Drilling & Royalty Revenue on the Rise in the PA Marcellus
A few days ago MDN received a phone call from the Harrisburg Patriot-News, from a reporter asking editor Jim Willis for comments on the latest activity in the Pennsylvania Marcellus. Are royalties doing better? Has there been more drilling activity? Jim tackled the question about drilling activity this way: Yes, there has been a *slight* increase in drilling activity, but not a huge increase. The reporter talked with multiple sources and published an article yesterday.
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In April MDN told you about a world first when the gas-fired power plant (currently powered by Utica Shale gas) on the banks of the Ohio River in Hannibal (Monroe County), OH, successfully added a 5% mixture of hydrogen to the natural gas it burns (see 
Each quarter NGI (
The Marcellus/Utica is still struggling to get permit numbers into higher brackets. Three weeks ago a pathetically low six new permits were issued to drill shale wells across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Former VP Pence, Gov. DeWine discuss Ohio’s natural gas and oil industry; NATIONAL: White House weighs fuel export limits; US natural gas storage levels increase by 92 Bcf, slimming deficit; C-Zero closes $34M financing to build pilot natgas decarbonization plant; Environmental groups sue Biden to block 3,500 oil and gas drilling permits; The wrong people are making our energy decisions; The parable of the chicken farmer and the oilman.
Here’s some major news that we confess we somehow missed back in March. Greylock Energy, which is headquartered in Charleston, WV, and has (until recently) been a pure-play natural gas driller in the Marcellus/Utica, now owns assets and drills for oil (and gas) in Utah and Wyoming. Kyle Mork, president and CEO of Greylock Energy, addressed Hart Energy’s DUG East conference in Pittsburgh yesterday. He talked extensively about Greylock’s decision to “go West young molecule” (our words). Why the Uinta and Green River Basin? Why now?
Two days ago Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee (ERE) Majority Chairman Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) issued a co-sponsorship memo asking for other House members to sponsor a resolution with him calling for the impeachment of outgoing Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Patrick McDonnell. Metcalfe calls the measure his “parting gift” to McDonnell who is leaving the agency on July 2nd (see 
Columbia Gas, a subsidiary of Canada-based TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), wants to build a tiny 3.37-mile, 8-inch pipeline under the Potomac River from Maryland to West Virginia. The Eastern Panhandle Expansion, as it is called, is being blocked by the lefties in Maryland (see 
Among the speakers who addressed the conference delegates at Hart Energy’s DUG East conference on Tuesday was Chesapeake Energy COO Josh Viets. He traced the roots of the current energy crisis back to decisions and events some 20 years ago. Viets said, “Access to energy correlates to quality of life, and the industry has a responsibility to work to provide energy that is affordable, reliable and low-carbon.” Europe, said Viet, dropped the ball beginning 20 years ago by buying into the hype about so-called renewable energy and forsaking fossil fuel development, while the U.S. invested in fracking and fossil fuels, leading to our energy independence under Donald J. Trump.
Freeport LNG provided an update yesterday to inform the public about what happened at its export facility just south of Galveston, Texas, situated on the Gulf Coast. Freeport said an “incident” occurred in pipe racks that support the transfer of LNG from the facility’s LNG storage tank area to the terminal’s dock facilities located on the intracoastal (i.e., north) side of Freeport LNG’s dock basin. None of the liquefaction trains, LNG storage tanks, dock facilities, or LNG process areas were impacted. Freeport originally said the facility would be back online in three weeks. That’s a pipe dream (pun intended). Yesterday Freeport revised their estimate to three months minimum before partial operations are back online. It will be the end of the year for full operations exporting all 2 Bcf/d are back online, according to Freeport.
On Monday MDN brought you the news that West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore sent a letter to six big banks/investment firms alerting them they are about to be added to the state’s “blacklist” for violating policies by not investing or doing business with fossil fuel companies (see 