsburgh) is finally, ten years after first announcing, fully operational and producing plastic pellets (see 
In March of this year, the three Democrats who occupy and control the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sent a loud and clear signal they don’t like the Commonwealth LNG plan to erect a new LNG export plant in Cameron Parish, La. due to concerns over so-called environmental justice (see 
Permits issued to drill new Marcellus/Utica wells slipped last week, for the week of Nov. 7-13. Last week saw a total of 26 new permits issued, falling from 43 permits the week before. Pennsylvania received the most permits, just barely, with 13 new permits. Ohio received 12 new permits, and West Virginia a single new permit.
Two separate but related cases concerning Pennsylvania’s entrance into the interstate carbon cap-and-trade program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which we call a carbon tax, had their day in court yesterday. Judges from PA’s typically conservative Commonwealth Court heard oral arguments and, according to leftists, zeroed in on the issue of whether the so-called RGGI “fee” assessed by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is really a fee, or instead is really a tax. It makes a difference. The DEP can, constitutionally, assess a fee, but it cannot unilaterally slap a new tax on coal- and natural gas-fired power plants (as it is trying to do).