Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia
Gas Pipeline Workers in PA, WV Win $1M in Back Wages/Overtime
A federal court in Pennsylvania upheld the findings of a U.S. Dept. of Labor investigation that oil and gas contract worker Henkels & McCoy Inc. owes big money in back wages and overtime to 362 workers at 11 worksites in five states, including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, Georgia, and (yes) even in New York too. The company must now pay $1,085,830 in back wages and damages.
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Range Resources has joined the bandwagon of Marcellus/Utica drillers paying homage to ESG (environmental, social, governance) concerns by pimple-faced Millennial investors who demand all companies, even oil and gas companies, bow down to the global warming gods. Range announced its board of directors has formed an ESG and Safety Committee, and that the company has enrolled in the same program several other M-U drillers have joined called Project Canary.
Technically this post is not about the Marcellus/Utica, but it’s such great news we just have to share it. On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new bill into law that bans state investments in banks, investors, and other companies that have cut ties with the oil and gas industry. Texas is divesting from the diverstors. Love it! It’s about time we fight back and fight back hard against the left.
Two of three Marcellus/Utica states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania issued just 4 new permits, spread all around the state, all in different counties. Ohio issued 8 new permits, split equally between Encino Energy (EAP) and Southwestern Energy (Eclipse). West Virginia’s shale industry got skunked last week with no new permits for a second week in a row! We can’t remember that ever happening.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Electricity and natural gas prices spike in California and Texas amid heat wave; INTERNATIONAL: Big Oil’s net-zero goal: myths and realities; Oil price rally for 2021 approaches 50%; Global fossil fuel share of energy mix similar to decade ago.
Finally! This is a red-letter day. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report for June (with forecasted numbers for July) predicts natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica region will swing from month-over-month decreases we’ve seen for the past year and a half (
“A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.” (See below for the full quote.) Yesterday Pennsylvania Democrats unveiled their latest “generous gifts” they’re promising to bestow on Pennsylvanians from the public treasury if Gov. Wolf gets his way and imposes a Marcellus-killing carbon tax on electric power generation. The Dems figure they can raise about $300 million a year via a carbon tax and they have a wish list bigger than your wildest dreams for where they’ll spend it. One tiny problem for the Dems…
Several weeks ago we brought you the news that landowner Gateway Royalty was sounding the alarm over a new bill quickly advancing in the Ohio legislature. Ohio’s 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 
Keystone Clearwater Solutions, a company that provides water services for shale drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, is buying the Pennsylvania operations of competitor ECM Energy Services. Keystone, which operates primarily in Pennsylvania, is picking up ECM’s Williamsport, PA operation and rebranding it under the Keystone name. ECM says the sale frees them up to concentrate on their operations in Ohio and West Virginia.
The price of electricity and natural gas in New York State is through the roof. Average New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) power prices across major hubs increased by 50% year over year in May, and natural gas prices increased nearly 75% year over year. It’s a train wreck here in New York. And you can directly blame Andrew Cuomo and the Democrats in the NY legislature for blocking new natural gas pipelines. That’s the root cause. No pipelines = obscenely high prices for electricity and gas.
Three Chesapeake Energy senior vice presidents have been shown the door (i.e. got fired) as of Friday. Executive Vice President of Exploration and Production (i.e. head driller) Frank J. Patterson; Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary (i.e. head lawyer) James R. Webb; and Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer (i.e. head accountant) William M. Buergler exited on Friday. It was a “termination without cause.” This follows the firing of their former boss, CEO Doug “the ax” Lawler, who himself got the ax not long after the company emerged from bankruptcy (see 
In a brilliant move aimed at boxing in the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), two northeastern Pennsylvania State Senators–Gene Yaw and Lisa Baker–along with members of the PA Senate Republican Caucus (27 Senators in all), filed a lawsuit in January against the DRBC accusing the quasi-governmental agency of “taking” the property rights of PA residents without just compensation under the law (see