NY DEC Releases Plan to Kill Off What’s Left of Oil & Gas Industry
It’s now obvious to even the dullest person that Andrew Cuomo and his completely corrupted Dept. of Environmental Conservation has one mission in mind with respect to the state’s oil and gas industry: Kill it. It began when Cuomo first placed a moratorium, later a permanent ban on hydraulic fracturing in the state (see Cuomo PERMANENTLY Bans NY Fracking in Now-Adopted Budget). The assault on New York O&G continues with an announcement yesterday by DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos (a Rockefeller stooge) that the DEC will soon release regulations to “reduce methane emissions from oil and natural gas sector.”
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EQT Corporation, the nation’s largest natural gas producer (focused 100% on the Marcellus/Utica), held its annual meeting yesterday. This meeting had a lot less drama than the meeting in 2019, just two years ago, when brothers Toby and Derek Rice successfully took over the company (see 
In September 2018, MDN brought you the news that six men had been charged with conspiring to illegally alter emissions systems on 30+ trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines, trucks used to haul water and wastewater to and from Marcellus Shale wells (see 
Anti-fossil fuel zealots are certainly persistent in their holy mission to destroy the use of all fossil fuels. None more so than the extremists at the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). The NRDC rounded up a group of 60 equally radicalized groups and sent a joint letter to a bunch of sympathetic radicals working in the Biden administration (Sec. of Interior, EPA Administrator, Sec. of Agriculture, among others) encouraging them to shut down a multi-billion natural gas pipeline that is 92% built and in the ground: Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
State legislators in Pennsylvania are attempting to restore some sanity to overregulation inflicted by unelected bureaucracies in the state, like the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). Republicans have introduced and are pushing along a couple of bills that will reign in the DEP (and other overzealous agencies) in PA. One bill requires the legislature to approve any new regulation that impacts a regulated community by more than $1 million. Another bill allows third parties to assist the DEP in reviewing and approving certain permits. The DEP can’t seem to get its act together and there are always loooong delays in approving new permits.
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received a whopping 17 new permits spread across various counties and drillers. Ohio received just 2 new permits last week, both for Ascent Resources on the same pad. And West Virginia received a big 12 new permits split between two drillers: Antero Resources and Tug Hill Operating.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EQT board member passes away unexpectedly; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Legendary natural gas trader sees ‘seismic shift’ in Houston’s oil patch; NATIONAL: Collins joins Democrats in bid to undo Trump methane emissions rollback; Clean Energy Fuels soars 27% on a deal with Amazon to supply renewable natural gas; Joe Biden’s EV dreams are just another government boondoggle; INTERNATIONAL: World Bank: natural gas unlikely to play leading role in cutting maritime emissions; Why natural gas won’t be replaced anytime soon.
American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, is a small but diversified company. They have their fingers in a number of different oil and gas pies, including subsidies in drilling, remediation, water, valuation services, and education. AEPT announced a new deal today to purchase three conventional oil and gas operators with assets in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia for $10.8 million. The three operators (unnamed) come with a collective 467 conventional wells and 1,250 MMcfe/d of natural gas production.
Cue the music and begin singing: Happy Birthday to You! Energy Transfer (ET), the midstream (pipeline) giant headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is celebrating its 25th year in business. The company began as a small intrastate pipeline company with 200 miles of natural gas pipes in east Texas and 20 employees. Today it owns more than 90,000 miles of pipelines crossing 38 states and Canada with nearly 10,000 employees. All in just 25 years. Hats off to co-founders Kelcy Warren and Ray Davis. ET owns a number of important pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica region.
Utility giant Duke Energy Corp. is in the process of modifying eight of its biggest coal-fired electric generating plants in North Carolina to burn natural gas instead. The work will cost Duke roughly $283 million. Work is already complete on six of the eight plants, with the final two slated to be done later this year. There is a tie-in with the Marcellus/Utica.
We spotted an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about South Jersey Industries (owner of South Jersey Gas and Elizabethtown Gas utilities) announcing a commitment to eliminate all so-called greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations by 2040. This is what is often called net-zero carbon. Even with this major effort by SJI, the nutty Sierra Club refuses to give the company an attaboy. Instead, the Clubbers say the company should just close down all of its natural gas utility operations and…what?…let everyone freeze to death in the winter?
Terms are often thrown around that remain somewhat amorphous and undefined in our minds. Especially in a complex industry like oil and gas. What do certain terms really mean? Today we define what a “clean frac”–otherwise known as a “green completion”–actually means, and why it’s so appealing to pimple-faced, woke millennials who place a premium on ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing.
The American Energy Alliance (AEA) is raising the alarm of a conspiracy by Democrat Attorneys General from deep blue states colluding with Big Green groups to bypass Congress with a new round of sue-and-settle lawsuits. It is the equivalent of an overthrow of the legislative branch of the federal government. Here’s how the conspiracy works…