Utica Driller Encino Pivots to Focus on Drilling for Oil in Ohio
It’s been about 3½ years since Encino Energy in partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board closed on buying Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica assets for $2 billion (see Encino Takes Over from Chesapeake in Ohio Utica; Big Plans). A few months after the purchase, Encino management boasted they would run a better drilling program in Ohio than did Chesapeake (see Encino Says They’ll Do it Better in the Utica than Chesapeake Did). By all accounts, Encino has lived up to its big boast. Encino is now the second-largest natural gas producer and largest oil producer in Ohio. What are the plans for the company moving forward?
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Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester and New York City is called the East 300 Upgrade Project. The project involves upgrades at two existing compressor stations (in Pennsylvania), along with building a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County), just across the border and not far from Westchester County, NY. Radicalized fossil fuel haters at Food & Water Watch, one of the worst of the worst anti groups, is challenging the all-electric, no-emissions compressor station planned for Passaic County in New Jersey Supreme Court.
Since February 2020 EQT Corporation’s credit rating (for company-issued bonds) has been at the “junk” (i.e. non-investment grade) level. Two of the three top credit ratings agencies–Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings–recently upgraded EQT’s credit rating, returning it to investment grade. So far Moody’s has not followed, but we’re guessing it won’t be long before Moody’s upgrades EQT’s rating too.
Quick: Which country received the most LNG exports from the U.S. in 2021? China? Japan? Maybe Brazil? Nope. The country receiving the most of our LNG last year was (drum roll please)…South Korea. China was a close second (almost tied). The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published an article yesterday summarizing U.S. LNG exports and which regions (Asia, Europe, Rest of World), and which countries within those regions, received our LNG exports. It’s an interesting read. We’ve scrounged around and found a table showing all U.S. natural gas exports–both LNG and pipeline.
Yesterday we reported on the Friday deal between the U.S. and the European Union to deliver more LNG to Europe (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Chevron sues Calif. to overturn fracking ban; NATIONAL: Unleash American energy’s strength & security; US seeks new lithium sources as demand for batteries grows; The time for American natural gas is now; INTERNATIONAL: Oil down with demand concerns as covid lockdowns rise in China.
Public company Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy less than a year ago, in May 2021, with a new board and new top management (see 
As we were researching background for our lead story today of a potential Gulfport Energy/Ascent Resources merger, we discovered we never reported on Gulport’s fourth quarter and full-year 2021 results. In 4Q21 Gulfport’s production was 1.07 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), virtually the same as 4Q20. Gulfport’s production numbers include both the Ohio Utica and the other play where Gulfport drills, the Oklahoma SCOOP. For the full year, Gulfport produced an even 1.0 Bcfe/d on average in 2021, versus 1.04 Bcfe/d in 2020–down just a tad.
The clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e. the 4th Circus) have done it again. Two weeks ago Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) asked the full court, all of the judges (called en banc) to rehear a couple of recent decisions by three of their clown members (see 
Because of constant court challenges, the Trump administration completed a redo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12), a general permit used in constructing pipelines, just prior to leaving office. From the beginning of the Biden administration, anti-fossil fuel fanatics have attacked NWP12, hoping they can cancel it or otherwise make it so onerous nobody will use it (see 
Depending on your news source, the Biden administration reached an agreement with the European Union last Friday for the U.S. to supply more LNG to the EU beginning this year. Other news sources say it will be next to impossible for the U.S. to ship any more LNG to the EU this year. Yet other news sources (leaning to the far left) point out the agreement actually talks about the EU figuring out ways to *decrease* their natural gas (and LNG) usage. So what, exactly, was the agreement reached last week?
Amtrak has a project underway to renovate and update its 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, PA. Amtrak cut a deal with Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), the largest municipal-owned natural gas utility in the country, to switch and use onsite gas boilers at the renovated station for some (not all) of the heat. Anti-fossil fuel fanatics are predictably having a cow over the plan. The Philly-based Clean Air Council (CAC), funded with money from Big Green groups, is gearing up to fight the use of natural gas boilers.
Last Thursday