Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Apr 30, 2021
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Dakota Access to seek Supreme Court review in oil pipeline fight; Largest LNG vessel ever to load at US terminal departs Cheniere’s Sabine Pass; NATIONAL: Biden’s first 100 days of oil and gas action: he’s just getting started; EIA: LNG exports remain flat, while natural gas prices rise; US land drillers see improving activity in 2021 as E&Ps expand operating spheres; INTERNATIONAL: Why won’t environmentalists speak out against forced labor for China-made solar panels?
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Apr 30, 2021”
Last November Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), filed for a “pre-arranged” Chapter 11 bankruptcy (see 
According to an extensive article appearing in the Pipeline & Gas Journal, “the oil and gas industry [in the Marcellus/Utica] is ready to pick up where it left off in 2019.” The Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA) says “2021 is looking up.” However, nobody in the midstream is planning to build new pipelines anytime soon. That spells trouble ahead for prices. Increasing production without new pipeline capacity to transport the increased production to other markets equals stagnant (or even falling) prices.
One of the criticisms often leveled against the shale industry is that shale drillers have destroyed shareholder value (the price of company stock) over the past decade or so (see 
It seems that EQT is a trendsetter. In January EQT announced it would partner with a Denver, CO company calling itself “Project Canary” to run a test on two of its shale gas pads, to prove the natural gas produces is “certified responsibly sourced.” A few weeks ago Chesapeake Energy said it would also use Project Canary (see 
Ohio’s Seventh District Court recently delivered a ruling that affects landowners/rights owners as well as drillers. In Tomechko v. Garrett (full copy below), the justices ruled that “adverse possession” of shallow gas rights expands to include deep gas rights (i.e. shale rights) in cases where shallow production “modified the subterranean structure.” According to the legal experts at Frost Brown Todd, “the Seventh District’s ruling strains credulity” and has the potential to “have unintended consequences and will almost certainly result in greater uncertainty and litigation.”
Three Republican-in-Name-Only (RINO) U.S. Senators–Susan Collins from Maine (no surprise, she’s really a Democrat), Rob Portman from Ohio (kind of a surprise, although he is a swamp dweller), and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina (more of a surprise, he’s now reverting to his swamp-dwelling roots) have voted with every single lock-step, mind-numbed Democrat Senator (all 50 of them) to overturn President Trump’s commonsense tweaking of Obama’s extreme overregulation of methane emissions.
Range Resources, the very first driller to sink a Marcellus well (back in 2004), released its first-quarter 2021 update and held a conference yesterday to review the numbers. The company reports the highest average premium (above benchmark) it has ever received for a barrel of natural gas liquids (NGLs) in Q1. Pricing was an average $26.35 a barrel for NGLs, up $8.33 a barrel compared to 4Q20 and up from $14.87 a barrel in 1Q20. However, the company reports a drop in income, down 84% from 1Q20. Fortunately, Range still made money in 1Q21–$27 million of income based on $193 million in cash flow.
On April 6 the Weymouth, Mass. compressor station experienced its third “unplanned release” of methane and was shut down (see 
Here’s a connection we hadn’t made until we read about yesterday’s oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in PennEast Pipeline vs. New Jersey. The connection is this: The PennEast case also has huge ramifications for another currently-stalled M-U pipeline. Columbia Gas wants to build a tiny 3.37-mile, 8-inch pipeline under the Potomac River from Maryland to West Virginia. It is being blocked from doing so by the lefties in Maryland (see 
