One of the Top 10 Stocks of 2022 is a Marcellus/Utica Driller
The stock market is off to a shaky start in 2022. Retirement accounts of all types–401(k)s, IRAs, etc.–have chart trend lines going in the wrong direction. Fears over persistently high inflation, aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, and Russia’s unprovoked and murderous war against Ukraine have the S&P 500 down 13.3% through the end of May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 10.3% year-to-date (YTD). But not every stock is down. Looking at the top 10 stocks for companies with market capitalizations of at least $1 billion, you will find eight of the ten (80%) are fossil fuel companies. In fact, one of the top ten is a pure-play Marcellus/Utica driller!
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According to Reuters analyst John Kemp, if the U.S. wants to keep growing its LNG exports, the amount of natural gas we produce will also have to grow. If natgas production falls behind, as it is now, prices will continue to skyrocket. LNG exports were up an astonishing 87% for the first three months of this year compared with 2019 (three years ago). Domestic consumption of natgas is pretty much the same year after year. The thing increasing year after year is exports–both LNG and pipeline exports to Mexico.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Suburban Propane to use cow manure from Upstate NY farm; Executives sell around $96M of 5 stocks; CNX announces executive leadership changes; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Holmdel vows to fight plans for natural gas regulator station; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC hosts climate change meeting; Europe’s unquenchable natural gas thirst is sending prices soaring; Giant natural gas carrier makes first transoceanic voyage with self-sailing technology.
It seems that the higher prices natural gas is fetching are finally translating into higher royalty checks for landowners–at least in the northern part of the Utica Shale in Ohio (likely everywhere). The Youngstown Business Journal spoke to landowners with leased and producing acreage in Columbiana County and found not only have their royalty checks increased, so too has new leasing activity and along with it, new lease bonuses.
A new industry has popped up to buy and sell so-called carbon credits, allowing companies that reduce carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to offer credits for sale, and companies that “pollute” the atmosphere with CO2 to buy those credits, offsetting their evil ways. We think the Catholic practice of buying and selling indulgences for sins in the 1300s and 1400s is an accurate comparison. One such company offers a blockchain platform for buying and selling carbon credits (carbon indulgences). The company has just raised $70 million in its first round of funding.
We’ve talked plenty about the big LNG export facilities scattered mostly along the Gulf Coast that export a fair amount of Marcellus/Utica molecules (and two LNG export sites situated on the East Coast, both of which export 100% M-U molecules). Every now and again we talk about some of the smaller LNG export operations, including Eagle LNG in Florida, which uses at least some M-U molecules. The experts at RBN Energy have a new post exploring “small-scale” LNG producers, including Eagle and three other companies that own and operate a number of small facilities. As with Eagle, these smaller players are potential customers for M-U molecules.
The Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA), a trade association with members representing the people and companies directly responsible for the production of crude oil, natural gas, and associated products in Ohio, recently issued its 2022 Community Impact/Sustainability Report. The report (full copy below) is full of interesting facts and figures about the oil and gas industry in Ohio, how that industry benefits every single Ohioan, and how the industry is cleaning up the environment in Ohio. You read that right. O&G is making the environment BETTER in Ohio.
We were shocked last December when Consolidated Edison, one of the top natural gas utilities in New York City (in the entire country), threw its support behind a plan to eventually ban the use of natural gas in all of NYC’s buildings (see 
We chalk this one up to the “With friends like this, who needs enemies?” department. The American Petroleum Institute (API) is receiving high praise from leftists for its open support of a plan to enact a so-called tax on carbon dioxide. The very products API’s members make, oil and natural gas, are made from carbon and when burned, create carbon dioxide. (In fact, when all mammals exhale, they breathe out CO2. Don’t get us started.) It’s no secret that Big Oil–companies like Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others–have sold out to the environmental left in a deal with the devil which they think will keep them in business a few more years. In reality, they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction by embracing a carbon tax.
In September 2016, MDN editor Jim Willis had the good fortune and pleasure of hearing a keynote address from philosopher and author Alex Epstein at the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh (see 
Last week the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for January through March 2022 (full copy below). There was 136 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 1Q22, an increase of nine wells (7.1%) compared to 1Q21. However, natural gas production volume was 1,851 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 1Q22, a slight decrease (-0.6%) from 1Q21. It is the first quarterly decrease in production in over a year.
The largest private investment in the state of West Virginia in history, not to mention the largest investment for the company making it, Nucor Steel, is happening because of abundant, cheap, Marcellus/Utica natural gas. Nucor is building a $2.7 billion new sheet steel mill in Mason County, WV, largely due to locally sourced and affordable energy.
The Bidenistas at the Dept. of Interior breathlessly announced the agency is (finally) releasing $33 million to plug 277 orphaned oil and gas wells across the country located on federal lands. The average price per plugging is $119,000. Spending $33 million to plug wells on federal lands is chump change compared to the $4.7 billion allocated for plugging old wells under the so-called Biden infrastructure bill. Why is the government paying $119K to plug wells that normally cost maybe $50,000 to plug? We’ll answer that question with another question. Why does the government pay $400 for a hammer it could buy at Lowes for $18?