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M-U Drilling Co. Stocks Boomed in 2020, Positive Outlook 2021
As we entered 2020, the stock price for most Marcellus/Utica drillers was near or even at the lowest it had ever been (see Marcellus/Utica Drillers’ Stock Prices Near/At Historic Lows). Then the twin catastrophes of an oil price war (launched by Russia and Saudi Arabia) and a worldwide pandemic hit in March. As it turns out, the catastrophes ended up benefitting our shale drillers. Stock prices improved dramatically for a number of major gas drillers in the M-U after March.
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Yesterday U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani issued a couple of rulings in the Wayne Land and Mineral Group (WLMG) v. Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) lawsuit that should encourage landowners in eastern PA whose property rights have been “taken” by the DRBC. The DRBC has prevented landowners in areas like Wayne and Pike counties from drilling for shale gas under their land for more than a decade.
In February 2020 MDN brought you news about a new half-billion-dollar petrochemical plant that will convert Marcellus Shale gas into feedstock (chemicals) to be used in agriculture, manufacturing, medicine, and transportation, coming in Clinton County, PA (see 
Because of constant court challenges, the Trump administration just completed a redo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12), a general permit used in constructing pipelines. Antis believe the redo will make it easier for the incoming Biden administration to simply delete oil and gas pipelines from the permit. The cancel culture strikes again.
Well, the apocalypse has happened. We now have single party (Democrat) rule in Washington, D.C., and that spells trouble ahead for shale energy–for both oil AND gas. We’ll keep our opinions to ourselves on the politics. What’s done is done. Instead, we’ll let the analysts from S&P tell you what you can expect with new appointments at key federal agencies, and how energy policy under the Biden administration, with a big assist from a Democrat-controlled Senate, will likely play out in the coming years.
Walter “Wayne” Christian is a financial planner from Center, Texas, a Republican member of the Texas Railroad Commission (Chairman), having won the position in the November 8, 2016 general election. He’s an energy expert who thinks about and deals with energy, of all sorts, every single day. Christian recently penned an article exposing the attack now happening on American energy independence by the far left. He exposes the Paris Climate Accord for the fraud it is and he calls out “woke” investors who are pressuring other investors to divest from oil and gas companies. This is one article you need to read.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: 38 green groups urge DEP to deny PennEast permits in advance of Jan. 13 hearing; Truckers making it happen in gas fields of northeast Pennsylvania; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Washington state proposes legislation to phase out natural gas utility service; Amid bullish outlook, Haynesville gas producers gear up for record output in 2021; NATIONAL: February natural gas futures soar to extend new year momentum; Crude oil prices briefly traded below $0 in spring 2020 but have since been mostly flat; Colder than usual winter boosts fossil fuel demand; Supreme Court hearing should signal shift from baseless lawsuits to realistic climate solutions; US extends 5 LNG export authorizations to 2050; Can renewables become as profitable as oil and gas?; INTERNATIONAL: Asia LNG prices skyrocket as buyers scramble for supplies amid cold snap, power shortages.
Don’t you love playing a game with a child and part of the way through the game, the child simply changes the rules for how the game is played (particularly when they are losing)? That’s what comes to mind with the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) recent action in disallowing any pipeline bigger than 36 inches to use a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12) to cross creeks, rivers, and wetlands. The move is meant to block Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 42-inch pipeline, from finishing its installation work (the pipeline is 92% complete).
Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) had laid 30 miles of pipeline and had cut trees for 222 miles along the 600-mile route before Dominion decided last summer it no longer wanted to be in the interstate pipeline business, canceling ACP (see 
In early 2020 Pennsylvania raised $198.2 million from its version of a severance tax, called an impact fee, based on drilling activity from 2019, which was down from the previous year (see 
Anti-fossil fuel zealots including THE Delaware Riverkeeper are attempting to convince the Biden administration to block the now fully permitted and authorized LNG export terminal New Fortress plans to build on the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River in Gibbstown. They’re hoping they can appeal to Biden’s parochial concerns for his home state of Delaware, hoping to scare an old man with dementia into blocking LNG ships from transiting the Delaware River by lying about safety issues.
Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d pipeline to move Marcellus/Utica gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia, has been hounded by radicals from Big Green groups including the Sierra Club for years. Big Green apparently has the clown judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in its back pocket because the clowns keep overturning legal and legitimately issued permits by government agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (see 