PA DCED Invests Another $3.2M in “Last Mile” PIPE Grant Projects
Pennsylvania’s Pipeline Investment Program (or PIPE) issues grants covering part of the cost for building new natural gas pipelines to connect homes and businesses, typically in rural parts of the state, to homegrown Marcellus Shale gas supplies. We’ve written about many of the PIPE grant projects in the past (see our PIPE stories here). Three more PIPE grants were announced yesterday by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development (DCED), grants totaling $3.2 million.
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The number crunchers at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) have analyzed proved reserves data for 2020 (the most recent year available) and have determined proved reserves dropped by 4% in 2020. Why? Due to the lower price natural gas was fetching. In these days of natgas flirting with $4-$5/MMBtu it may be hard to recall that just a little more than a year ago gas was bumping around in the $2-$3 range.
At last check (in third quarter 2021) CNX Resources was producing 1.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica, and on track to generate $500 million in free cash flow for the year (see 
The Barack Hussein Obama administration went crazy with over-regulation in many sectors. One of them was to redefine “waters of the United States” (or WOTUS) as everything down to, no exaggeration, mud puddles (see 
Natural gas production has taken a “precipitous drop” in the U.S. in January according to S&P Global Platts. After approaching a record high at over 96.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in late December, U.S. natural gas production has “tumbled since the start of the new year,” falling by over 4 Bcf/d to average just 92.2 Bcf/d in January. Why?
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Good-paying PGW jobs would be irreplaceable if Philly moves away from natural gas; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Los Angeles bans new oil and gas wells and will phase out old ones over five years; NATIONAL: Why Biden can’t put a cap on oil prices.
As predicted last week by Reuters, Chesapeake Energy announced yesterday it is buying Marcellus driller Chief Oil & Gas plus associated non-operated assets from Tug Hill Operating for $2 billion in cash and approximately 9.44 million common shares. The total purchase price (given the current CHK stock price of $67/share) is roughly $2.6 billion. The combination makes Chesapeake a powerhouse driller in the northeast Pennsylvania Marcellus with 653,000 acres of leases.
The Lorax-quoting judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e. 4th Circus) has struck again. We shouldn’t be surprised. Yesterday the 4th Circuit overruled permits issued by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management that would have allowed the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline from crossing 3.5 miles of federal land in Jefferson National Forest. This is the second time the same group of clown judges have done this.
ISO New England–the independent, non-profit Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) that manages the electric grid for Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont–is once again fretting and warning that a prolonged cold spell in the northeast may trigger electric blackouts in New England. Not only are power plant owners nervous, so too are state regulators.
In July 2021 Pieridae Energy, a Candian driller and LNG company, hired Peters & Co. Limited to help it conduct an internal review about the best path forward. Should the company sell itself? Should it merge with another company? Sell some of its assets but not others? The review is now over and done and the decision is…to keep on going just the way they have been. No sale, no merger, no asset sale. Why are we interested? Because of Pieridae’s proposed Goldboro LNG project.
Holy smokes! What just happened? For months (and months and months) the cumulative number of weekly permits issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica has fluctuated from the low teens to perhaps 30 total on the upper end. Last week, from Jan. 17-23, an amazing 61 permits were issued to drill new shale wells. Double the usual. Wow! Pennsylvania issued 24 new permits, Ohio issued 9, and blow-the-doors-off-we’ve-never-seen-so-many-permits-issued-in-one-week for West Virginia, the Mountain State issued 28 new shale permits.
U.S. Senator from West Virginia Shelley Moore Capito “Zoomed” in to address the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia’s (GO-WV) annual winter meeting last week. She talked about the Biden infrastructure bill, which she supported, and Biden’s so-called Build Back Better bill, which she does not support. As part of her comments, Capito mentioned the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill includes money for “an Appalachian ethane/hydrogen storage hub.” Wow! We thought that project was long dead.
Barging along the Ohio River from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh (including the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Kanawha rivers) has always been a big business, critical to the economy of the Ohio River Valley region. Barging along the Ohio River is currently undergoing a transformation from coal and steel to petrochemicals and plastics. Why and how? In a phrase, the Marcellus/Utica shale is the reason.
Just a few weeks ago we told you a Shell rep said the mighty ethane cracker is 80% complete and the company is now searching for permanent employees to fill some 600 positions (see