Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Nov 2, 2020
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Natural gas will not be eclipsed by renewables; Marcellus Shale gas benefits touted by panelists; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Latino leaders are fighting California’s ‘unbelievably regressive’ climate policies; NATIONAL: Exxon warns of $30 billion shale writedown decade after XTO; A wave of stranded oil assets is coming to the U.S. shale patch; New analysis says DUCs can’t sustain US shale output; Oil and natural gas are our best bet for continued economic recovery; The Green New Deal can’t break the laws of physics; Biden has already failed once to deliver the “green jobs” he promises today; Shale plays fail to deliver: look to Alaska; INTERNATIONAL: Dutch municipalities receive another 100 million euros to get rid of natural gas; Russia rules out cutting fossil fuel production in next few decades.
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CNX Resources issued its third-quarter 2020 update yesterday. The company didn’t bother to issue the usual narrative describing what happened during 3Q. Instead, they simply pushed out the financials, a slide deck, and spoke to analysts on a conference call. What did we learn picking through the numbers and the conference call transcript? One thing we learned is that CNX has no interest in being merged with EQT, that’s for sure.
Antero Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, working primarily in West Virginia, issued its third-quarter 2020 update yesterday. The company lost $536 million due to a $749 million “unrealized commodity hedge movement in fair value.” High finance stuff. Production averaged 3.8 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), which includes a lot of liquids (NGLs).
In July, now-former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates were indicted for felonies related to an alleged $60 million bribery scandal in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see 
The Enverus U.S. rig count rose by 1 to 348 over the past week, after having going up by 11 and 13 (respectively) the two weeks prior. However, the count in the Marcellus Shale dropped by three rigs in the wet gas area and the Marcellus dry gas region gained 1 rig, for a net loss of two.
When checking the NYMEX futures price for natural gas, which is based on the spot price at the Henry Hub in southern Louisiana, we had a surprise. Just a few days ago the NYMEX was showing right around $3 per million BTUs (or per Mcf, thousand cubic feet). Yesterday the price closed at $3.30/Mcf. Why the huge jump?
Rystad Energy says worldwide the oil and gas industry has lost some 400,000 jobs in 2020. About half of those, says Rystad, are jobs lost in the U.S. Reuters is quoting Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette as saying U.S. oil production will likely not return to its pre-pandemic peak of 13 million barrels of production per day–at least not any time soon. Ergo, those jobs are not coming back any time soon.
Nick DeIuliis, President and CEO of CNX Resources Corporation, has been an outspoken advocate for the shale gas industry and manufacturing since at least 2017. And we mean outspoken. The trend continues. Nick has just announced a forthcoming book and a new website to continue his pro-fossil fuel advocacy.
Last week the U.S. Dept. of Energy announced it has extended the terms of seven long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) export authorizations through 2050. One of the facilities receiving an extension is the Cove Point LNG export facility in Maryland, a facility that exports 100% Marcellus molecules.
The French government has asked one of its own companies, Engie, to hold off on signing a deal worth $7 billion to buy U.S. LNG from NextDecade’s planned Rio Grande export facility in Brownsville, Texas. It seems France thinks our fracked-gas LNG is too dirty for them.
There is another new scam being perpetrated on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector. It’s called “green LNG.” Supposedly pimple-faced millennial investors are demanding the companies they invest in (with some $110 trillion worth of money) clean up their carbon dioxide emissions or the spoiled kids will refuse to invest. Some LNG companies are going to extraordinary lengths to prove their green worthiness to these idiots.
Looks like the rumors were true, at least one of them. Yesterday EQT announced it has cut a deal to buy Chevron’s considerable Appalachian assets for $735 million. The Reuters rumor from September said EQT had offered $750 million (see