Marcellus Drilling News

Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | PennEnergy Resources | Pennsylvania | Pipelines

PA Couple Sue Penn Energy for Trespass re Gathering Pipeline
January 21, 2022April 20, 2022

Just coming to light now: A couple who live in Butler County (western Pennsylvania) filed a lawsuit on January 3rd against PennEnergy Resources claiming the company built a gathering pipeline across their property without their permission in early 2020. Joseph and Michelle Zandarski, who live in the town of Cabot, filed the lawsuit in the Allgheny Court of Common Pleas.
Read More “PA Couple Sue Penn Energy for Trespass re Gathering Pipeline”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | North Carolina | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Virginia

DC Fed Appeals Court Signals Support for MVP Southgate Pipeline
January 21, 2022January 21, 2022

click for larger version

Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is a 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia that is 94% complete (in-the-ground). The pipeline is targeted to be in-service later this year. MVP Southgate is an extension to MVP that will travel an additional 75 miles from southern Virginia (where the current MVP terminates) into North Carolina. MVP Southgate has not yet broken ground. The project has been opposed by North Carolina and the same mish-mash of “environmental” groups that opposed MVP. Some of those groups appealed a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to issue a permit for the project. A virtual hearing in the case on Wednesday didn’t go the way antis wanted.
Read More “DC Fed Appeals Court Signals Support for MVP Southgate Pipeline”
Energy Companies | Questerre Energy

Questerre Finds Way to Circumvent Quebec’s Utica Drilling Ban
January 21, 2022January 21, 2022

This is quite clever. Last October the province of Quebec, Canada announced it will expropriate all of the rights for all oil and gas companies in the province to drill and extract oil and natural gas (see Lights Out for All O&G Production in Quebec, Including Utica Shale). It’s all being shut down–including actively producing wells. Questerre Energy Corp., which owns more than one million acres of Utica Shale leases in Quebec, may have just found a way around Quebec’s oil and gas drilling ban.
Read More “Questerre Finds Way to Circumvent Quebec’s Utica Drilling Ban”
Industrywide Issues | Research

Enverus Rig Count @ 725 (+3), Highest No. of Rigs Since March 2020
January 21, 2022April 20, 2022

For the week ending Jan. 20, the Enverus U.S. oil and gas rig count increased by another three for the week, now up to 725. That’s the highest active rig count since March 2020 when the worldwide coronavirus pandemic crushed demand and began the rapid decline in rigs. The Marcellus gained one rig for 40 active rigs, while the Utica stayed even with 11 active rigs. Combined the M-U had 51 active rigs last week–the most since prior to the pandemic.
Read More “Enverus Rig Count @ 725 (+3), Highest No. of Rigs Since March 2020”
Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Jan 21, 2022
January 21, 2022January 21, 2022

NATIONAL: To address supply shortages, stop restricting O&G on fed lands; US LNG exports down from last week; U.S. crude exports ramp up as global demand recovers; Lawsuit alleges Tellurian chief defrauded investor in short-seller battle; INTERNATIONAL: Current energy crisis confronts Net Zero-loving elites with the stark reality; Linde starts up ‘world’s first’ plant for extracting hydrogen from natgas.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Jan 21, 2022”
Chesapeake Energy | Chief Oil & Gas | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Stop Press! Chesapeake Energy in “Advanced Talks” to Buy Chief O&G
January 20, 2022January 20, 2022

According to super-secret sources talking to Reuters, Chesapeake Energy is in advanced talks to purchase Chief Oil & Gas for $2.4 billion. MDN brought you the news last October that Chief, a private company owned by Texas wildcatter Trevor Rees-Jones, was shopping itself for $3 billion (see Big News: Marcellus Driller Chief Oil & Gas Shopping Itself for $3B). It appears Chief may have found a buyer…
Read More “Stop Press! Chesapeake Energy in “Advanced Talks” to Buy Chief O&G”
Bradford County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lycoming County | M&A | Pennsylvania | Repsol | Rockdale | Tioga County (PA)

Sale of Rockdale PA Assets to Repsol Closes – $220M Cash, $2M Debt
January 20, 2022January 20, 2022

In 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). Earlier this month 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 Repsol Buys Rockdale PA Assets Out of Bankruptcy for $222M). The deal was sealed yesterday. Repsol now owns Rockdale’s 66 producing wells on 42,897 net acres in three northeast PA counties producing ~110 Mmcf/d (million cubic feet per day).
Read More “Sale of Rockdale PA Assets to Repsol Closes – $220M Cash, $2M Debt”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide VA | Taxation | Virginia

Va. Gov. Youngkin Can’t Use Exec Order to Block RGGI Carbon Tax
January 20, 2022April 20, 2022

In early December, Virginia’s newly-elected governor, Glenn Youngkin, said that as soon as he took office he would use his executive power to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (see VA’s New Republican Gov Pledges to Cancel RGGI Carbon Tax). RGGI is nothing more than an obscene, very expensive carbon tax. Youngkin’s pledge was a nice sentiment from someone not yet in office. Since taking office, Virginia’s leftist Attorney General told Youngkin the law does not permit the governor to use an executive order to undo a legislative action. What now?
Read More “Va. Gov. Youngkin Can’t Use Exec Order to Block RGGI Carbon Tax”
Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia

US Fish & Wildlife Agrees with FERC re MVP Impact on Candy Darter
January 20, 2022January 20, 2022

candy darter

We know you’re just dying to know the outcome of whether or not the cute, little candy darter is safe if the big, evil Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) finishes building across several 136 streams in Virginia and West Virginia. Relax. The candy darter is safe. So says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in a memo sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Tuesday. The USFWS memo answers a request by FERC to weigh in on several threatened and endangered species (plants and animals). The bottom line from USFWS is that the final bits of work to be done on the 94% complete MVP will not present a problem for threatened and endangered species.
Read More “US Fish & Wildlife Agrees with FERC re MVP Impact on Candy Darter”
Industrywide Issues | Research

EEIA Fall/Winter 2021 Energy Logistics and Distribution Report
January 20, 2022January 20, 2022

The Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA), a trade association representing the companies and people that provide contractor services, equipment, materials, and labor to shale oil and gas exploration and production, infrastructure, transportation and processing, has just published its Fall/Winter 2021 Energy Logistics & Distribution Report (full copy below). The report features more than 75 individual charts and graphs tracking price and volume metrics for energy including crude oil, natural gas, NGLs, drilling activities, renewables, consumption, logistics, and financial data. It is the single best source of charts and graphs to understand what’s happening in the energy markets.
Read More “EEIA Fall/Winter 2021 Energy Logistics and Distribution Report”
Calendar

Calendar of Events 2022 – Marcellus/Utica & Beyond
January 20, 2022January 20, 2022

Below is the list of events we are aware of that will be of interest to those with an interest in the Marcellus/Utica shale region for the first half of 2022. Some events are in the region (PA, OH, WV). Some are not (TX, OK, CO). Some are virtual/online, but most have returned to in-person. All of them are of potential interest to the MDN audience.
Read More “Calendar of Events 2022 – Marcellus/Utica & Beyond”
Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Jan 20, 2022
January 20, 2022January 20, 2022

OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Continental names former Chesapeake boss Lawler as operating chief; NATIONAL: Exxon to become net-zero company by 2050; Oil rally continues to seven year high; Novi Labs announces the acquisition of ShaleProfile; US not considering gas export ban, official says; INTERNATIONAL: Goldman Sachs sees oil at $96 this year; High natural gas prices could lead to spike in food costs through fertilizer link; U.S. natural gas is saving Europe from its own energy policy.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Jan 20, 2022”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

IFO Projects 2021 PA Impact Fee Revenue Soars, Up 60% to $233M
January 19, 2022January 19, 2022

In early 2021 Pennsylvania raised $144.85 million from its version of a severance tax, called an impact fee, based on drilling activity from 2020 (see IFO Projects 2020 PA Impact Fee Revenue Fell by $55.9M (28%)). It was the lowest amount raised since the impact fee was implemented in 2012. The state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) is out with projections for how much revenue will be raised this year, based on drilling in 2021. The impact fee has soared to its second-highest level ever since it was launched in 2012!
Read More “IFO Projects 2021 PA Impact Fee Revenue Soars, Up 60% to $233M”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA DEP’s 250% Increase in Shale Permit Fee Slows New Drilling
January 19, 2022January 19, 2022

Yes we predicted it and yes we were right (self-praise stinks, we know). We told you last year when the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) went forward with an absurd increase in the fee to drill a new shale well–from $5,000 to $12,500 (250%)–it would vastly slow the growth of new shale wells being drilled in the state and fall far short of revenue goals DEP hoped would fund the oil and gas program. Yesterday the DEP confirmed we were right.
Read More “PA DEP’s 250% Increase in Shale Permit Fee Slows New Drilling”
Industrywide Issues | Research

EIA DPR Jan 2022: M-U Gas Production Continues to Increase
January 19, 2022January 19, 2022

Six of the seven largest shale plays in the U.S. will see an increase in natural gas production in February according to the latest monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) issued yesterday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The Marcellus/Utica, collectively lumped together as “Appalachia” in the report, will see an increase of 81 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) in production next month. The M-U’s chief rival, the Haynesville, continues to see explosive growth, with an increase of 127 MMcf/d next month. The oil-based Permian will see a huge increase in natgas production of 122 MMcf/d due to associated gas coming out of the ground along with oil. The Permian’s oil production is set to hit a new all-time high in February, forecasted to hit an average of 5.076 million barrels of oil per day.
Read More “EIA DPR Jan 2022: M-U Gas Production Continues to Increase”
Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Olympus/Huntley & Huntley | Pennsylvania | Roads | Westmoreland County

Olympus Well in Westmoreland County on Hold Pending Road Issues
January 19, 2022January 19, 2022

Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. The company plans to drill a series of new wells (and well pad) in Washington Township in Westmoreland County. However, there’s a snag. Residents along a proposed road accessing the site don’t want the truck traffic on their narrow (18-foot-wide) road. Olympus doesn’t want to use an alternate route due to a sharp turn. Someone else proposed building a new access road, but it would cross a tributary that flows into the Beaver Run Reservoir (lots of red tape). The town is planning a couple of workshop meetings to figure out a solution.
Read More “Olympus Well in Westmoreland County on Hold Pending Road Issues”