Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Dec 10, 2020
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: New York state pension fund sets 2040 goal of net zero carbon emissions; Equinor hosts Toys for Tots event; NATIONAL: Williams appoints Rose Robeson to board of directors; Western states with big budget holes will bear the brunt of Biden fracking ban; Cheniere sees Biden following Trump in support of LNG industry; INTERNATIONAL: Natural gas, propane are early winners in quest for clean ship fuels.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Dec 10, 2020”
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the utility and midstream giant based in Buffalo, NY, remains committed to building it’s Northern Access Pipeline project, a $500 million project that includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton.
Although in recent months a number of major Marcellus/Utica drillers have shut-in (or curtailed) some of their natural gas production, apparently those days are over. According to an analysis by S&P Global Platts, M-U gas production in December has (so far) averaged nearly 33.9 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day), making December’s month-to-date average the highest on record. In fact, on Dec. 7, two days ago, regional output in the M-U was estimated at 34 Bcf/d, less than 300 MMcf/d below its all-time, single-day record high. What’s going on?
On Monday MDN told you about a cool new website called LandGate that offers instant valuations for oil and gas rights sitting under a property, along with the location of wells drilled nearby (see 
Last week MDN told you that the judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit signaled they will overturn, for a second time, a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that allows the 92% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from finishing its work by installing pipe under or through creeks and rivers (see 
Although we shared the good news today that production in the Marcellus/Utica is up in December (see Higher Regional Prices/Demand Leads to Record M-U Dec. Production), we now share the not-so-good news that the number of permits issued in November in Pennsylvania, the biggest M-U producing state, dropped 57% year-over-year.
Last week Pennsylvania issued just 3 new shale well drilling permits–all for Cabot Oil & Gas in Susquehanna County. Ohio issued 5 new permits, with 4 of the 5 issued to Ascent Resources. And West Virginia issued 3 new shale well permits.
Tomorrow the Harrison County Commission will consider (and most likely approve) an extension for an option to purchase property at the site of a proposed natural gas-fired power plant in Harrison County. Energy Solutions Consortium (ESC) currently has an option to buy the site of a proposed 550-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant, but the option expires on Dec. 31 of this year.
Do political, agenda-driven “researchers” never tire of spinning false narratives around fracking? When Michael Bloomberg pays your salary (as he does for researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health), apparently not. Back in 2016, Brian Schwartz, a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute (virulent anti-fossil fuel group) was among a group of researchers who published a junk science report claiming fracking in PA gives you headaches (see 
Yesterday MDN brought you a post about the dramatic increase in natural gas-fired electric plants in the Marcellus/Utica, particularly Pennsylvania (see 
The Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia (IOGAWV) and the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (WVONGA), West Virginia’s two oil and gas trade associations, announced yesterday their members have voted to merge the two into one new organization called the Gas and Oil Association of WV (GO-WV).
While so-called “activist investors” can sometimes accomplish good things (like the Rice boys in their takeover of EQT last year), it is our observation that most “activist investors” are destructive. A new hedge fund calling itself Engine No. 1 is one such destructive company. The hedge fund, based in San Francisco (which explains a lot) has ExxonMobil in its sights, attempting a hostile takeover of the company by getting four of its own candidates named to the board, and after that, forcing Exxon (an oil company) to forsake oil drilling and focus on “clean energy.”
