NATIONAL: What Democrats get wrong about climate change; Shale companies prepare for their best quarter ever; The impacts of banning U.S. exports of crude oil and refined products; U.S. oil rig count falls by the most since September; INTERNATIONAL: Baker Hughes adds to e-LNG offering by acquiring unit of BRUSH.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Aug 9, 2022”
Loathsome and disgusting shale energy hater Josh Shapiro, Attorney General for Pennsylvania (running for governor), announced on Friday that he finally bullied Energy Transfer into pleading “no contest” (meaning they don’t admit to a darned thing) in a so-called criminal case against the company for a series of accidents affecting construction for both the Revolution and Mariner East pipelines. Shapiro brought the case–a case that converts accidents into crimes–in order to burnish his credibility with the wacko left in his own party. Now he has a “victory” to run on–and everyone in Pennsylvania is the poorer because of it.
Read More “ET Pleads No Contest to “Crimes” for ME, Revolution Pipelines”
Southwestern Energy, which along with EQT and Chesapeake Energy, is one of the three leading producers of natural gas in the U.S., issued its second quarter update last Friday. The company reported total net production of 438 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent), or 4.8 Bcfe/d, including 4.2 Bcf/d of natural gas and 100,000 barrels per day (Bbls/d) of liquids. Southwestern invested $585 million of capital during 2Q and placed 42 wells to sales, including 23 in the Marcellus/Utica and 19 in Haynesville. The company made $1.2 billion in profit during 2Q22, versus losing $609 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Read More “Southwestern Invests More $ in Haynesville, but M-U Produces More”
On July 1, just as everyone was heading out the door for summer vacation, Ascent Resources announced it is buying another 26,800 acres in the Ohio Utica for $270 million (see Ascent Resources Buys Another 27K Utica Acres for $270 Million). The announcement withheld the identity of the seller but did say Ascent was buying *all* of the seller’s Ohio Utica shale assets, which touched off speculation about who is doing the selling. We now know. On Friday, Ascent announced it has closed on the deal. The seller was…
Read More “Ascent Closes on 27K Utica Acres for $270M – Finally Names Seller”
PennEnergy Resources LLC, which according to the Pittsburgh Business Times is the 11th largest shale driller in Pennsylvania (with 405 active shale wells), achieved responsibly sourced natural gas certification from Project Canary on nearly all of its wells in January of this year (see PennEnergy Receives “Responsibly Sourced Gas” Rating for Most Wells). Project Canary issued its top “Gold” and “Platinum” ratings on 375 of PennEnergy’s wells. Pipeline giant Williams issued an announcement this morning to say it has entered into an agreement with PennEnergy to market and deliver, via its pipelines, PennEnergy’s blessed-by-Canary natural gas to customers eager to buy it.
Read More “Williams to Market PennEnergy’s “Next Gen” Responsible Gas”
During pipeline giant Williams’ 2Q22 update last week, company officials talked about expansion projects in the Marcellus/Utica region (see Williams 2Q: Summer Heat + LNG = High Activity on Transco Pipe). One of the four projects mentioned (via a slide) is the “Susquehanna Gathering Expansion,” an additional 20 miles of gathering pipeline and incremental compression. The target in-service date is the fourth quarter of next year. Via a notice published in Saturday’s Pennsylvania Bulletin, we know where 14 miles of that 20 miles will be located.
Read More “Williams Adding 14+ Miles of Gathering Pipe in Susquehanna County”
Make no mistake: The Manchin-Schumer “Soar Inflation Higher” bill is bad for the country in EVERY way, including bad for the fossil energy industry via an industry-killing methane tax (see Joe Manchin’s Green New Deal Cave Slaps O&G with Big Methane Tax). Yet some oil and gas companies, including Diversified Energy (which operates in Appalachia), are supporting the methane tax that is part of the bill. We simply don’t understand it.
Read More “Some M-U Companies Like Manchin-Schumer High Methane Tax”
As we point out in a companion story today, some in the oil and gas industry have sold out and are supporting the Manchin-Schumer methane tax. It’s sad (and angering). As we point out in that post, those companies believe they are insulated from the effects of the methane tax because they have already deployed technology to reduce methane emissions from their operations. But what happens when the federal government changes the rules by telling them their technology is junk and they have to replace it with new government-blessed technology? Right on cue, the Dept. of Energy announced it will spend $32 million on “research” to figure out what kind of technology can lower methane emissions.
Read More “DOE Spending $32M to Develop New Required Tech to Lower Methane”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: DEP invites stakeholders to participate in well plugging workgroups; NATIONAL: Statement on the public health impacts of blue hydrogen production; How Republicans are ‘weaponizing’ public office against climate action; U.S. propane spot prices have declined from multiyear highs.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Aug 8, 2022”
Earlier this week, Energy Transfer (ET), the builder of the mighty Mariner East pipelines and owner/expander of the Marcus Hook refinery, issued its second quarter update. The company had plenty of positive news to report, including net income of $1.33 billion, a $700 million increase from the same period last year. In July, the company hit a new record high for the amount of NGLs flowing through the Mariner East pipeline system. It has also found a way to squeeze another roughly 10,000 barrels per day of NGL exports out of Marcus Hook.
Read More “Mariner East & Marcus Hook Hit Record High M-U NGL Exports in 2Q”
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May 2021 with a new board and new top management. By September of last year, the rumors began circulating that the company was shopping itself for sale (see Big News: OH Utica Driller Gulfport Energy Looking to Sell Itself). The two largest drillers in the Ohio Utica (Ascent Resources and Encino Energy) have been reported to be in talks to buy Gulfport. Yet, in Gulfport’s 2Q22 update issued earlier this week, there wasn’t even a whisper about a potential sale or merger.
Read More “Gulfport 2Q Update – Turns Profitable $216M, No Talk of Selling”
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.
Read More “ET Makes Significant Progress Cleaning Up Marsh Creek Lake”
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”).
Read More “Leftist Radicals Sue Washington Gas for “Greenwashing” NatGas”
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.
Read More “Recession, Weak Global Demand Drive Oil & NatGas Prices Down”
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 Tragedy: Joe Manchin Caves & Agrees to Big Green Build Back Better). What was called Build Back Better has been renamed to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Which is a joke. The bill won’t actually reduce inflation at all (and that assessment comes from sources on the left). There’s a huge new methane tax in the bill (see Joe Manchin’s Green New Deal Cave Slaps O&G with Big Methane Tax). What else is in the bill?
Read More “Detailed Look at Manchin-Schumer Big Green Energy Inflation Bill”
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.
Read More “24 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jul 25-31”