16 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jul 18-24
For the week of July 18-24, the three Marcellus/Utica states issued just 16 permits to drill new shale wells, down from 43 the prior week. Pennsylvania and West Virginia both issued eight new permits each. Ohio issued a big, fat, goose egg. PA issued three permits each to Greylock Energy (Green County) and Pennsylvania General Energy (Tioga County), and one each to EQT and Seneca Resources. WV issued four permits each to Jay-Bee Oil & Gas (Tyler County) and Tug Hill Operating (Wetzel County).
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OTHER U.S. REGIONS: D.C.’s “voluntary” phase out of natural gas is coercive and costly; NATIONAL: Limited frack supply could hamper U.S. crude oil output; U.S. LNG exports go up to 18 LNG carriers; US working natural gas in underground storage increases by 15 Bcf; INTERNATIONAL: New EU taxonomy makes new gas projects unrealistic; German cities limit heating, turn off spotlights to save natural gas.
Diversified Energy is growing again. In February, Diversified bought out and merged in well-plugging company Next LVL Energy, headquartered in the Pittsburgh area (see
We have to say we had hoped West Virginia U.S. Senator Joe Manchin would continue to hold his resolve and put the country first in denying the Democrats their dream of handing out yet more billions and trillions of dollars (to buy votes) via the so-called Build Back Better bill. But in the end, Manchin proved he’s just another Democrat that puts his party above the country. Yesterday the New York Times (warning, the Times IS a known fake news source) blared the headline that Manchin has caved and will now vote in favor of the BBB bill, dooming the country to hyperinflation for the next 2-5 years. Thanks Joe.
Here’s a story that slipped by us last week. Small amounts of natural gas–roughly 22 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day)–are once again flowing into the closed Freeport LNG export facility. Freeport is the second-largest LNG export terminal in the U.S., located near Galveston, Texas. The facility experienced an explosion and fire in early June, knocking 2 Bcf/d offline (see
Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus Shale well back in 2004, issued its annual 2021-2022 Corporate Sustainability Report yesterday. “Sustainability” is Range’s terminology for ESG, or environmental, social, and governance. A couple of notable observations in this latest report: (1) Range has doubled its methane monitoring inspection system using LDAR from four times a year to eight times a year; and (2) Range has the lowest methane intensity, or percentage of methane emissions, in the entire Appalachian basin–according to a third party evaluator.
Oil and gas giant BP recently released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy–the 71st edition (full copy below). Among the interesting findings in BP’s analysis of global energy last year: Fossil fuels–coal, natural gas and oil–accounted for 82% of primary energy use worldwide last year, down from 83% in 2019 and 85% five years ago. The report doesn’t disclose what percentage of world energy use comes from so-called renewables, wind and solar. We suspect it remains at around 3-4% as in years past. Meaning the legacy media narrative of renewables saving the world is once again exposed as horse manure.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to force PA’s coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to begin paying an obscenely high tax on carbon dioxide emissions as part of the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) got blocked on July 1 by PA Commonwealth Court (see
Range Resources delivered its second quarter 2022 update yesterday. The company made an amazing $453 million in profit during 2Q. On a conference call with analysts, CEO Jeff Ventura wasted no time in delivering a shot across the bow of the Bidenistas, saying, “Energy policy will need to be rooted in market realities. If infrastructure projects, namely pipelines and LNG terminals are not prioritized and given a reasonable regulatory review, then I believe it’s simply impossible to meet the growing global demand for reliable, safe and affordable fuels.” Ba-boom! On the wonkish side, Range’s top driller, Dennis Degner, discussed the company’s strategy of drilling new wells on existing pads. Sometimes Range returns to the same pad three times. A three-peat!
In April, CNX Resources announced it had signed a contract extension with Evolution Well Services to use Evolution’s 100% natural gas-fueled electric pressure pumping equipment for another four years (see
In October 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally, after months of dithering, approved TC Energy to begin construction on its Louisiana XPress project to beef up flows along the existing Columbia pipeline system by an additional 850 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) by adding three new compressor stations and expanding a fourth compressor in Louisiana (see
Some politicians make us ill. One of them is John Fetterman, currently Pennsylvania’s undistinguished Lt. Governor and the Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate to take over the seat being vacated by Pat Toomey. Fetterman is a radial socialist who, in 2016, signed a pledge to ban all fracking nationwide, including his home state of PA. Now that he’s running for the Senate, Fetterman has changed his tune and thinks that at least some fracking is OK. He is a liar.