Enverus Rig Count @ 541 (+13); Marcellus @ 32 (+1), Utica @ 13 (+0)
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.
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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.
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.
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 
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 
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?
Due to a severe winter storm in the nation’s midsection in February, natural gas spot prices across the country went crazy (see 
In January EQT Corporation 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” (see 
In what can only be characterized as a complete and utter failure of a Big Green lawsuit, yesterday a Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) judge ordered Sunoco Logistics, builder of the Mariner East pipeline system, to pay a $2,000 fine (the equivalent of a few high-priced lunches) and talk more to local groups around Philadelphia that want to complain about the project. That’s the end result of a request by seven antis that began in November 2018 asking the PUC to shut down the entire three-pipeline project (see 
There’s a lot of gum-flapping about sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) these days. It seems as if every upstream and midstream company has suddenly gotten the ESG religion. But at the end of the day, what does it actually mean? How do companies really effect positive change, not just talk about it? CNX Resources doesn’t just talk a good game. CNX is investing $30 million to focus on local, underserved communities and populations in the tri-state region. CNX is looking for real results, not just pretty slide shows to show investors.
Just as we predicted, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under Democrat Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick, his sidekick the former NRDC lawyer (Democrat) Allison Clements, and backstabbing, swamp-dwelling RINO Neil Chatterjee, is effectively killing off new pipeline projects. The three FERC commissioners have colluded to fundamentally change the way natural gas and oil pipelines are evaluated by including mythological man-made global warming as one of the criteria for approval.
Only Pennsylvania, of the three active Marcellus/Utica drilling states, issued new shale drilling permits last week. But PA’s permits were more than enough to make up for Ohio and West Virginia. PA issued 20 new permits in 7 different counties, scattered across the state (although most of the permits were issued in the dry gas northeastern part of the state).