ECA Marcellus Trust I, traded over-the-counter on the pink sheets, canceled distributions (dividends) to investors for the first three quarters of 2020 due to the pandemic and the crash in oil and gas prices. The company reports it *will* pay investors for 4Q20–a grand total of 9/10ths of one penny per unit.
Read More “ECA Marcellus Trust I Gives Investors <1 Penny per Unit in 4Q20”
Life is full of unsung heroes. The West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey (WVGES) is one such hero in the Mountain State. WVGES plays a vital role in the state’s shale gas/oil industry. How WVGES determines where and how much natural gas, oil, and NGLs are located under the crust of WV. They also determine how best to take advantage of those natural resources.
Read More “Geological and Economic Survey’s Critical Role in WV O&G”
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), is a sub-unit of the Dept. of Energy. The DOE, as you know, is now part of the Evil Empire (aka the Biden Administration). As you also know, old dementia Joe has been bashing away at fossil fuels since he took office, promising to “transition away” from fossil fuels during his tenure of occupying the White House. Yet the EIA is out with a projection that shows “renewables” (includes not just wind and solar but hydro and “other”) will still make up less than half (42%) of electric power production 30 years from now! Fossil fuels (natural gas and coal) will still have a larger share of electric production than renewables 30 years from now. How’s that for a “transition away” from fossil fuels?
Read More “Biden EIA Predicts Renewables Still <50% of Electric Prod. by 2050”
Reuters is reporting natural gas prices across North America have “soared” over the past few days as homes and businesses cranked up their heaters to escape a blast of arctic air and snow moving from Canada to the U.S. Midwest and northeast. The price of natgas trading at the Waha Hub in the Texas Permian Basin is at its highest since December 2018. Here in the northeast prices in Boston and New York City hit fresh one-year highs over the past few days. And it’s the same in Pittsburgh and northeastern PA.
Read More “Cold Weather, Snow Driving NatGas Spot Prices Higher Across U.S.”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: The potential of natural gas; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Coalition promotes Rockies’ motherlode of natural gas as source for overseas markets; NATIONAL: Major gas pipelines face over 2.6 million Dth/d of expiring contracts in Q1; Electric vehicles could be ‘imperfect substitutes’ for gas-powered cars, new study suggests; The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction; Chevron may not be an oil-first company in 2040, CEO says; President Biden’s executive order could hurt helium production; US unions, environmentalists disagree about oil and gas pipelines; February polar vortex effect puts $3/MMBtu gas prices back in play; Oilfield services sector adds jobs for fifth consecutive month; INTERNATIONAL: Japanese spot LNG prices hit historic highs; Crude oil futures climb as pandemic concerns recede, tight supply.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Feb 9, 2021”
Last Friday National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the parent company for Seneca Resources and Empire Pipeline, issued its latest quarterly update for the quarter ending Dec. 31 (NFG’s first quarter 2021, everyone else’s fourth quarter 2020). Among the pearls of good news for NFG is that the company is adding a rig back in Tioga County, PA to drill on acreage NFG purchased from Shell.
Read More “Seneca Adding Another Rig in Tioga County, PA Thx to Pipe Expansion”
Analysts at S&P Global Platts say that with the current cold snap underway in the northeast, already decreasing natural gas production from the Marcellus/Utica may accelerate with wellhead freeze-offs. Sometimes in colder temps (hey, it was 2 degrees at MDN HQ this morning) water and other liquids in the gas can freeze and block the flow of gas, called a wellhead freeze-off.
Read More “M-U Production May Decline with Wellhead Freezeoffs, Plunging Temps”
Aubrey McClendon, the co-founder of Chesapeake Energy and the guy most responsible for discovering and commercializing the Ohio Utica Shale, once famously said the Utica “is the best thing to hit the state of Ohio economically since maybe the plow.” And indeed it has been. The Utica is often overshadowed by its larger and more productive cousin the Marcellus Shale. According to Mike Chadsey from the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, the Utica has never really gotten the level of attention and respect it deserves.
Read More “Ohio’s Utica Shale – An “Underappreciated Economic Machine””
In January MDN told you that after five loooong years, a federal judge in Scranton, PA had finally ruled the Wayne Land and Mineral Group (WLMG) v. Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) lawsuit will go to trial this year (see Judge Rules Wayne Landowner Lawsuit re DRBC Frack Ban Continues). We’ve since learned the trial is set to begin in October. Andrew Makuth, ace reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, chronicles the journey of this lawsuit and what it means for landowners and environmentalists.
Read More “DRBC Frack Ban Heading for Defeat in October Trial”
The West Virginia Office of Oil and Gas (part of the Dept. of Environmental Protection) reports there are some 60,000 active and 15,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in the state. Staffers at Oil and Gas respond to complaints and do the inspection for all those wells. Currently, there are just 14 field staffers with three moving to other positions leaving just 11 staffers who are in the field to monitor all those wells.
Read More “WV Employs Just 11 Inspectors for 75K Active & Abandoned O&G Wells”
On Friday, representatives of a “dark money” political action committee called Generation Now signed a guilty plea admitting their part in the biggest bribery scandal to ever hit Ohio. Generation Now was set up as a social welfare nonprofit but in reality was a shell organization that received “tens of millions of dollars” from FirstEnergy as part of a $61 million bribery scandal to pass and keep passed House Bill (HB) 6 which funnels over $1 billion from Ohio ratepayers to FirstEnergy in order to keep the company’s unprofitable nuclear power plants running.
Read More “Generation Now Pleads Guilty in $61M FirstEnergy OH Nuke Scandal”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Hindering natural gas development could hurt the economic recovery from COVID-19; Newly formed GO-West Virginia organization prepares for legislative session, Biden administration; NATIONAL: EIA’s liquids pipeline database shows infrastructure changes and project statuses; Amazon orders hundreds of trucks that run on natural gas; Frigid weather blasting into propane country – markets brace for supply disruptions; Biden’s ‘green energy jobs’ really means ‘no energy jobs’ and ‘low-paying energy jobs’; John Kerry took private jet to Iceland for environmental award; INTERNATIONAL: A gas-based economy is what India needs today: PM Narendra Modi; The outlook for LNG as a marine fuel.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Feb 8, 2021”
We don’t write much about Alta Resources, a shale drilling company co-founded by the inventor of shale fracking, George Mitchell. But that doesn’t mean Alta doesn’t drill in the Marcellus. The company owns some 547,000 gross (239,000 net) acres producing natural gas from approximately 900 wells in the Marcellus Shale across Bradford, Wyoming, Sullivan, Lycoming, Clinton, and Centre counties in northeast Pennsylvania. Alta is shopping all of their considerable Marcellus assets, looking for a buyer.
Read More “Alta Resources Shopping 547K Marcellus Acres, Asking $3B”
According to Platts Analytics, natural gas deliveries to Elba Island LNG, located along the shore near Savannah, Georgia, totaled 230 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) yesterday, up from 150 MMcf/d the day before and some 41% higher than the average use of 163 MMcf/d over the previous 30 days.
Read More “Elba Island Ramps Up LNG Production, Uses 230 MMcf/d”
Early last week MDN shared the great news that Enbridge’s Weymouth, Mass. compressor station finally, after years of government delays in building it, went online (see Weymouth, MA Compressor Station Now Online – Will it Stay Online?). As our headline last week teased, the question now is whether or not it will remain online. What could possibly cause it to shut down again? The answer may surprise you.
Read More “Antis Pressure FERC for Hearing to Shut Down Weymouth Compressor”
Earlier this week MDN brought you the big news that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear the PennEast Pipeline vs. New Jersey eminent domain case (see BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court to Decide PennEast Pipeline Case). Read that previous post for background on why this is a critically important case. In December the Trump Solicitor General’s office filed a brief in the case, at the request of the Supremes (see Trump Solicitor General Supports PennEast Pipe Case in Supreme Crt). It’s no surprise that the Trump administration supported the PennEast position. What IS a surprise for us is that the Biden administration will likely support PennEast’s position too.
Read More “Biden Justice Dept. Likely to Support PennEast in Supreme Crt Case”