Allegheny County | Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation
McCandless Twp, PA Blocks Shale Drilling with New Zoning Law
Last June MDN told you about a plan by McCandless, a township in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh), to block any and all shale drilling within its borders by getting creative (see McCandless Twp Tries to Block Shale Drilling with New Zoning Law). McCandless cooked up changes to its zoning laws that make it illegal to drill a well in land zoned for commercial development. Since towns have to allow drilling in at least one zone, McCandless will allow it only in “institutional districts”–meaning schools, hospitals, universities, and parks. Meaning zero drilling will ever happen.
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In late 2018 the final two segments of the already-operational Rover Pipeline went online, making the project 100% complete (see 
The spot price (cash paid for immediate delivery) of natural gas at trading hubs across the country, including in the Marcellus/Utica, continues to hit new highs not seen in over a year. Even though the longer-range NYMEX futures price isn’t moving all that much. Pay no attention to the futures price! Look at the spot price. In the Henry Hub (Louisiana), the benchmark for all natgas prices, the spot price yesterday closed at $3.83/MMBtu, up $0.48 in one day. Dominion South closed at roughly $3.30/MMBtu, up $0.36 from the day before. And Tennessee Gas Zone 4 Marcellus closed at roughly $3.20/MMBtu, up $0.39 from the day before.
You can’t miss it if you look at energy headlines. The word “hydrogen” is everywhere, being touted as THE energy fuel of the future. Right behind it is “carbon capture.” The two work together in many cases. Our friend Joe Barone is dedicating an entire conference to these topics. The 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: New Mexico and Texas officials give dire warnings over federal lands ban impacts; Oil and gas coalition aims to end routine flaring by 2030; Rockland Council to hold meeting on natural gas project; NATIONAL: Shale rig owner touts new price model as drilling speeds up; EIA lifts forecasts for US gas production, trims 2021 price estimates; A look at Chesapeake energy’s exit from bankruptcy; First Keystone XL, now Dakota Access: pipeline politics swirl around Biden; INTERNATIONAL: Poland’s LNG imports again jump as Russian supplies decline; Germany claims emissions success yet becomes more dependent than ever on Russia?
Yesterday the mighty Chesapeake Energy emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy having hosed previous stockholders (making their shares of stock worthless), and making the company’s debtors the new shareholder/owners. The company dumped $7.8 billion worth of debt and emerges with $1.27 billion in debt on the books. As we told you last week, everything old is new again: the company will focus on natural gas drilling and downplay oil drilling (see 
Two weeks ago CNX Resources issued its 4Q and full-year 2020 update, except at the time they didn’t issue the usual press release with a summary overview (see 
As we reported two weeks ago, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (Democrat) has, for the seventh year in a row, introduced a Marcellus-killing severance tax proposal as part of his annual budget proposal (see 
West Virginia is represented by one Republican U.S. Senator, Shelley Moore Capito, and one Democrat, Joe Manchin. Manchin is tolerable (just) because he advocates for coal and oil/gas. Manchin is also the new chairman of the powerful Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Manchin, to his credit, is pushing back against Joe Biden’s ill-advised cancelation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. In fact, both Biden and Capito are loudly supporting Keystone and (important for us) the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, which runs through WV.
Two of three M-U states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania received 22 new permits (second week in a row with 22 new permits). Ohio received zero new permits. And West Virginia received 6 new permits (down from 8 new permits the previous week).
Cabot Oil & Gas, the powerhouse dry gas producer operating in one northeastern Pennsylvania county (and producing roughly 2.5% of the natgas for the entire nation from that one county) is not due to release full 4Q and full-year 2020 numbers until Feb. 19. However, the company did provide some high-level numbers for last year and a preview of what it plans to do in 2021.
Last year the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) fined the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project $265,972 for erosion and sediment issues related to constructing the 303-mile pipeline (see 
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.