Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Mar 12, 2021
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Natural gas use expected to rise in NY; 3 firms seek $12M for Williams Cos. poison pill win; NATIONAL: Democratic opposition builds against Biden’s federal oil, natural gas orders; Biden administration shows openness to continued U.S. LNG exports; EIA: US weekly LNG exports rise, Henry Hub drops; The economics and potential benefits of compressed natural gas; Biden’s climate ‘fix’ is fantastically expensive and perfectly useless; America trails in global race for rare earth elements; INTERNATIONAL: Saudi oil exports post only small drop despite pledged cut.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Mar 12, 2021”
Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) owns close to 8 million acres of leases with some 60,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. Their focus has been to acquire quality production and cash flow–regardless of the well or commodity type (gas or oil)–in the Appalachian Basin. DGO currently owns over 400 Marcellus/Utica shale wells in their portfolio too. Earlier this week the company issued its fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 update. Although the company reported a $23 million loss for 2020 (versus making $99 million in 2019), CEO Rusty Hutson says he is “exceptionally pleased with our results in 2020” and the way the company navigated a turbulent 2020.
Hilcorp is a major driller founded in 1989 by Jeff Hildebrand. It is one of the largest privately-held (stock not publicly traded) oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the U.S. Headquartered in Houston, TX, Hilcorp has over 1,825 employees in multiple operating areas including the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Alaska, and (yes) in the Marcellus/Utica. While they don’t have a huge presence here in the northeast, Hilcorp does actively drill shale wells in Lawrence County, PA and Columbiana County, OH. The Youngstown Business Journal reports Hilcorp is advancing its program in the northern portion of the Ohio Utica.
Wow, look how far the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fallen under Gov. Tom Wolf and his subservient lackey Pat McDonnell. The DEP yesterday announced the release of “equity principles to guide investments through Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.” Translation: Here’s how we’re going to waste (i.e. “invest”) all of the $2.36 billion we’ll raise through the RGGI carbon tax, and here’s how we’ll “help” those we’re screwing with the carbon tax. Of course, those who will pay this insane tax include each and every resident and business in PA that uses electricity. In other words, everyone. You’ll ALL get soaked with this new tax. Observe what Wolf has done to your gasoline taxes in PA and apply that to electricity–that’s what’s coming your way if RGGI is implemented.
Good news. The expert forecasters at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) have had another look at their predictions for how much natural gas and electricity we will use here in the U.S. and decided to boost their projections for 2021 and 2022. Electric use will grow, EIA says, by 2.1% in 2021 over 2020. As for natural gas, EIA says average daily marketed gas production will increase by 610 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in 2021 to 98.95 billion cubic feet (Bcf/d). EIA is now predicting natgas production in 2022 will increase by 1.7 Bcf/d to 100.63 Bcf/d. We’re pretty sure that would be a new, all-time record high.
Three Democrat U.S. Senators are (once again) targeting natural gas for extinction. The new (but in reality old) way they’re attempting it is by floating a bill that would (if passed) assess an insanely high new tax on “methane emissions” from the oil and gas industry. The stated purpose is to “encourage” oil and gas companies to clamp down on methane emissions (something already happening without the “help” of these idiots, see 
What a sad state of affairs. The very governmental agency charged with ensuring large corporations maintain honesty in their dealings with investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has devolved into a hack witch-hunting organization bent on locating and punishing those who disagree with a certain political view–the view that somehow mankind is causing catastrophic global warming. If corporations publicly utter anything outside the prescribed Communist diktat about global warming, the SEC will now come down on them like a ton of bricks. How sad and tragic.
In early February MDN told you that it was likely the Biden administration, although anti-drilling and anti-pipeline, would have no choice but to support an active case before the U.S. Supreme Court dealing with eminent domain for the PennEast Pipeline project (see 
As sure as the seasons change and our long winter is finally turning into spring with the first crocuses popping up through the soil, you can count on another sign of spring: a forced pooling bill will pop up in the 60-day West Virginia legislative session. And so it has. The WV legislature is currently considering two bills, Senate Bill (SB) 538 and House Bill (HB) 2853, called “unitization bills” which is just another word for forced pooling. This time West Virginia University is providing support for forced pooling in the form of a new study claiming forced pooling will “jump-start” a new era of natural gas development.
West Virginia House Bill (HB) 2581 is rapidly advancing through various committees. The bill changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes. It also creates a new appeals process for all property taxes in WV. Provisions in the bill allow expenses from “lifting, processing, transportation and other industry activities” to be subtracted from a well’s income. Question: Do these new post-production deductions also apply to royalties?
In early February, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc., a company that invests in non-operated oil and gas assets (they let others do the drilling), announced it had purchased 64,000 net acres producing ~120 MMcfe/d (million cubic feet equivalent per day) in the Marcellus/Utica from Reliance Industries Limited (see 
In early February MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of doing a remote video interview with George Stark, Director of External Affairs for Cabot Oil & Gas. Jim has known George (via various industry events) for perhaps the last 10 years. Cabot is the sponsor of a series of in-person and online events called Think About Energy (TAE). George is conducting a series of interviews about good sources of information for the oil and gas industry and he wanted to highlight MDN. Thanks George! In the interview (watch it below), Jim talks about how MDN got started and some of the key issues facing the M-U today. Enjoy!
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 9 new permits, with 5 of those permits going to Cabot Oil & Gas and their drilling program in Susquehanna County. Ohio received 4 new permits, all for the same company (Encino Energy) in the same county (Harrison) on the same well pad. And West Virginia received 3 new permits, all for the same company (Northeast Natural Energy) in the same county (Monongalia) on the same well pad.