Employment (and Profits) at Oilfield Services Cos. Roaring Back
We spotted an article on OilPrice.com (no friend of the oil and gas industry, despite the name of the site) that makes the bold claim that “oilfield services companies are making a full comeback.” That’s music to our ears! Oilfield services companies including Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and National Oilwell Varco are reporting that prices for their services and equipment have “bottomed out” and they are now recruiting new workers. Since February some 27,000 OFS laid-off workers have returned to work.
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In March we told you about House of Representatives (HR) Bill 1512, the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s Future Act (or CLEAN Future Act). The bill gives vast powers to the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA to set new regulatory demands before permits can be approved for facilities that produce plastics or the raw materials used to produce plastics, such as ethylene or propylene (see 
If you’ve been reading MDN over the past few months, no doubt you’ve detected our skepticism over the sudden rise of ESG (environmental, social, governance) programs that are now all the rage with oil and gas companies, including Marcellus/Utica companies. As we previously stated, “We’re approaching the point where we’ll puke if we hear much more about ESG. The problem, from our perspective, is that the term itself is nebulous. Anyone can define ESG any way they want. What does ESG really mean?” So when we spotted an article titled “How to tell a real oil and gas ESG program from a fake,” we just had to read it.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Cimarex upgraded to Buy at BofA in spite of Cabot deal that ‘may not close’; Rice Acquisition IPO raises $345M; We must invest in pipeline infrastructure; NATIONAL: Court finds environmentalists’ challenge to Trump NEPA rule too early in process; Exxon Mobil to cut us workforce by up to 10% annually; INTERNATIONAL: Russian drillers rejoice as oil continues to rally.
We finally come to the end of a saga that began nearly three years ago, in Sept. 2018 when six men were 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 
In May MDN brought you the news that landowner Gateway Royalty was sounding the alarm over a new bill quickly advancing in the Ohio legislature. House Bill (HB) 152 would use forced pooling if 65% of a proposed unit’s landowners are leased (too low a bar) and also would force the landowner to accept a 12.5% royalty and force them to accept post-production deductions with royalties in some cases potentially going down to nothing (see 
As temperatures rise across the U.S. and Americans flip on air conditioning which makes a big draw on the electric grid, stocks of natural gas in storage are decreasing. Natgas is used to generate electricity. When there’s less supply to meet existing or growing demand, economics 101 tells us the price of the good or service (in this case natural gas) goes up. And indeed that’s exactly what’s happening. As the price of natgas increases, so too does the share price for M-U drillers.
Each quarter NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) runs the numbers and publishes a list of the 25 top natural gas marketers in the U.S. These are not necessarily the top 25 producers of natural gas (although in some cases they are), but the top 25 sellers (vendors, jobbers) of natural gas. NGI’s latest quarterly report shows overall the biggest sellers of natgas “lost ground” once again in 1Q21, which continues a two-year trend of year over year declines in the amount of gas sold.
A small group of extremist left-wing Democrats in Pittsburgh are demanding Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, himself a Democrat and long-time supporter of the Marcellus Shale industry, turn against shale. Last week around 30 fossil fuel haters delivered a petition signed by 300 fellow haters to Fitzgerald’s office. He didn’t cave to the pressure, so the haters became more aggressive, going to Fitzgerald’s house yesterday in their attempts to bully him into submission. The cops told them to clear out or get arrested.
As we told you in April, President Biden launched a new program to be funded with $109.5 million aimed at figuring out how to convince fossil fuel workers to be happy taking a huge pay cut and installing solar panels and windmills instead of making far more money in a far more meaningful job working in fossil fuels (see 
Last December Dan Rice IV, former CEO of Rice Energy and member of the EQT board of directors, launched a “blank check” acquisition firm, called Rice Acquisition Corp., to invest in various energy ventures. Dan found that something-to-invest-in just a few months later in the form of acquiring and merging together Archaea Energy and Aria Energy into a single company focused on providing renewable natural gas (RNG) and “green” hydrogen (see 
A preliminary report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine finds the transportation of LNG (liquefied natural gas) by various methods–sea, road, AND by rail–is perfectly safe. Currently, LNG is not widely transported by rail in the U.S., but rail is used in other countries to transport LNG. Last year Congress instructed the government-funded National Academies to study the issue. They’ve issued a preliminary study called “Preparing for LNG by Rail Tank Car: A Review of a U.S. DOT Safety Research, Testing, and Analysis Initiative” (full copy below).
What a major disappointment the Joe Biden administration has been for the country as a whole, and the oil and gas industry in particular. The Biden administration is packed with far-left socialists. The Dept. of Energy is the latest repository. A few days ago DOE announced another round of appointments to important positions within the agency. Most of them have zero experience in the energy industry. Most of them are political operatives (i.e. hacks) who ran the Biden campaign in various states during last year’s election. It’s political patronage–nothing new about that (happens on both sides of the aisle). The problem is the great damage this bunch will do to oil and gas during their hopefully brief tenure.