MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Meet “Freddy the Flame” PA’s natural gas mascot; NATIONAL: Landmen who once staked claims for oil and gas now hunt wind and sun; Last winter saw larger-than-average U.S. natural gas withdrawals from storage; Interior head Haaland revokes Trump-era orders on energy; INTERNATIONAL: Eliminating Ontario natural gas generation to inflict financial pain on consumers.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Apr 19, 2021”
Last October Energy Transfer (Sunoco Pipeline) pushed back against a demand by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) that the company’s Mariner East 2X pipeline project be rerouted one mile around Marsh Creek State Park (in Chester County, PA) following a drilling mud spill in August (see Sunoco Appeals DEP Order to Reroute ME2 Pipe from Marsh Creek Park). Sunoco asked the PA Environmental Hearing Board, a special court created to hear appeals of DEP decisions, to override the DEP’s demand to reroute ME2X. ET/Sunoco has just proposed its own tweak to the Marsh Creek plan, a slight reroute of 1,400 feet instead of the DEP’s one mile, and a change to using open trench construction, away from using underground horizontal directional drilling.
Read More “Sunoco Proposes ME2 Pipe Reroute at Marsh Creek Lake Location”
Is there something weird in the water over at EQT headquarters? Yesterday the company issued a statement supporting the draconian, over-the-top federal methane emissions rule implemented under Lord Obama that goes way beyond reasonable when it comes to trapping every last molecule of methane (extremely costly with no real benefit to the environment). President Trump wisely rescinded the Obama rule two months after taking office, back in 2017 (see Energy Sanity Day: Trump Exec Order Axes CPP, Methane Rule). Now EQT is going all PC (politically correct) and supporting the reinstatement of that onerous rule.
Read More “EQT Supports Reinstatement of Draconian Federal Methane Rule”
Some good news to share. GoExpedi, a “supply chain, e-commerce and analytics company” based in Houston, Texas, opened a 15,000 square foot warehouse in North Fayette earlier this week. The company provides supplies to oil, gas, and industrial companies. The company’s database offers more than 200,000 parts and supplies. This is the company’s first northeast hub.
Read More “Houston Co. Opens Branch Location in Pittsburgh to Supply Shale Cos.”
Canadian Midstream giant Enbridge, which owns the Texas Eastern Transmission Company (TETCO) pipeline system in the U.S., is expanding capacity along TETCO in Pennsylvania and beyond in order to flow more Marcellus gas to customers including UGI Utilities and utility companies in New Jersey. We first spotted a story about expanding TETCO in PA to UGI by an extra 18 MMcf/d, pulled on that thread and discovered several active TETCO projects in the M-U region.
Read More “Enbridge Expanding Texas Eastern Pipeline Capacity in PA”
A new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (full copy below) will no doubt be used by anti-fossil fuel zealots to try and substantiate a lie they’ve been spreading for decades, claiming that shale wells leak–both fluids and gas. The study, unfortunately, has the veneer of respectability because one of the authors is connected to the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Pittsburgh. The main researcher/author hails from Johns Hopkins University, a well-known, fossil fuel-hating organization. We will tell you why this latest attempt to smear shale comes up short.
Read More “New Study Claims 14% of PA O&G Wells Drilled Before 2018 May Leak”
A lawsuit against the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and their illegal ban on hydraulic fracturing filed by a group of Republican Senators from Pennsylvania continues to heat up in federal court. Two more counties (Philadelphia suburbs) have filed to “intervene” against the lawsuit (they like the ban). There’s talk of another county joining the lawsuit on the supportive side. Anti-fossil fuelers are spitting and sputtering because if this lawsuit moves forward and prevails, the DRBC will either be bankrupted or forced to rescind its ban on fracking.
Read More “Lawsuit Over DRBC “Taking” of Property Rights Heats Up in Court”
The Enverus U.S. rig count continues to climb, dramatically. For the week ending April 14, the U.S. rig count climbed another 13 active rigs to 541. The Marcellus added a rig ending the week with 32 active rigs. The Ohio Utica stayed even with 13 active rigs. The M-U combined has 45 active rigs. The other major shale gas play, the Haynesville, lost one rig and now has 47 active rigs.
Read More “Enverus Rig Count @ 541 (+13); Marcellus @ 32 (+1), Utica @ 13 (+0)”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Another Marcellus shale well pad coming to Upper Burrell; Muhlenberg poll finds health concerns over fracking, climate change decline in PA; Newer-technology natural gas-fired generators are utilized more than older units in PJM; W.Va. high court orders judge disqualified from EQT lawsuits; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Council on Environmental Justice asks Northam to institute fossil fuel infrastructure ban; NATIONAL: U.S. Well Services files e-frac patent lawsuit against Halliburton, Cimarex Energy; Shale should withstand private equity pullback; Green spending is mere virtue signaling that hurts the poor; INTERNATIONAL: NFE to supply Norsk Hydro’s Brazil plant with LNG.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Apr 16, 2021”
We hate reporting these kinds of stories because of the pain and suffering experienced by the family involved, but report it we must. A contract worker (46-year-old man) who was working at a Cabot Oil & Gas well pad off Hoag Hill Road in Rush Twp. (Susquehanna County, PA) around midnight Tuesday was injured at the pad and rushed to the hospital in Montrose, PA. He later died at the hospital.
Read More “Contract Worker Injured at Cabot Well Pad in Northeast PA Dies”
Just yesterday MDN told you that Chesapeake Energy had enrolled in the same program EQT Corporation previously enrolled in to certify its natural gas as “responsibly sourced” (see Chesapeake Signs Up with “Responsibly Sourced Gas” Program). A day later EQT announced it will use a different program, actually two new and different programs, to certify the bulk of its natural gas production.
Read More “EQT Goes All-in with NatGas Certification – Using Combo of Standards”
This year’s 60-day session of the West Virginia legislature, which ended at the stroke of midnight on Sunday, saw a flurry of oil and gas-related bills. Perhaps the most important such bill for the industry, to expand forced pooling, failed (see West Virginia Forced Pooling Bill is Dead for Another Year). However, another important bill, one that changes how oil and gas wells are valued for property taxes, passed after getting a major makeover (see WV Passes Bill to Change O&G Well Valuations for Taxes). There were other bills related to O&G, some of which passed, others that did not.
Read More “Summary of WV Bills Passed and Defeated Related to Oil & Gas”
What do you do with someone (actually an entire political party) willing to overturn the legal and binding decisions made in a previous administration? They simply wave their magic leftist wand and undo a project, like a legally permitted compressor station that’s already built and running. Just shut it down. It’s Third World stuff. Yet that’s precisely what Richard “Dick” Glick, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), says he’s willing to do, justifying his actions by saying he’s somehow “protecting the public.” This is what we warned you would happen in a Joe Biden administration–and now it is.
Read More “FERC’s Glick Confirms He’s Willing to Shut Down Active Pipelines”
The short answer to the question posed in our headline is this: There is no one definition for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs in the oil and gas sector. Everyone is making up their own definition as they go. Yesterday we told you how CNX is defining ESG, in very specific, measurable terms (see CNX Investing $30M in Underprivileged Communities in Tri-state Area). Also yesterday, we told you about Chesapeake Energy signing up for the same certification program EQT previously signed up for, called Project Canary, to prove their ESG crediblity (see Chesapeake Signs Up with “Responsibly Sourced Gas” Program). Today, in another post, we tell you about EQT expanding beyond Project Canary, enrolling in two more certification programs.
Read More “How, Exactly, Do Oil & Gas Companies Define ESG?”
As an article in Offshore Energy says, “LNG as a fuel should be a no-brainer” for the shipping industry. LNG used for marine applications (powering ships) is an important and expanding market for natural gas, including Marcellus/Utica gas. However, the adoption of LNG in the newbuilding sector “seems to be rather slow.” Why is that?
Read More “Why is Shipping – Important Market for NatGas – Slow to Use LNG?”
NATIONAL: Pioneer’s CEO warns of OPEC+ price war if U.S. production surges; In the climate change fight, the Interior Department becomes a battlefield; Climate media vs. climate science; CNN staffer boasts to Project Veritas that network peddled anti-Trump ‘propaganda’; Bipartisan Senate bill would direct billions to plugging wells.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Apr 15, 2021”