MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: West Virginia Gov. Justice to submit tax bill this week; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Exxon and Macquarie in $11.7 million U.S. lawsuit over gas contract; NATIONAL: Biden decision to kill Keystone XL could spell disaster down the tracks; Granholm wakes up DOE’s loan programs office, appoints Jigar Shah; U.S. climate czar urges oil industry to hasten transition to renewables.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Mar 4, 2021”
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released their latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for October through December 2020 (full copy below). There are two exciting bits of news coming from this report that (so far) nobody else is reporting: (1) After eight consecutive quarters (two years) of declining natgas production from shale (comparing the current quarter to the same quarter from the previous year), the trend reversed in 4Q20; and (2) even with all of the curtailments from Marcellus producers in PA last year, the state still produced a record high volume of natural gas–an all-time high record!
Read More “PA Natural Gas Production Hits New All-Time High in 2020”
The pandemic did its best to shut the world down, and maybe it succeeded in shutting down other countries–but not here in the US of A. Against an onslaught of shutdowns (particularly in “blue” states), people staying home, businesses closing, anarchy and chaos in large Democrat cities…and against an onslaught against fossil fuels by environmental Nazis seeking to destroy the economies of the world via bans of oil and natural gas and coal…U.S. natural gas production decreased by just 1 percent last year. Can you believe it? That’s a victory in our book!
Read More “Annual U.S. NatGas Production Decreased by Tiny 1% in 2020”
Two weeks ago MDN brought you the news that Summit Natural Gas of Maine, a regional utility company, announced plans to extend their service territory into Maine’s Midcoast region with a $90 million pipeline project (see Summit Natural Gas of Maine Plans Small $90M Pipe in Midcoast). The company’s expansion into Knox and Waldo Counties would bring natural gas to residential and commercial customers in communities along the Route 1 corridor. We asked this question at the time: Can even one square inch of new pipeline get built anywhere in the country, let alone liberal Maine? We now have the answer, at least for Maine: NO.
Read More “Environuts Cause Summit to Cancel $90M Pipe Project in Maine”
We’re done with the American Petroleum Institute (API) if they actually do what the Wall Street Journal says they’re about to do: Endorse and support a tax on carbon dioxide–the stuff you breathe out with every breath you take. Of course, API is largely controlled by huge multi-national corporations that don’t give a #$@! about the United States of America. Their only aim is to make money by putting their smaller competitors (called “independents”) out of business. The API is even rumored to now support the Paris Climate Accord, which is nothing more than abject theft of American wealth (via taxes) to give to other countries, with NO climate benefit. Yes, we’re done with the API.
Read More “API Getting Ready to Sell Out & Endorse Gas-Killing Carbon Tax”
Shell, one of the world’s biggest traders of LNG, released its fifth annual LNG Outlook report for 2021 last week (full copy below). Shell says global demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) increased from 358 million tonnes (Mt) in 2019 to 360 Mt in 2020. It would have been a lot higher had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown of the worldwide economy. Hauling out the crystal ball, Shell makes a compelling case in the latest Outlook that worldwide demand for LNG will double to 700 Mt by 2040–in under 20 years! Can you imagine?
Read More “Shell Predicts Global LNG Demand Will Double to 700 Mt by 2040”
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 7 new permits. In something of a twist, Ohio received 15 new permits (two companies), far more permits than we’ve seen in some time. And West Virginia received 5 new permits.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Feb 22-26”
NATIONAL: Permian Basin oil growth may hinge on ExxonMobil, Chevron activity; US shale stakes out a future in changed energy landscape; Laid-off pipeline worker: The Biden administration ‘has taken my livelihood from me’; INTERNATIONAL: Worldwide LNG market a ‘big boy game,’ says Qatar Petroleum CEO; OPEC oil has advantage over U.S. shale during pandemic recovery; Oil executives eye important role for natural gas.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Mar 3, 2021”
Some two and a half years after Energy Transfer’s (ET) Revolution Pipeline entered service in western Pennsylvania and exploded following a landslide, the pipeline finally returned to service yesterday. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a press release to say it had extracted another $125,000 from ET and has allowed the pipeline to resume service.
Read More “PA DEP Finally Allows Revolution Pipe to Restart – After $125K Fine”
In September 2016, local utility company Duke Energy filed a plan to build a critically-needed natural gas pipeline near Cincinnati, OH to replace an old pipeline built in the 1950s. Duke needs to replace the pipe or some of the half-million Duke customers in the region won’t get natural gas anymore. Following multiple revisions to the plan to satisfy anti-pipeline wackos (who will never be satisfied), in November 2019 the Ohio Power Siting Board gave Duke final approval to build the Central Corridor Gas Pipeline Project along an alternative route (see Ohio Approves Duke Energy 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe). Duke announced yesterday they have finally begun work on the project.
Read More “Duke Energy Finally Begins to Build 14-Mile Cincinnati NatGas Pipe”
A few weeks ago during his “State of the State” address, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced a plan to eliminate the state’s personal income tax. Who wouldn’t love that idea? We sure would! But in order to replace the $2.1 billion received annually from the personal income tax, Justice would raise other taxes, including a tiered system that potentially raises the state’s oil and gas severance tax. We don’t like that idea so much. However, the reaction to Justice’s proposal by the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia (GO-WV) may surprise you.
Read More “WV Gov. Floats Plan to Eliminate Income Tax, Raise Severance Tax”
In the closing hours of the 2014 West Virginia legislative session, the legislature passed SB373, the Aboveground Storage Tank Act (see Fate of 3 WV Laws that Impact Marcellus/Utica Drilling). The bill, which was signed into law, was in response to a chemical leak that affected the drinking water for 300,000 WV residents. Even though the leak was not related to oil and gas drilling (it was related to coal mining), the new rules governing above ground storage tanks for chemicals affect a number of industries, including the Marcellus Shale drilling industry (see Impact of WV’s New Chemical Tank Law on Marcellus Drillers). Over the years several attempts have been made to relax the over-restrictive new rules for the oil and gas industry. Another such attempt is underway this year.
Read More “Bill to Ease WV Oil & Gas Storage Tank Inspections Gets Pushback”
Last Wednesday Stephanie Catarino Wissman, Executive Director of API (American Petroleum Institute) of Pennsylvania provided a “State of the State” update to the PA House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee. She discussed a number of topics, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Marcellus Shale.
Read More “API’s “State of the State” for Oil & Gas Industry in Pennsylvania”
You have to admire Canadian driller Questerre Energy–they never give up. Questerre has patiently waited for years to begin drilling on their extensive Utica Shale acreage in the St. Lawrence Lowlands of Quebec, Canada. Quebec is like New York–completely closed to the oil and gas industry, particularly shale and fracking (see Quebec to Ban Utica Shale Drilling, Most Other Drilling Too). And yet Questerre keeps trying. Now the company is touting hydrogen (from natural gas) as the reason they should be allowed to drill in the Utica. Will this new argument work?
Read More “Questerre Still Trying to Convince Quebec to Let Them Drill Utica”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian in market for more Haynesville assets to feed Driftwood LNG; Cheniere eyes start of LNG output from ninth train by end of 2021; NATIONAL: Trump: Biden’s policies to bring ‘energy disaster’ to the U.S.; Fossil fuel demand seen growing through 2030s; Privately-held shale drillers poised to create headaches for OPEC; Opposing natural gas pipelines means opposing natural gas users; Midstreamers’ ESG agendas focus on reining in methane, CO2 emissions.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Mar 2, 2021”
The data crunchers at the Pittsburgh Business Times have been sifting through the data for 2020 and have composed a list of the “Largest Pennsylvania Shale Gas Drillers in 2020.” The PBT list ranks drillers by the number of wells drilled in PA for all time, including right up through the end of 2020. We resorted their list to reveal the number of wells “added” (drilled) in PA for 2020, to generate the following list of the top 10 drillers from 2020:
Read More “Top 10 Shale Drillers in PA for 2020, by Number of Wells Drilled”