EQT Update – Making Moves to Drill More in WV in 2021
Yesterday the country’s largest natural gas producer, EQT Corporation, released its 4Q and full-year 2020 update, holding a conference call with analysts to discuss the results. The update shows the company produced an average of 4.45 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas in 4Q. Although there was plenty of “free cash flow” for the year, on paper the company lost $967 million in 2020, which is an improvement over the year before when it lost $1.2 billion. Perhaps the biggest news (for us) coming from yesterday’s update is that in 4Q EQT turned its drilling attention to the West Virginia Marcellus. EQT plans to do much more drilling in WV this year too.
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Pipeline giant Energy Transfer made quite a splash yesterday during its 4Q and full-year 2020 update by announcing the company has cut a deal to buy Enable Midstream for $7.2 billion. That deal, while important, has nothing to do with the M-U region. We were interested in talk about the company’s Mariner East (ME) pipeline system and Marcus Hook terminal–and there was plenty of talk about those important assets too. Co-CEO Tom Long said he expects the last pieces of ME to finally be done in the second quarter of this year.
What is it with the recalcitrant members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC)? As we told you a few weeks ago, the DRBC is being sued by a Wayne County, PA landowner–who stands an excellent chance of winning (see 
We hate it when the bad guys win even a small victory, as has just happened. We told you last week about a group of radicalized anti-fossil fuelers who raised a stink with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Proteciton (DEP) over the DEP’s routine, nothing-to-see-here renewal of permits for already-running (with no operational problems) shale wastewater recycling facilities scattered around the state (see 
Here’s a small victory to celebrate. In July 2018 three radical environmental groups dropped their objections to permits the DEP previously granted for the Mariner East 2 Pipeline. Clean Air Council, Mountain Watershed Association, and THE Delaware Riverkeeper “settled” their appeal of 20 permits issued to Sunoco for the ME2 project (see 
All three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 16 new permits. Ohio received 3 new permits. And West Virginia received 4 new permits.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Texas natural gas is saving the day for one Texan arse after another; Texas freeze allows Jerry Jones’ natural gas company to “hit jackpot”; This blizzard exposes the perils of attempting to ‘electrify everything’; Texas Gov. Abbott orders no exporting by natural gas producers through Feb. 21; NATIONAL: EIA forecasts the U.S. will import more petroleum than it exports in 2021 and 2022; US gas supply crunch hits wider market amid historic freeze-off, record prices; Shale rig owner touts new price model as drilling speeds up; Tech-savvy entrepreneurs make inroads into fracking operations in shale oil and gas; INTERNATIONAL: Saudi Arabia set to raise oil output amid recovery in prices.
Just yesterday we told you about the craziness in natural gas prices in Oklahoma (and elsewhere, like Texas) that happened last Friday, when the cash price for natgas hit $600 in trading at one hub in the Sooner State (see 
Oil and gas drilling giant Equinor (formerly called Statoil) is owned by the Norwegian government. Equinor/Statoil has drilled in the Marcellus/Utica for years. It looks like that may be coming to an end–at least the active drilling part. Equinor officials say they are evaluating their U.S. shale holdings, including their active drilling on 27,000 acres in the Utica Shale, with an eye toward selling.
Once you sort through all of the subsidiaries of subsidiaries of subsidiaries, you’ll find this news from a press release we spotted this morning: PennEnergy Resources has sold a gathering pipeline system in western Pennsylvania, called Pine Run Midstream, to a joint venture partnership between venture capital firm Energy Spectrum Partners (based in Texas) and utility/pipeline company UGI (based in Pennsylvania). Sale price: $205 million.
The U.S. Dept. of Energy has just released its annual LNG report (full copy below) detailing every single shipment of LNG exported via tanker ship, identifying where it shipped from (which facility), who bought it, which country it sailed to, etc. Among the gems in the report: in December Cove Point LNG, now operated by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway company, saw the highest prices for LNG exports during the month, averaging $7.11 per MMBtu. Cove Point was also the first LNG export facility to load a ship sailing to Croatia with American LNG.
Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published the monthly 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 March–except for an increase in gas production in the M-U’s primary competitor, the Haynesville.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently issued its Annual Energy Outlook for 2021 (see 
Supply and demand, that’s what it’s all about in a pure commodity market like natural gas. Supply and demand just about came off the rails last Friday in Oklahoma as the price of natural gas selling along Oneok Gas Transmission’s (OGT) 23 interstate and 20 intrastate pipeline connections entered the stratosphere. At one point the cash price for natgas in OK was fetching $600/MMBtu! No, this is not a joke. That’s the highest price paid for natgas…ever.