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28 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Oct 18-24
Last week Pennsylvania issued 21 permits to drill new shale wells. Most of the permits went to two well pads, one in Butler County drilled by PennEnergy Resources and the other in Tioga County drilled by Repsol. Ohio issued six new permits, three to Encino Energy, two to Utica Resource Operating, and one to Ascent Resources. West Virginia, for the second week in a row, issued just one new permit. Last week’s WV permit went to Tug Hill Operating in Marshall County.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Gov. Murphy will eliminate natural gas in NJ; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Texas upstream employment rises; NATIONAL: Raymond James sees more upside for natgas prices in 2022, raises projections; Third-quarter profits to sparkle for shale producers without hedges; Are we headed for $100 crude oil? And then what?; Oil billionaire schools Biden on gas prices: ‘It’s all about economics 101’; INTERNATIONAL: Energy squeeze will trigger unrest; Big Oil about to post highest cash flow in 13+ years.
Everyone is scratching their heads trying to figure out why, given the price natural gas is fetching in both the futures and physical spot price market, natural gas drillers don’t drill more wells. The excuse given is that budgets are cast, plans made, and by gosh companies are finally showing fiscal discipline and sticking to their plans because if they don’t, investors will scream bloody murder. The last time we checked investors don’t mind spending a little more money to drill new wells if it puts more money in their pockets! That message finally seems to be getting through. Yesterday U.S. natural gas production surged to its highest level since late August (when Hurricane Ida struck, shutting down natgas production in the Gulf). Most of the gains came from more production in the Marcellus/Utica.
In August, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP, owned by Equitrans Midstream) filed a subpoena in federal court to find out who recklessly promoted a meeting of a group of anti-pipeline zealots, encouraging them to gather close to (50 feet from) explosives being used to blast through rock to install MVP, putting themselves and workers in harm’s way and causing delays to pipeline construction (see 
Another MVP (Mountain Valley Pipeline) story in the news today. In August 2018 MDN told you about a group of six Franklin County, VA landowners who sued to block the construction of MVP across their property (see 
In July the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a plan by Dominion Energy to clean up and “undo” the work done for the company’s previous Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project (see 
In the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest Winter Fuels Outlook, the EIA forecasts that U.S. households that primarily use natural gas for space heating will spend an average of $746 on heating this winter (October-March), which is $172, or 30%, more than last year. Natural gas is the primary heating fuel for nearly half (48%) of U.S. homes. This situation of high prices for American consumers is NOT because we are exporting LNG. It’s happening for a variety of reasons that can be boiled down into two main causes: (1) not enough pipelines, and (2) pressure by woke, pimple-faced Millennial investors to divest from oil and gas companies, meaning lack of capital and lack of will on the part of drillers to drill more wells.
Two weeks ago MDN brought you a summary of the latest efforts in the Marcellus/Utica midstream and upstream to create so-called responsibly sourced gas (see 
What role do hydrogen (H2) and carbon capture and sequestration (CSS) play in the future of the Marcellus/Utica (and all oil and gas)? That’s the gajillion-dollar question. Will H2 and CSS play a big role? Minor role? Is H2 the fuel of the future, really? No one knows, but we can’t afford to ignore it. The number one source for the manufacture and creation of H2 is…natural gas. If the H2 market takes off, it could be an important new customer for M-U molecules. You can get a front-row seat to learn more about H2, CSS, and the intersection of them with the M-U at the 
In early June Southwestern Energy Company announced it would no longer be a pureplay Marcellus/Utica driller. Southwestern said it was buying Indigo Natural Resources, which drills for natural gas in the Louisana Haynesville Shale (see 
A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT, in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT finally struck out legally at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in May 2020 (see 
Last week America’s Rural Energy Coalition (AREC), a national organization created by rural community stakeholders and industry representatives from across the country to build sustainable rural communities by maximizing the opportunities and minimizing the challenges presented to them as a result of the development of their regional energy resources, held a regional meeting in Bradford County, PA. While AREC advocates for safe development of all forms of energy in rural America, front and center at last week’s meeting was the mighty Marcellus Shale and the critical role of oil and natural gas in the lives of every citizen on planet earth (and to the people of PA).
For years Chesapeake Energy has been the stepchild of the oil and gas investment world. Former CEO Aubrey McClendon, who founded Chesapeake as a natural gas-focused driller, larded the company up with debt–there’s no denying that. But then McClendon’s successor, Doug Lawler, compounded the problem (made it fatal) by attempting to convert the company into an oil company by purchasing an oil driller in the Eagle Ford for $4 billion in 2018 (see 
In April 2019, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to review Section 401 of the Clean Water Act–the section that grants states (and tribes) the right to have a say in pipeline projects (see 
Although Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick is a nutty leftist, he’s not stupid. Glick can see that within a month or two there will be widespread shortages of natural gas available to feed gas-fired power plants, particularly in places like New England. Glick has voted against every single interstate pipeline project to come before him over the last three years he’s been a commissioner, claiming the pipes would contribute to mythical global warming. Now his actions are beginning to bite him on the rump with coming shortages. So what does he do? He blames LNG exports and tells power plants they better grab all the gas contracts they can now, so they can keep operating this winter.