PA DEP Using ePermits for Erosion & Sedimentation to Avoid New Law
After literally *years* of complaints that simple permits in Pennsylvania required in drilling new shale wells–like a Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit–are taking two, three, even six to eight months for an approval (instead of the law-mandated 14 days), the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is finally doing something about it. Why? They’ve just received a swift kick in the seat of the pants.
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President Joe Biden is already a complete disaster for the oil and gas industry. His first two days in office (day and a half, actually) can only be described as a full-on attack against our industry. That’s according to the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA). We received a rundown of the damage Biden has already caused. Here’s just one example (out a list of 100+): Biden has put a freeze (pun intended) on the Dept. of Transportation’s rule that allows LNG to be shipped by rail. The rule is being “reviewed” with an eye to reversing it.
Over the past week, the Enverus U.S. rig count added another 6 active rigs, making the new count 430. The Marcellus wet gas region (in southwest PA and WV) lost a rig, while the Marcellus dry gas region (in northeast PA) gained a rig. Overall the Marcellus/Utica combined rig count remained stead at 42 active rigs. The M-U’s chief competitor, the Haynesville Shale, lost one rig, now with 48 active rigs.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Change at White House could mean change on future of fossil fuels in West Virginia; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Regulators deny permit for $2B methanol project in Washington; NATIONAL: EIA expects crude oil prices to average near $50 per barrel through 2022; Biden announces senior Dept. of Energy staff; Exelon applauds Biden Executive Orders on climate change, Paris treaty; On his first day, Biden insults Canada and ends thousands of jobs; Biden administration pauses federal drilling program in climate push; Temporary halt to oil leasing on federal lands: bad for America’s consumers and econ recovery; INTERNATIONAL: European Parliament reiterates call for Nord Stream 2 gas link to be halted; How TTF became a premier natural gas trading hub and global benchmark.
Last week MDN told you the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) had given final approval to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to install pipeline through 3.5 miles of woodlands, and under the Appalachian Trail, in the Jefferson National Forest in Monroe County in West Virginia, in and Giles and Montgomery counties in Virginia (see 
Et tu, Brute? Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Neil Chatterjee, a Republican who used to work for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is showing his true swamp-dwelling colors. On Tuesday Chatterjee voted against several critical natural gas projects (ones he voted in favor of previously), including a vote against allowing the Weymouth, MA compressor station, fully built, tested and ready to start, to begin operations.
Did you know that the Appalachia Basin, made up of the Marcellus and Utica Shale, accounted for more than 40% of the natural gas produced in the US in 2020? The M-U averaged 32.19 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas production in 2020, and 33.44 Bcf/d in 2019. A new report from GlobalData says the outlook for the Marcellus and Utica plays is closely tied to the demand for LNG exports from the U.S. You might say they’re “joined at the hip.” Unfortunately, most LNG exports happen along the Gulf Coast.
On Joe Biden’s very first day of occupying the White House, he signed an executive order revoking a permit for the $9 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline that would cross from Canada into the U.S. According to the leftists at Bloomberg (giddy with excitement), Biden’s move to cancel Keystone “is the clearest sign yet that constructing a major new pipeline in the U.S. has become an impossible task.” The CEO for pipeline giant Williams, Alan Armstrong, agrees.
You can’t say we didn’t warn you about new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Allison Clements, a radical leftist (see 
The KeyState Zero petrochemical plant project that includes natural gas synthesis and carbon storage (coming to Clinton County, PA) just gets more fascinating every time we read or hear about it. We spotted a new article with more details about the project, like the fact LNG is already being produced at the site. In addition to carbon capture, the new petchem plant will produce four products…
We’ve noticed a flurry of new “notes” (i.e. bonds) being offered by Marcellus/Utica companies. We call notes/bonds IOUs. Typically a company will issue new notes (a promise to pay in the future, with interest) in order to retire older notes coming due. Notes are a form of self-financing by using debt instead of issuing new shares of stock (diluting existing shares). M-U drillers Range Resources and Antero Resources both quickly sold out of their recent note offerings at higher prices than originally requested. According to S&P analysts, the Range and Antero fast sellout is proof that credit is loosening for drillers in the M-U and in other shale plays.
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), published our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The latest DPR, which shows estimates for oil and gas production from the seven largest shale plays in the U.S., shows a drop in shale gas production across all plays (including the Marcellus/Utica) coming in February–except for an increase in gas production in the M-U’s primary competitor, the Haynesville.
The Trump administration worked for four long, hard years against the radicalism of leftist Democrats to overturn what was called Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” (CPP)–an odious and misnamed plan that assassinates coal and mortally wounds natural gas power generating plants (see