NATIONAL: What President Biden didn’t say during the State of the Union; INTERNATIONAL: IEA will deploy emergency oil stocks; Energy Transfer selling Canada natural gas business for $1.3B; A lesson in energy masochism; Nord Stream 2 lays off employees amid reports of bankruptcy.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Mar 2, 2022”
Last September MDN broke the news that Rockdale Marcellus had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (see NEPA Driller Rockdale Marcellus Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy). In January we told you that Repsol had won an auction to buy the assets for $220 million in cash, plus the assumption of $2 million in debt owed to trade creditors (see Sale of Rockdale PA Assets to Repsol Closes – $220M Cash, $2M Debt). After the sale to Repsol and payments to key creditors, there’s still a small pot of cash ($21 million) leftover. Rockdale has a plan to distribute it to some of the remaining creditors.
Read More “Rockdale Marcellus Looks to Liquidate Remaining Assets Under Ch. 11”
Last August, PTT Global Chemical finally came clean and admitted there will be no final investment decision (FID) to build a $10 billion ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH, until they secure a partner to help finance the project (see PTT Finally Admits Truth – Ohio Cracker Project on Indefinite Hold). In other words, the Ohio cracker is on indefinite hold. Yet PTT continues to mouth support for the project.
Read More “Ohio Cracker Plant Air Permit Expires, PTT Filing for New Permit”
We’ve often said it before: We love a good railroad story. And here’s one for you… NGL Supply Co. Ltd. recently opened a new propane rail terminal in Sycamore (Wyandot County), Ohio. The 180,000-gallon Sycamore terminal has the capability to offload eight rail cars at 1,500 gallons per minute (gpm). The best part? The terminal is supplied by rail cars primarily from the Marcellus Shale region. Most if not all of the molecules flowing through the terminal come from the Marcellus/Utica.
Read More “New Ohio LNG Rail Terminal Fed by Marcellus/Utica Propane”
Using investment capital from Preferred Capital Securities, WhiteHawk Energy is buying mineral and royalty rights in southwestern Pennsylvania, primarily in Washington and Green counties, for $52.5 million. The assets include production and cash flow from over 950 horizontal Marcellus Shale wells. The wells are operated by EQT, CNX Resources, and Range Resources.
Read More “WhiteHawk Energy Buys NatGas & Royalty Assets in SWPA for $52M”
Two Pennsylvania Senators, Gene Yaw (Lycoming County) and John Yudichak (Luzerne County) have sent a letter to the state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) asking the IFO to audit the modeling done by the inept Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) with respect to the price of credits being sold under the RGGI carbon tax scheme. PA Gov. Wolf intends to force the state, against the will of the people (i.e. the legislature that represents the people) to join RGGI, which slaps in insanely high carbon tax on all coal- and Marcellus gas-fired power plants. Yaw and Yudichak believe the DEP fudged the numbers with their original estimates of how much so-called RGGI credits cost. The senators want a neutral, independent third party to analyze the analysis done by the DEP.
Read More “PA Senators Ask IFO to Check DEP’s Faulty Numbers re RGGI Carbon Tax”
Two years ago Yale University sold off its $80 million equity stake in Marcellus/Utica fracker Antero Resources. You know, Antero is an evil fossil fuel company and the woke children attending Yale demanded divestment. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum… according to Yale University’s latest 13F form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as of Dec. 31, 2021, the University owns $41 million of Antero Resources stock once again!
Read More “Yale Reverses Divestment, Re-invests in M-U Driller Antero Resources”
For years we wrote about Oleg Tolmachev, chief driller at Eclipse Resources. He was the guy who figured out how to drill those record-breaking, super long onshore laterals–some of the longest on record (see our stories mentioning Oleg Tolmachev here). Eclipse was sold to and merged in with Montage Resources. Montage was then sold to and merged in with Southwestern Energy. Somewhere along the way Tolmachev departed. Some 13 months ago Tolmachev was hired by Ukraine to help that country figure out how to drill and frack wells so it can wean itself off Russian natural gas and oil. Today Tolmachev is working to keep the natural gas flowing in the country, a country besieged by Russian invaders.
Read More “Former Top M-U Driller Works in Ukraine to Keep NatGas Flowing”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Proposed rules would allow for Delaware River water to be exported for fracking; NATIONAL: Cut off Putin’s power by cutting off Russian gas; Unseen costs of the energy transition: minerals, metals, and construction materials; Biden’s war on affordable energy; America shouldn’t be held hostage to Russian natural gas; Biden resists calls to back expanded oil and gas production to counter Russia; INTERNATIONAL: Shell ditching Russian business; Germany to break free from Russian gas with two LNG terminals.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Mar 1, 2022”
Southwestern Energy, which has become a natural gas-producing behemoth second only to EQT Corporation, issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2021 update on Friday. The company also issued projections for 2022. Southwestern produced 4.27 Bcfe/d (billion cubic feet equivalent per day) of natural gas and equivalents in 4Q21 across both plays where it operates–the Marcellus/Utica in the northeast and the Haynesville in the Gulf Coast region. Of that 4.27 Bcfe/d, some 3.14 Bcfe/d (74%) came from the M-U.
Read More “Southwestern Energy 4Q Update: Aims to Produce 5 Bcf/d in 2022”
Last summer DTE Energy spun off its pipeline assets into a new/separate company called DT Midstream (see DT Midstream Plans to Expand Organically, Decarbonize). The new pipeline company owns some key Marcellus/Utica assets, including several gathering systems and a 50% stake in the mighty NEXUS interstate gas pipeline. On Friday DT Midstream issued its quarterly update, which includes mention of something not previously on our radar screen: DT is (or did) conduct an open season to expand flows along the NEXUS pipeline.
Read More “DT Midstream Open Season to Expand Shipping on NEXUS Pipeline”
The West Virginia State Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 2581 on the last day of the annual WV legislative session in April 2021. HB 2581 required the State Tax Commissioner to develop a revised methodology to value oil and natural gas properties for the purposes of assessing property taxes. The State Tax Department submitted an emergency rule last summer that was, quite frankly, a mess. The rule created a complex system that is currently mired in controversy with both drillers and landowners confused about how much of a tax bill they will owe this year. Last week the WV House of Delegates worked on and pushed along a compromise bill to try and fix the mess created last year (see WV Legislature Wants Tax Dept. Do-Over of NatGas Property Tax Rule).
Read More “WV Legislature Gets Closer to Revised NatGas Property Tax Rule”
In contravention to the Pennsylvania State Constitution, PA Gov. Tom Wolf is attempting to force a multi-billion-dollar energy tax on the citizens of his state without approval by the state legislature. Wolf’s new tax is called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a whopping tax on carbon dioxide emissions (the stuff you breathe out with every breath you take) that are emitted by coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. The aim is to gradually shut down all coal- and gas-fired plants in favor of unreliable, intermittent, so-called renewable power. Wolf is suing to force the printing of new RGGI rules in the Pennsylvania Bulletin so he can begin his destruction of fossil energy in the state. The Republican legislature has filed to intervene in the lawsuit, to stop Wolf.
Read More “PA Senate Republicans File to Intervene in Wolf’s Carbon Tax Lawsuit”
In May 2017, Murrysville Township (Westmoreland County) struck a zoning compromise with local drillers on the distance of setbacks (see Murrysville, PA Drilling Ordinance – Anatomy of a Compromise). In a lawsuit that went from county court to Commonwealth Court, the case brought by climate change cultists failed. Since they have access to piles of Big Green money (some of which likely comes from Russia), a local Big Green-backed anti-fossil fuel group is trying one last “Hail Mary” pass, appealing the lawsuit to the Democrats of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Read More “Murrysville Antis Appeal Fracking Ordinance to PA Supreme Court”
In late October Nacero announced a $6 billion gas-to-liquids (GTL) refinery, to be built on the site of a former coal mine in Newport Township and Nanticoke in Luzerne County, PA (see NEPA Huge Deal – $6B Plant to Convert Marcellus Gas to Gasoline). The plant will convert Marcellus natural gas into zero-sulfur gasoline for use in existing cars and trucks without modification. Local anti-fossil fuel zealots hosted an online session to bash away at the plant, hoping to scare a few more people into opposing it. Thing is, nobody believes them anymore.
Read More “PA Anti-Fossil Fuelers Hold Online Session to Bash Nacero GTL Plant”
Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, unloaded on Joe Biden and his inept energy policies in a recent op-ed in which Barr says it’s time for U.S. energy policy to stop empowering Russia. In addition to more oil drilling and oil pipelines, Barr advocates for more natural gas drilling and more natural gas pipelines here in the Marcellus/Utica. Do you want to help Europe? Stop blocking American oil and gas, President Biden!
Read More “PA Chamber: We Need More American O&G Drilling, New Pipelines”