Below is the list of events we are aware of that will be of interest to those with an interest in the Marcellus/Utica shale region for 2022. Some events are in the region (PA, OH, WV). Some are not (TX, OK, CO). Some are virtual/online, but most have returned to in-person. All of them are of potential interest to the MDN audience.
Read More “Calendar of Events 2022 – Marcellus/Utica & Beyond”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Long-term solutions: Keller calls for improved energy policies; NATIONAL: Biden’s radical, anti-fossil fuel energy policy costs Americans dearly; Democrats created the refinery bottleneck; Five real solutions to Joe Biden’s failures on energy; Why Biden keeps lying about energy; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises amid G7 talks on capping Russian crude.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Jun 28, 2022”
The clowns who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) have rejected a request by Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to appoint a new panel of three judges to hear cases involving the 94% completed pipeline (see MVP Asks 4th Circus to Appoint New 3-Judge Panel to Hear Appeals). 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. We’re talking about Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; Judge James Wynn, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama; and Chief Judge Roger Gregory, appointed by William Jefferson Clinton. These three leftwing judges find the smallest, nitpicky things to use as an excuse to block completion of the 94% completed, 303-mile MVP project.
Read More “4th Circus Rejects MVP Request to Appoint New 3-Judge Panel”
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a final regulation over the weekend–at the specific direction of the PA legislature–that allows shale drillers to operate temporary waste process facilities at shale pads and other locations. The regs, called Residual Waste General Permit WMGR163, are aimed at allowing Marcellus (and Utica) drillers to clean up and use brine and wastewater coming from the ground so it can be reused for fracking. The new provision cuts down on the need for freshwater in fracking. Predictably, anti-fossil fuelers are not happy.
Read More “PA Enviro Left Fails to Block On-Site Water Recycling for Fracking”
According to James West, a senior managing director at Evercore ISI (investment bank), an era of heavy investment in “all of the above” energy from fossil fuels to renewables to carbon mitigation technologies is now unfolding. The world is short on hydrocarbons and electrons, and energy/power companies are responding. We are, says West, on the cusp of a new era of investing in oil, natural gas, and renewables. This new era of energy investment will be “on a scale never witnessed before.” We like the sound of that!
Read More “Massive Investment Coming to O&G on Scale “Never Witnessed Before””
Coretrax describes itself as a global well integrity and production optimization expert. Last week the company announced it had completed a world record-breaking project in the Utica Basin. Coretrax successfully deployed its ReLineMNS system across three wells and expanded a total of more than 27,000 feet of tubulars (pipelines) across the campaign. With one of the expandable liners reaching 9,000 feet in its expansion, all installations smashed the previously held record of 7,243 feet by at least 1,000 feet.
Read More “Coretrax Completes World Record Project at 3 Wells in Utica Shale”
Last Thursday U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm (not the brightest bulb in the pack) led an in-person meeting with CEOs and executives of seven major U.S. oil companies at the U.S. Dept. of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C. Granholm kicked off the meeting by spouting the same lie the rest of the Biden administration repeats ad naseum: Putin is to blame for high gasoline prices. That is a complete fabrication. While Putin’s actions have led to something of an increase in worldwide oil and gasoline prices, the main reason for high prices here at home is Granholm and other Bidenistas who have trashed talked fossil energy from DAY ONE. They are the ones to blame and at fault.
Read More “Energy Sec Granholm Outright Lies in Meeting with Big Oil Cos.”
Each quarter the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas conducts an energy survey of exploration and production (E&P) and oilfield services (OFS) firms across the Federal Reserve’s three-state Eleventh District, including Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana. The latest survey, for 2Q22, included 85 E&P firms and 52 OFS companies. Respondents said they expect a Henry Hub natural gas price of $7.55/MMBtu and a West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price of $108/bbl by the end of 2022. The wisdom of this particular crowd is probably about as reliable a prediction as you can get with respect to O&G prices.
Read More “Dallas Fed 2Q Energy Survey Predicts HH $7.55, WTI $108 by 12/31”
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (Democrat), who is running for governor this year, has targeted the Marcellus industry and the companies that operate in it since he took office as AG. Shapiro routinely charges Marcellus companies with crimes for episodes that were accidents–resolved years ago by the state Dept. of Environmental Protection. Shapiro refuses to disclose that he intends to forcibly keep PA in the Marcellus-killing Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. On just about every issue affecting the M-U, Shapiro is on the wrong side of that issue. However, there is another choice for governor in PA–someone who is pro-shale.
Read More “Only One Choice for PA Governor This November – IF You Support M-U”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Chevron long-term deal to buy 2 MTPA of LNG from Cheniere; NATIONAL: ‘Re-fracs’ rise as cheap way to lift U.S. oil output; Carbon removal and usage gains traction as energy transition lags; INTERNATIONAL: Germany fears Russia could permanently close main gas pipeline; Why Chinese imports of U.S. LNG collapsed.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Jun 27, 2022”
Strap in–the roller coaster ride continues. Yesterday the NYMEX Henry Hub front-month (July) futures contract for natural gas plunged 10%, by $0.62, following news that more gas was stored (“injected”) than previously anticipated by analysts and traders. Storage inventories rose to 2.169 Tcf (trillion cubic feet) for the week ended June 17 following a 74 Bcf (billion cubic feet) injection. Most people thought the injection would be no more than 60 Bcf. No doubt the ongoing outage at Freeport LNG pushing an extra 2 Bcf/d on the domestic market had something to do with the extra storage build. Models predict cooler weather is coming in the next few weeks. Throw it all into the pot–higher storage, Freeport offline, and cooler weather–and traders got spooked.
Read More “NYMEX NatGas Price Down 10% After High Storage Number Released”
The Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) is a special court set up in PA to hear appeals of decisions made by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). In February 2021, a landowner (three people living at the same address) in Susquehanna County, PA, filed a lawsuit with the EHB against the DEP and Coterra Energy (formerly known as Cabot Oil & Gas) alleging Coterra’s drilling program nearby had led to polluting their water well. As of last week, the case was dismissed and the Pittsburgh attorney for the landowner (for the first time ever) was sanctioned by the EHB.
Read More “PA EHB Sanctions Landowner Attorney in Coterra Water Well Case”
When drilling for natural gas, other substances come out of the borehole along with methane (CH4). Some wells produce NGLs (natural gas liquids) which are gases with other molecular structures, like ethane (C2H6), butane (C4H10), and propane (C3H8). Sometimes crude oil, condensate, and natural gasoline come out–all of which are liquids. Water from the depths (called brine) also comes out of the hole. When the pressure of natgas coming from the hole is high, as it is in the beginning when a well is first drilled, liquids come out of the hole along with the gas with little or no issue. However, as pressure decreases, the liquids can fall back down the well and begin to accumulate–a condition called liquid loading. Plunger lift is a technology used to solve the issue of liquid loading.
Read More “CNX Increases Production, Reduces GHG Using Cloud-Based Plunger Lift”
PennEnergy Resources recently reapplied (for a second time) for a permit to draw water from Big Sewickley Creek–but this time the request is cut in half, to just 1.5 million gallons of water a day (see PennEnergy Reapplies to Use SWPA Creek Water for Fracking Ops). In March PennEnergy submitted its water management plan amendment application for proposed water withdrawals from Big Sewickley Creek in Economy Borough, located in Beaver County. As before, the request is to use the water for shale well fracking. This second application proposes a lower allocation request of 1.5 million gallons per day. After an initial delay, the DEP is now actively reviewing PennEnergy’s application.
Read More “PennEnergy Creek Water Request Now “Complete” – PA DEP Reviewing”
The province of Quebec, Canada, with a huge supply of Utica Shale gas sitting beneath it, passed a new law in April–Bill 21–outlawing all oil and natural gas production throughout the province (see Quebec Pulls Trigger & Commits Energy Suicide – Bans All O&G Prod.). It is a breathtaking grab of totalitarian power. It’s also energy suicide. Quebec says it will pay a piddly US$79.5 million to expropriate the oil and gas drilling rights of companies owning those rights in the province. One of the gas producers in the province, Utica Resources, has just sued the province to either overturn Bill 21, or force Quebec to pay it C$18 billion (US$14 billion). That’s just a tad more than the proffered $79.5 million, wouldn’t you say? Bear in mind Utica Resources is just one company of many with a legitimate claim against Quebec.
Read More “Utica Resources Sues Quebec for C$18Bn for Banning O&G Production”
Next month President Biden is heading to the Middle East and is scheduled to meet with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)–the man who allegedly ordered the murder of Saudi Jamal Khashoggi, a reporter for the Washington Post. Biden previously called MBS a “pariah” following the Khashoggi episode. Why is Biden now meeting with him? To beg for more oil production. A group of 27 energy associations, including the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Marcellus Shale Coalition, sent a letter to Biden inviting him to tour American energy infrastructure before he boards the plane to meet with MBS.
Read More “27 Groups Urge Biden to Tour U.S. Energy Sites Before Saudi Trip”