Everus U.S. Rig Count @ 513 (+11); Marcellus @ 33, Utica @ 12 (+1)
The Enervus U.S. rig count continues to climb (a very good sign). For the week ending March 24, the U.S. rig count climbed another 11 active rigs to 513. The oil-focused Permian Basin added eight new rigs. The Marcellus stayed even at 33 active rigs while the Ohio Utica picked up one active rig and now has 12 active rigs. The other major shale gas play, the Haynesville, stayed even at 47 active rigs.
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NATIONAL: Kennedy, Cruz introduce bill to promote liquefied natural gas exports; Gasoline prices are high and going higher – here’s why; US gas in storage posts larger-than-expected pull in likely last draw of season; INTERNATIONAL: For most of 2020, China’s refineries processed more crude oil than U.S. refineries; Energy industry grapples with fallout from Suez Canal blockage.
At some point in the distant past (during our lifetime) swamps got renamed to “wetlands.” Don’t you just love how the left euphemizes everything? Chesapeake Energy is a bad actor when it comes to shafting landowners out of royalties, we’ll grant you that. However, the company must now pay Pennsylvania and the federal government (DOJ and EPA) a combined $1.9 million for “failure to identify and protect wetlands at 76 oil and gas well sites in Pennsylvania.” In other words, failure to protect swamps.
Conventional (and maybe shale) oil and gas drillers in West Virginia need to be aware of a late-breaking amendment that will create a new fee (we’d call it a tax) of $100 per year for unplugged wells producing 10 Mcf (10,000 cubic feet) of natural gas. According to the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. William Ihlenfeld II (D-Ohio County), roughly 13,000 wells statewide fit that classification and would generate an extra $800,000 per year for the Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas.
New Fortress Energy (NFE), which likes to build and own as much of the LNG supply chain as possible, built and operates an LNG import terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After the facility was up and running, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) dinged the company, asking for an explanation as to why they built it without FERC “Mother May I?” permission. New Fortress responded last July saying FERC told them no permission was needed (see 
Yesterday we brought you the news that LOLA Energy continues to transform itself with the purchase of what was EdgeMarc Energy’s shale assets in Butler County, PA (see 
We have to confess we’re not impressed with West Virginia U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat). We had hoped he might be somewhat independent from the radicals in his own party and provide some balance to an out-of-control leftist agenda being pushed by Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden. Manchin is failing in that regard. He’s just another toady for his party. (We’re not surprised.) The latest evidence that Joe Manchin is not the “man of the people” and “conservative/moderate” Democrat he claims to be comes from his opposition to WV Gov. Jim Justice’s plan to phase out the state income tax–which does have implications for the shale industry.
LOLA Energy (LOLA stands for 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf continues his efforts to force his state, without approval by its citizens (via the legislature) to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a glorified carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants. What Wolf and his lackey Pat McDonnell at the Dept. of Environmental Protection refuse to tell PA citizens is just how high the RGGI carbon tax has climbed. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports the most recent RGGI quarterly auction, held on March 3, 2021, resulted in the highest price (tax) per ton of CO2 yet.
In a very gentle and diplomatic way, Pennsylvania State Senator John Yudichak (Independent from Wilkes-Barre) told Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) Secretary Dennis Davin on Monday he’s not doing his job. Yudichak told Davin “site selectors” (people who work with companies to select sites for big manufacturing and other types of facilities across the U.S.) aren’t aware of the tax credits available as part of Act 66, a law passed last year aimed at building new petrochemical plants in PA.
Yet another attack on the oil and gas industry by the officially out-of-control Democrats in Congress. In years gone by a few fringe leftists from the Democrat Party have introduced several bills, including the FRAC Act, aimed at permanently ripping the U.S. Constitution apart by overriding states’ rights to regulate and control oil and gas drilling within their own borders. Using the faux excuse of man-made global warming, the FRAC Act overrides the individual states and grants broad/sweeping power to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate fracking. The Dems are at it again, reintroducing the FRAC Act and four other bills (called the “Frack Pack”), all aimed at restricting/eliminating fracking nationwide.