Marcellus Drilling News

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32 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Dec 13-19
December 21, 2021April 20, 2022

Two weeks ago the Marcellus/Utica region saw 30 new permits to drill shale wells. Last week we improved that a bit, to 32. Pennsylvania issued 13 new permits to three drillers for five well pads in four counties. Ohio issued eight new permits to two drillers for three pads in two counties. And West Virginia issued 11 new permits to two drillers for two pads in a single county.
Read More “32 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Dec 13-19”
Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Dec 21, 2021
December 21, 2021April 20, 2022

NATIONAL: Democrat pushes for pipeline reliability standards; Decarbonization cannot manufacture the products demanded by civilization; INTERNATIONAL: Coal-fired power generation set to break record in 2021; Russia cuts gas supplies to Europe as temperatures drop.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Dec 21, 2021”
Chester County | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Sunoco Logistics

PA DEP Issues Revised Permits for ME2 Pipe Near Marsh Creek Lake
December 20, 2021April 20, 2022

One week ago MDN told you that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) signaled, via a listing in the weekly issue of the Pennsylvania Bulletin, the department’s intent to issue or reissue remaining permits for erosion and sediment control needed to finish up work on the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline (see PA DEP Signals Reissue of Erosion & Sediment Permits for ME2 Pipe). One week later (this past Saturday), the DEP posted another notice in the PA Bulletin issuing permits for ME2 in the most contentious and critical portion of the project to finish up–the area near Marsh Creek Lake and State Park in Chester County.
Read More “PA DEP Issues Revised Permits for ME2 Pipe Near Marsh Creek Lake”
Industrywide Issues | Luzerne County | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants

Neighbors’ Concerns Addressed by $6B Wilkes-Barre GTL Plant
December 20, 2021April 20, 2022

In November we shared the exciting news that Nacero Inc. will build a $6 billion refinery on the site of a former coal mine in Newport Township and Nanticoke in Luzerne County, PA, near Wilkes-Barre (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. As details about the project (this is a MASSIVE project, on the order of the Shell cracker plant in western PA) come out, some of the neighbors who will live near the plant are expressing concerns.
Read More “Neighbors’ Concerns Addressed by $6B Wilkes-Barre GTL Plant”
Statewide WV | West Virginia

GO-WV Celebrates First Full Year, Legislative Priorities for 2022
December 20, 2021December 20, 2021

It was one year ago that West Virginia’s two oil and gas trade associations, the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia (IOGAWV) and the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) merged into one new organization called the Gas and Oil Association of WV, or GO-WV (see WV’s Two O&G Trade Groups (IOGAWV & WVONGA) Merge, Form New Assoc.). Since that time the new GO-WV has added more than two dozen new members and has (by our reckoning) helped defeat the dangerous Biden Build Back Better budget bill. Pretty amazing to do all that in its first year, during a pandemic!
Read More “GO-WV Celebrates First Full Year, Legislative Priorities for 2022”
Antero Resources | Chesapeake Energy | CNX Resources | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Range Resources Corp | Seneca Resources | Southwestern Energy

Marcellus/Utica Drillers Profits Up 78% in 3Q21, Cash Flow Up 80%
December 20, 2021April 20, 2022

From time to time the experts at RBN Energy analyze the financial and operational performance of the oil and gas industry. RBN groups a sampling of publicly traded companies into three buckets: Diversified companies with their fingers in a lot of different pies, including upstream, midstream and downstream; oil-focused drillers who concentrate mainly on drilling for oil; and gas-focused drillers concentrating mainly on drilling for natural gas. It is that last group we are interested in. All but one of the nine companies in the gas-focused groups of drillers tracked by RBN are big drillers in the Marcellus/Utica. In a post from yesterday, RBN says the gas-focused group’s third quarter 2021 profits nearly doubled year over year, while cash flow increased by 80% from 2Q21 to 3Q21.
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Drillers Profits Up 78% in 3Q21, Cash Flow Up 80%”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | Taxation | West Virginia

WV Sen. Manchin Deserves Credit for Blocking Biden Budget Fiasco
December 20, 2021December 20, 2021

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin

We frankly thought he would cave under the pressure. He did not. Hats off to Joe Manchin, U.S. Senator from West Virginia, for telling Chuck “the schmuck” Schumer to go pound sand. Manchin said on Fox News yesterday that he will NOT vote to pass Joe Biden’s New Green Deal “Build Back Better” (BBB) budget bill that will (a) drive the country into hyperinflation, and (b) kill the fossil fuel industry with draconian Green New Deal regulations. The BBB budget bill is officially dead after Manchin said he will not vote for it. In a 50-50 Senate with the tie-breaking vote going to the cackling Kamala Harris, the bill, if it comes up for a vote, will go down in defeat. Socialist “crazy” Bernie Sanders is spitting and sputtering. Love it!
Read More “WV Sen. Manchin Deserves Credit for Blocking Biden Budget Fiasco”
Industrywide Issues | New York | New York County | Regulation

NYC’s Gas Ban Will Force City’s Poor to Pay 78% More for Heat
December 20, 2021April 20, 2022

Last week MDN told you that New York City decided to commit energy and economic suicide by outlawing the right of new buildings built within city limits from using natural gas for heat, cooking, etc. (see New York City Commits Energy Suicide – Mass Exodus Begins). The impact of that city-destroying economic asteroid is still reverberating. How’s this for a number: The average price to heat a home in the northeastern part of the country with natural gas is $865 per winter. The average cost to heat a northeastern home with electricity is $1,538 per winter–or 78% higher. Guess who a 78% increase in heating bills in NYC will affect (and devastate) the most? The poor.
Read More “NYC’s Gas Ban Will Force City’s Poor to Pay 78% More for Heat”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

“We Hate Pipelines” Rhetoric from FERC’s 3 Democrat Commissioners
December 20, 2021December 20, 2021

Richard “Dick” Glick

Last Thursday at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) open meeting in Washington, D.C., the three Democrat Commissioners uttered policies and statements that amount to an “I hate pipelines” philosophy. This is a bit odd, given their statutory role and responsibility as FERC commissioners is to enable pipelines, not stop them. Yet the Democrat Party is now completely radicalized and is corrupting agencies like FERC. The Dem FERC commissioners have lost their way and believe FERC is an environmental agency when, in fact, it’s an economic agency. Elections have consequences folks, and we repeatedly warned you in 2020 that FERC would be a casualty under Joe Biden. It is–in spades.
Read More ““We Hate Pipelines” Rhetoric from FERC’s 3 Democrat Commissioners”
Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Dec 20, 2021
December 20, 2021April 20, 2022

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Utica Shale Academy hopes to secure more grants; NATIONAL: Goldman Sachs mulling financed emissions reduction; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC+ DOC turns five; Oil may hit $380 per barrel; Russian gas exports to Europe via Yamal pipeline remain tiny; Germany says no decision on Nord Stream 2 before July.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Dec 20, 2021”
Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide OH

FERC Threatens ET with $40M Fine Over Long-Completed Rover Pipe
December 17, 2021April 20, 2022

Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), under the leadership of Richard “Dick” Glick, served Energy Transfer with an “Order to Show Cause and Notice of Proposed Penalty” over the years-ago completed Rover Pipeline, a $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that runs from Pennsylvania, West Virginia and eastern Ohio through Ohio and into Michigan. The proposed fine is a staggering $40 million, based on a drilling mud accident from 2017 that showed there was diesel fuel in the mud.
Read More “FERC Threatens ET with $40M Fine Over Long-Completed Rover Pipe”
Industrywide Issues | Research

Latest STEO: U.S. NatGas Production to Hit Record High in 2022
December 17, 2021April 20, 2022

Each month the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issues a Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). In the latest STEO update for December, released last week, EIA predicts that U.S. dry natural gas production will increase from 95.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in October 2021 to 97.5 Bcf/d by December 2022, a new all-time record high. The previous monthly record of 97.2 Bcf/d was set in November 2019.
Read More “Latest STEO: U.S. NatGas Production to Hit Record High in 2022”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines

Radicals Using MVP Case to Void Eminent Domain for All Pipelines
December 17, 2021April 20, 2022

In 2019 a group of Virginia landowners filed a lawsuit against the Equitrans Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, because they didn’t like how the pipeline left a mark across their horse pastures. The landowners arrogantly argued Congress improperly delegated its legislative powers to FERC and that ALL pipeline approvals made by FERC that have led to property being “taken” against a landowner’s wishes, including MVP, should be invalidated. In May 2020 a federal court dismissed the case (see Lawsuit Seeking to Gut FERC Eminent Domain for MVP has Failed). Using money from Big Green groups (who are funded by foreign countries like Russia and China), the uppity landowners appealed once again and, unfortunately, the case remains active and live, now in a higher court.
Read More “Radicals Using MVP Case to Void Eminent Domain for All Pipelines”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA House Votes to Reject RGGI Carbon Tax, Gov. Wolf to Veto
December 17, 2021April 20, 2022

The Republican-controlled House in Pennsylvania voted on Wednesday to approve a resolution against enrolling the state in the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. RGGI is aimed at phasing out the use of coal and natural gas to produce electricity in the Keystone State–an absolute catastrophe for the Marcellus industry. The vote was 130-70, which is not enough to override a promised veto by PA’s extremely unpopular Governor, Tom Wolf, who is attempting to force the state to join RGGI without approval by the state legislature, something not done in any of the other 11 members of RGGI (mostly liberal northeastern states).
Read More “PA House Votes to Reject RGGI Carbon Tax, Gov. Wolf to Veto”
Electrical Generation | Illinois | Industrywide Issues

5 Antis Show Up to Oppose Central Illinois Gas-Fired Power Plant
December 17, 2021April 20, 2022

In June 2017, MDN reported that EmberClear, based in Houston, TX, wants to build a $1 billion, 1,100 megawatt combined-cycle natural gas-fired plant about 15 miles from Springfield, Illinois, in Pawnee (see NatGas and Coal Go to War in Central Illinois). In April 2018, Springfield city alderman approved a deal for what is now called the Lincoln Land Energy Center to purchase “at least” 80,000 gallons of water per day from City Water, Light and Power (CWLP) for a cool $29,000 per month (see Central Illinois Gas-Fired Power Plant One Step Closer to Reality). The radicalized Sierra Club (which uses foreign money) continues to try and block the project by blocking a key permit. The Clubbers organized a huge, over-the-top, massive rally against the plant–and five Clubbers showed up.
Read More “5 Antis Show Up to Oppose Central Illinois Gas-Fired Power Plant”
Industrywide Issues | Research

Enverus Rig Count @ 716 (+16); Marcellus @ 35 (-1), Utica @ 12 (+0)
December 17, 2021April 20, 2022

The latest weekly Enverus U.S. rig count shows total rigs in use hitting another new post-pandemic high. For the week ending December 15, the rig count stood at 716, up 16 rigs from the previous week. Last week the count was up 12 rigs. That’s an extra 28 rigs in the past two weeks! Once again we have hit a new high since the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020. The Marcellus lost one rig and now has 35 active rigs. The Utica stayed even from the previous week with 12 active rigs. Collectively the M-U currently operates 47 rigs.
Read More “Enverus Rig Count @ 716 (+16); Marcellus @ 35 (-1), Utica @ 12 (+0)”