ET Makes Significant Progress Cleaning Up Marsh Creek Lake
While drilling in Chester County in August 2020 in the Marsh Creek State Park area, Energy Transfer’s (ET) Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). In this case, an estimated 8,100 gallons of non-toxic drilling mud came up in a small section of the 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake. It was a costly episode for ET. In December, the state announced a gun-to-the-head “agreement” with ET that forced ET to pay a $4 million fine and spend another $4 million (or more) to dredge and fix the area, with an extra $341,000 in civil penalties for permit violations as the cherry on top (see PA Charges Mariner East Pipeline $8M+ to Fix Marsh Creek Lake). ET is making excellent progress on cleaning up Marsh Creek Lake.
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The radicalized environmental left has opened up a new front in its disgusting (and insane) war against fossil energy. Three hard-left groups–U.S. PIRG Education Fund, Environment America Research & Policy Center, and ClientEarth–announced yesterday they have filed a lawsuit (i.e. fundraiser) against natural gas utility company Washington Gas in the District of Columbia Superior Court. The faux claims in the lawsuit say Washington Gas “misled” customers about the environmental impacts of using natural gas. This is a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in the United States, claiming a gas utility has violated consumer protection laws (i.e. “greenwashing”).
Enverus, a leading global energy data analytics and SaaS technology company, earlier this week released Macro Forecaster, a new report that assesses the continued impact of COVID-19, the Ukraine war, and the weakening global economy on near-term oil and gas balances. Enverus predicts the price of oil will be somewhere in the range of $80s or $90s per barrel by the end of this year. The company also predicts natural gas will slump to about $4.50/MMBtu by next summer.
We have spit and sputtered daily since Traitor Joe Manchin announced his treachery last week–that he will sacrifice the entire country and its economic future in return for finishing one pipeline (see 
For the week of July 25-31, the three Marcellus/Utica states issued 24 permits to drill new shale wells, up from 16 the prior week. However, in a major turnaround, Pennsylvania only issued two new permits, one to Chesapeake Energy and the other to Olympus Energy. Ohio had the lion’s share of new permits, issuing 14. Eight of Ohio’s permits went to Encino Energy, and four to Utica Resources Operating. West Virginia issued eight new permits, with seven of them going to Antero Resources.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Pennsylvania and LNG to Germany; NATIONAL: Oil falls to pre war level as demand eases; US weekly LNG exports up by four LNG tankers; Is Manchin about to get rolled by the Democrats?; Methane fee likely to survive ‘Byrd bath,’ lawmakers say.
Chesapeake Energy issued its 2Q22 update on Tuesday and held a conference call with analysts yesterday. The big news is that Chesapeake has come full circle, back to its natural gas roots. Chessy CEO Nick Dell’Osso said the company will focus more on drilling for natural gas in both the Marcellus and Haynesville shale plays, and less on drilling in the company’s oil-focused Eagle Ford play. In fact, Chesapeake now views the Eagle Ford as “non-core” and will (soon) stop investing in drilling new wells there. Our take is that you can look for a sale of the EF assets soon.
Coterra Energy, formed last October when Cabot Oil & Gas merged with Cimarex Energy, issued its second quarter update yesterday. The company made $1.2 billion in profit last quarter, versus making just $30 million a year ago. Natural gas production in the Marcellus stayed pretty much even at 2.22 Bcf/d. The company generated over $1 billion in free cash flowing during 2Q–one of the highest, if not the highest, we’ve seen. Coterra uses its free cash flow to issue dividends, buy back shares, and retire debt sooner.
Here’s some of the best news we’ve heard in a month! Freeport LNG, offline due to an explosion and fire in June, issued an announcement yesterday to say it has signed a deal with the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that will allow the export facility to restart in October–at or near full strength of exporting 2 Bcf/d of natural gas.
In July 2018, a group of 100+ southwestern Pennsylvania landowners sued EQT for failure to pay them rental fees for storing natural gas under their properties (see 
Two days ago, MDN mused over the issue of whether or not there will EVER be fracking in New York State (see 
According to Wikipedia, Elizabeth, PA is a borough in Allegheny County, on the east bank of the Monongahela River, where Pennsylvania Route 51 crosses, 15 miles upstream (south) of Pittsburgh and close to the county line. The population was 1,493 at the 2010 census. Very rural. Olympus Energy wants to drill a well in the township. The pad would sit about 1,700 feet (one-third of a mile) away from Elizabeth Forward High School. Some of the parents of students, and some of the administration, are pushing back against Olympus’ drilling plan, using the kiddies as an excuse.
What makes an oil and gas company (specifically a driller) a “bad actor”? Anti-fossil fuel zealots believe they’ve found a clever way of smearing Marcellus drillers and painting them as “bad actors” by citing how many notices of violation (NOVs) the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued to a driller. The problem is, those notices are highly inconsistent and many times are for relatively minor (quickly fixable) “infractions” against regulations. Citing a high number of NOVs sounds impressive and scares people, which is the important thing for antis.
As we previously stated and continue to state: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s sellout of the entire country (and the entire fossil energy industry) in return for a vote on separate legislation that supposedly will ensure Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) gets completed (no guarantee a vote will be taken), is not worth the price. Unsurprisingly, Equitrans Midstream, the company building MVP, is delighted to learn of Manchin’s plan to sacrifice the country in return for completing its pipeline. Extremely short-sighted.
New Jersey Resources’ Adelphia Gateway project converts an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, into a natural gas pipeline. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued final approval for the project in December 2019 (see