UGI Sues Rockdale Investors Over “Brazen Scheme” to Break Pipe Contract
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). In October Rockdale filed a lawsuit to break its pipeline contract with UGI (see Rockdale Bankruptcy Gets Messier – Sues UGI to Break Pipe Contract). Last Friday UGI fired back, filing its own lawsuit against Rockdale’s investors claiming their attempt to break the pipeline contract with UGI is a “brazen scheme” to acquire all the assets of Rockdale through a bankruptcy sale and either force UGI to grant them millions of dollars in concessions under the gathering agreement or, alternatively, eliminate the gathering agreement altogether so they can build their own pipeline.
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This morning Diversified Energy announced it is expanding methane emissions detection at the company’s operations in the Appalachian Basin by deploying an extra 500 handheld detection devices (in addition to 100 already in use) at its work sites. Diversified owns close to 8 million acres of leases with some 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells (with over 400 Marcellus/Utica shale wells). Diversified’s strategy is to seek wells in “the long tail.” That is, wells already drilled with production far along the decline curve. Most of the wells in their inventory are older conventional wells. However, as shale wells begin to age and produce less, Diversified is also buying into the shale market.
ECA Marcellus Trust I, traded over-the-counter on the pink sheets, canceled distributions (dividends) to investors for the first three quarters of 2020 due to the pandemic and the crash in oil and gas prices. The company restarted paying dividends in 4Q20–a grand total of 9/10ths of one penny per unit (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: NEPA moves ahead while Philadelphia leaders let it languish; NATIONAL: USA has arsenal of tools to battle high oil prices; Why U.S. shale won’t go to war with OPEC+; Shale operators stay the course despite oil price rally; U.S. won’t share Europe’s natural gas woes this year; Carbon capture and sequestration’s growing role in the energy industry; Granholm takes gas price blame shifting to new heights in Sunday interview; As LNG prices surge, North American project development languishes; INTERNATIONAL: PetroChina expects tight global natural gas supply to ease in 2022; Russia is no longer Europe’s reliable gas supplier.
We have some exciting, and exclusive, news to share with the MDN audience. We previously told you that the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) was behaving like a child, dragging its collective heels to prevent two side-by-side injection wells in Belmont County developed by Omni Energy from beginning operation (see 
In January 2016, Invenergy announced its intention to build a natgas-powered electric plant in Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County (see 
We were encouraged in September when the Connecticut State Supreme Court upheld the Connecticut Siting Council’s approval for NTE Energy’s proposed project to build a 650-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Killingly, CT (see 
Democrats, who are truly desperate and hoping that massive theft of some people’s money to use in bribing other people to vote for them, finally passed a $1.2 trillion so-called infrastructure bill last Friday. It’s a “Hail, Mary” move aimed at trying to retain some of their power, which they will certainly lose in the 2022 election. Here’s what to know about the bill, which tries (but ultimately fails) to reduce the use of fossil fuels: Of the $1.2 trillion allocated over the next five-plus years, only $110 billion (or 9%) of it will actually be used for infrastructure–roads, bridges, etc.
Nearly two weeks ago MDN brought you the news that Southwestern Energy was in talks to buy a second (for them) Haynesville driller, GeoSouthern, for $1.7 billion (see 
While yesterday’s news that Southwestern Energy has brokered a deal to purchase a second Haynesville driller (see today’s lead story), Southwestern also issued its third quarter update yesterday. Let’s not overlook that important news! While Southwestern’s natural gas production continues to increase due to acquisitions, the big news (for us) is the drubbing the company took on hedges/derivatives. Southwestern lost $2 BILLION on bad hedges, leading to a quarterly net loss for shareholders of $1.86 billion. The company reported total production of 310 Bcfe (billion cubic feet), averaging 3.4 Bcfe per day.
In September a cabal of virulent anti-fossil fuel groups, including the Sierra Club, Clean Air Council, PennFuture, Earthworks, and Mountain Watershed Association (all of which hate oil and natural gas), launched their latest attack against the Pennsylvania oil and gas industry. The groups sent a request to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) lobbying for a dramatic increase in the amount of money drillers must post as a bond when drilling a new well. Unfortunately, the DEP listened and is acting on that request.
What the heck is going on? First, the EPA under Biden is making a massive power grab to control oil and gas drilling (in contravention to the U.S. Constitution) by issuing methane regulations and the oil and gas industry is just laying down and taking it, after opposing the very same thing under Obama in 2016 (see