Biden Overwhelms O&G Industry with Relentless Attacks – Surprised?
It’s been an eventful (and not in a good way) week and a half since Joe Biden seized control of the White House. Or more properly, since the radicalized left took control and began ramming anti-fossil fuel Executive Orders down old senile Joe’s throat. He just keeps signing, admitting he doesn’t even know what’s he signing (watch this)! The oil and gas industry is reeling, we’d call it staggering, under the assault coming from the Democrats and the left.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Pain of natural gas price drop spreads to Pa. agencies, communities; NATIONAL: General Motors to go all-electric by 2035; Biden makes it OK for banks to discriminate against fossil fuel companies; US natural gas in storage falls less than expected but massive draw looms; Biden administration sued for halting oil, gas leasing on federal lands; INTERNATIONAL: Global natural gas demand set to rebound after pandemic shock; Gas tycoon Charif Souki urges industry to clean up under Biden; Crude prices could surge to $80/bl in 2021.
Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) owns close to 8 million acres of leases with some 60,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. Their focus has been to acquire quality production and cash flow–regardless of the well or commodity type (gas or oil)–in the Appalachian Basin. DGO currently owns over 400 Marcellus/Utica shale wells in their portfolio too. The company just added to their inventory of shale wells, closing on the purchase of five Utica Shale wells in Monroe County, OH. The purchase price for all five? $8.4 million.
In December, the Maryland Board of Public Works (BPW), which has three members (two leftwing Democrats and RINO Gov. Larry Hogan), surprisingly approved a 10-inch, 6.83-mile pipeline for the Maryland portion of a 19+ mile project called the Del-Mar Energy Pathway Project, crossing both Delaware and Maryland (see 
U.S. pipeline companies are under no illusion of just how bad the next four years will be for their business, at least for building new pipelines. We told you last week that Williams CEO Alan Armstrong predicted there will be no new greenfield pipelines built during the Biden administration (see 
Psst. Don’t tell anti-fossil fuel nutjobs this, but Joe Biden’s “ban” on issuing new permits for drilling on federal and offshore land has loopholes. Since Biden seized power and began occupying the White House, HIS administration (not Trump’s) has issued “at least” 31 new drilling permits for federal and/or offshore drilling. It seems there are big loopholes in Biden’s federal permit moratorium that most news organizations are not reporting.
Anti-fossil fuel nutters increasingly realize that solar and wind will never, EVER, be able to provide all the energy needs of the world. There will always be a need for some sort of liquid fuel for airplanes, heavy equipment, ships, etc. So antis are now embracing hydrogen as the next Big Thing to save Mom Earth. Just one tiny thing they overlook: Some 75% of hydrogen produced comes from natural gas! Doh…
Equitrans Midstream’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which stretches 303 miles from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA, is backed into a corner by anti-fossil fuelers. The project is 92% complete and in the ground, yet somehow antis have successfully blocked an Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12) that allows the project to cross creeks and rivers and mud puddles. Antis have convinced three leftist judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the NWP12 permit–twice. But, MVP has just outmaneuvered the antis.
Now that Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) has outsmarted radicalized environmental groups like the odious Sierra Club by changing the type of permit they will use to finish the 92% complete project (see today’s lead story), antis are hoping to continue blocking the project by convincing the Democrat judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a FERC order from last December that allows MVP to resume certain portions of construction (see 
President Biden is expected to sign a new Executive Order today that turns a 60-day pause on issuing new oil and gas leases on federal lands into an ongoing moratorium for as long as he’s in office. According to a Wall Street Journal article, “Many of his [Biden’s] actions have been expected, but the administration’s speed and willingness to target the industry have surprised its leaders and analysts.” Really? Nobody who reads MDN should be surprised. We predicted these attacks. Biden, whether willingly or by reason of mental defect, has been co-opted by environmental radicals within his own party.
Members of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) announced yesterday a set of climate change commitments that outline in detail its mission to help address climate change, including working together as an industry towards reaching net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from natural gas transmission and storage by 2050. INGAA members pledging to hit that target include the biggest pipeline companies in the M-U, including Williams, Kinder Morgan, and Enbridge.
A day literally does not go by that we don’t read about yet another city, or even state, declaring that it will ban natural gas from new-build structures like homes and businesses. It’s bloody insane! And yet it’s happening more and more. We spotted an article written by a union member in California who says while “climate change” is “real” and we need to “do something” about it (we disagree), he says we need to “do something that works for all of us, not just the coastal elite and the wealthy.” The union member goes on to outline the great harm being done to the poor by these silly, virtue-signaling bans.
For the second week in a row, two of three M-U drilling states received permits to drill new shale wells. Pennsylvania scored 10 permits to drill new shale wells last week. Ohio received no new permits for Utica wells (second dry week in row). West Virginia received 4 new permits to drill new shale wells last week.