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24 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 3-9
Last week 24 permits were issued to drill new shale wells in the Marcellus/Utica. Pennsylvania had the lion’s share with 19 new permits–most of those (10) were issued for two Chesapeake Energy well pads in Bradford County in the northeastern part of the state. Ohio had just two new permits, both on the same Southwestern Energy well pad in Monroe County. West Virginia had three new permits, one in Pleasants County and two in Marshall County.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Utica Shale to create outdoor welding lab; Erie lawmaker invites National Fuel Gas to relocate to Pa.; NATIONAL: Upstream dealmaking to almost certainly rise in 2022; Coal will account for 85% of U.S. electric generating capacity retirements in 2022; INTERNATIONAL: Russia’s natural gas threat is far from subtle; Germany’s new tool for achieving 2030 climate goals – stop using energy.
Our friends at NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) are running an excellent series providing expert forecasts for the global natural gas and oil markets in 2022. The latest installment interviews several experts about the prospects for the Marcellus/Utica. With the Shell ethane cracker plant coming online sometime this year, the prospects for NGL sales in the M-U have picked up. Also in the discussion: capping Pennsylvania’s orphaned wells, drilling in the Wayne National Forest, and the Mountain Valley Pipeline coming online.
BCCK Holding Company (BCCK) has been granted a contract to upgrade a cryogenic gas processing plant in the Marcellus/Utica, in southeastern Ohio. The name of the customer was not disclosed but we’re guessing it is MarkWest Energy (now MPLX). BCCK says it has developed a simple and effective modification to improve the existing cryogenic plant design and equipment with the aim of increasing propane recovery.
What is it about leftist Democrats that compels them to want to control everyone else’s lives (but their own)? Pennsylvania State Sen. Katie Muth is one of the worst offenders of this disorder. So too are PA State Rep. Dianne Herrin and Rep. Danielle Friel-Otten. The trio of Dem ladies are asking the odious PA Attorney General, Josh Shapiro (who is running for governor) to “halt construction of the Mariner East Pipeline.” Why? Because they don’t like it.
The Pennsylvania legislature recently passed a resolution against joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax and sent it to Wolf, who had promised to veto it (see 
It happens every winter, but the frequency and severity are increasing. We’re talking about the spot price of natural gas sold in large, northeastern cities, which experience price spikes during cold snaps. The reason for the spike is there is not enough gas to go around when it gets really cold, and there’s not enough gas because the northeast has blocked new pipelines that would provide enough. With the current cold snap, prices are spiking right now, once again. The spot price for natural gas being delivered at the Iroquois Zone 2 hub near New York City is $28.55/MMBtu. At the Dracut, Massachusetts hub (north of Boston), the price has hit $30/MMBtu. And the price at the Algonquin Citygate (Boston proper), is $20-$22/MMBtu.
There is a clear delineation in the U.S. Constitution that says anything not specifically enumerated in the Constitution is left up to the individual states to govern and regulate. Leftists have for years tried to chip away, and under Joe Biden dynamite away, that distinction. Especially with regard to nationalizing the regulation of oil and gas drilling. The left’s favorite tool to regulate O&G is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is charged with regulating and enforcing various laws including the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) and federal Clean Water Act (CWA). In a case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court next month, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, the “potential ramifications” are “profound” according to anyone and everyone paying attention.
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 changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see 
It’s “mission accomplished” for anti-fossil fuel zealots who say even if the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA gets completed (now 94% done), their constant lawsuits and hassling of the project has ensured no one else in their right mind will attempt another big pipeline project like MVP–ever again. At least not in the northeast. How sad when evil triumphs over good, when Big Green can corrupt and abuse our court system by launching frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit (at least 57 of them) to stop a legal, righteous, and much-needed pipeline like MVP.
The Associated Press (better named Dissociated Press) is once again attempting to smear Cabot Oil & Gas, now called Coterra Energy, by playing up a simple legal move by Coterra aimed at resolving an ongoing criminal charge brought by the loathsome Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Coterra waived a preliminary hearing in the case brought by Shapiro on Friday, and AP is jumping up and down to exclaim this is somehow an indicator of the company’s guilt–that Cabot really did pollute all those water wells in Dimock. Coterra’s move IS NOT an admission of any kind. We will explain.
We’ve had our disagreements with Pennsylvania State Sen. Gene Yaw over the years (about a severance tax in PA), but for the past half dozen or more years Yaw, from Lycoming County, has been a stalwart champion of the PA Marcellus industry. Frankly, the shale industry could not ask for a better representative in the PA legislature. Yaw, chairman of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, has done his best to defeat Tom Wolf’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax. Yaw is also promoting more pipelines in the Keystone State.
Although liberals are “dumb” in many senses–i.e. they don’t understand basic economics, they don’t understand the human yearning for freedom, etc.–they are very smart when it comes to accomplishing their twisted goals. For example, Joe Biden (a very dumb liberal) doesn’t need to outright ban natural gas-fired electric power plants across the country–something that could be undone by his successor. Instead, Biden gets various federal agencies to adopt new policies that make it impossible for new natgas projects to get investors and funding, which accomplishes the same thing–no new gas-fired electric plants. We have a coming crisis in electricity production if Biden’s policies, as stated, are implemented.
The general consensus we keep reading is that most shale drillers are returning to “moderate” growth this year. But what does that mean? How much growth in production (and consequently in new spending) is moderate? Based on an article appearing in the Washington Examiner, we think we have the answer.