Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Nov 15, 2021
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EQT recognized for advancing women’s leadership and board diversity; Pittsburgh shoots itself in the head with so-called energy strategy for builders; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas in storage in early November is 3% below the recent average; Wake up America! China is making fools of us on energy!; Why are oil prices so high when the U.S. remains one of the world’s largest producers?; Shale drilling could accelerate soon; US shale basin merger and acquisition activity surpasses seven-year high; INTERNATIONAL: Oil and gas will be in the global energy system ‘for decades,’ BP chief says; Europe’s first winter cold spell already straining natural gas supplies.
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Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon doesn’t typically do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company typically does the drilling. Epsilon issued its third quarter update on Wednesday. The company’s Marcellus net gas production was 2.6 Bcf (billion cubic feet) in total for 3Q21, compared to 3.0 Bcf of net gas production in 3Q20 (a 13% decrease). However, revenues were $13.1 million in 3Q21, compared to $5.8 million in 3Q20 (more than doubled). In addition to the 3Q numbers, we have an update on Epsilon’s lawsuit against its partner Chesapeake Energy.
We are stupified watching how the biased, leftwing mainstream media is treating utility company Spire (located in St. Louis) over the company’s recent statements warning natural gas customers their gas may run out if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) does not act to extend an emergency certificate authorizing the operation of a pipeline that’s been up and running for the past two years–Spire STL. Yesterday we told you about vicious attacks against Spire for simply speaking the truth (see 
Ohio’s House Bill (HB) 6 law granted billions (plural) of dollars to FirstEnergy in an attempt to prop up the company’s economically failing nuclear power plants. FirstEnergy bribed state legislators to pass, and keep passed, HB 6 by paying out $61 million to a small group of insiders, including the now-former Speaker of the House (see 
A coalition of upstream (drilling), midstream (pipeline), and downstream (utility) companies formed an industry group called ONE Future back in 2014. The aim of the group is to lower methane emissions across all aspects of the natural gas infrastructure system nationwide and to emit (lose into the atmosphere) no more than 1% by 2025. A number of Marcellus/Utica companies have joined (
In September MDN brought you a fantastic column by Paul Driessen, a senior policy advisor for CFACT (Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, a Washington, D.C. think tank), taking aim at so-called ESG, or environment, social, and governance programs, that are all the rage these days (see 
Has it really come to this? If a utility company that’s being attacked by anti-drilling zealots (Environmental Defense Fund) with help from a colluding federal court (U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit) dares to warn its customers they may experience an outage this winter because of the government closing down a critical natural gas pipeline, the utility company is put on the hot seat and made out to be the villain! Blame the victim!! Free speech is now under attack everywhere.
We are happy to blow the trumpet and support a brand new organization called the 
Last week the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched what we consider a full-on attack against the oil and gas industry when it unveiled new methane regulations (see 
For years Canadian company Questerre Energy patiently waited to begin drilling on their extensive Utica Shale acreage in the St. Lawrence Lowlands of Quebec, Canada. Quebec has been like New York–completely closed to the oil and gas industry, particularly shale and fracking (see 
If you have even the most basic education in economics (Econ 101) you will have come across the concept of commodities–things like gold, silver, corn, soybeans, oil, and (yes) natural gas. A commodity is something that no matter who produces it, the product itself is the same. A molecule of methane (CH4) is a molecule of methane, no matter who or how it gets produced. Consequently, the only factors that drive price for a commodity are availability and whoever has the lowest cost. Efforts to pretty up a commodity like natgas by claiming it is “responsibly sourced gas” (RSG), or it comes from the butt holes of cows and pigs and chickens (RNG), or is carbon-neutral LNG, are efforts to (in our opinion) snooker people into paying more for what is a garden-variety commodity. Are there people/companies willing to pay more if natgas is produced in a certain way or from a certain source?
Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its third quarter 2021 update yesterday. The company produced 1.98 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) during 3Q–nearly all of it, 1.83 MMcf/d–was natural gas, the rest was oil and NGLs. Ascent generated $28 million of free cash flow, but like other M-U drillers, hedging bets on derivatives resulted in a huge loss of $1.3 billion for the quarter.