NATIONAL: US working gas volumes in underground storage rise by 58 Bcf; A propane molecule’s journey to Mont Belvieu and markets beyond; Sierra Club endorses Biden for president; Environmental groups should embrace pipelines, not cancel them; America’s clean energy transition demands a mining boom.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Aug 14, 2020”
Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its second-quarter 2020 update yesterday. The company added another 25 wells to production in 2Q and produced 2.1 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), a new company high. Unfortunately, the financial picture was not as rosy…
Read More “Ascent Resources 2Q: Utica Production Hits New High; $291M Loss”
Anti-fossil fuelers are on a holy mission to stop a 3.37-mile, 8-inch pipeline from being built under the Potomac River by Columbia Gas (see Maryland Antis Oppose 13th Pipeline Under Potomac as “Dangerous”). The pipeline, from Maryland on one side of the river to West Virginia on the other side, will be built to feed a larger pipeline project from Mountaineer Gas called the Eastern Panhandle Expansion. Mountaineer Gas is getting desperate for more gas to feed growing customer demand.
Read More “Mountaineer Gas Seeks Truck Alternative to Blocked Maryland Pipe”
Yesterday MDN told you about a new “inadvertent return” or drilling mud spill that occurred at Marsh Creek Lake in Chester County, PA, near Philadelphia (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). The reaction by the climate crazies, as predicted, was shrill and loud. Those who oppose the Mariner East 2 pipeline oppose it because it flows natural gas and they irrationally hate natural gas. Antis staged a “protest” of the “dangerous” mud spill at Marsh Creek Lake yesterday. After mouthing off for the cameras, the crazies launched dozens of kayaks and paddled through the drilling mud water that’s supposedly dangerous for the environment. Go figure.
Read More “Antis Protest Dangerous ME2 Drilling Mud Spill by Kayaking in It”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has nominated the wrong person to replace Andrew Place as one of the commissioners on the very powerful Public Utility Commission (PUC). Wolf has nominated Hayley Book, currently a senior adviser on energy and climate to PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell. Book’s job at the DEP has been to try and force through Wolf’s illegal attempt to force the state into joining the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme cooked up by a collection of liberal northeastern states (see Gov. Wolf Goes Bonkers: EO Destroying Gas-Fired Elec, Carbon Tax).
Read More “PA Gov. Wolf Nominates Carbon Tax Warrior for PUC”
Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company (ESNG), a subsidiary company of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (a company fascinated with chicken poop), filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Sept. 2018 to build 19+ miles of new pipeline and new meter and delivery stations in Kent and Sussex counties in Delaware, and Wicomico and Somerset counties in Maryland, to carry more natural gas to locations in Delaware and Maryland. FERC approved the project last December (see FERC Approves Del-Mar Energy Pathway Pipe Project). You would not believe the irrational opposition to this (frankly) insignificant project.
Read More “Maryland Antis Oppose Tiny New Pipeline in Eastern Shore”
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), posted an interesting article yesterday revealing information the left and mainstream media don’t want you to know: Natural gas-fired electricity is growing faster than renewables. The media would have you believe that so-called renewables are taking the world (and the U.S.) by storm–growing far faster than any other source, including natural gas. Not true.
Read More “NatGas Powergen Far Outpaces Renewables First Half 2020”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Oilfield service companies are bailing on the Permian; NATIONAL: Six former EPA heads call for an agency reset after the presidential election; Kamala Harris’ frac stance worrisome to shale states, attractive to the left; How bad is the shale downturn? Oxy has only one rig drilling the Permian.; U.S. permits for new horizontal drilling dip to 10-year low; Mounting gas storage in US Southeast threatens Henry Hub price rally; US midstream gas sector looks for signs of market improvement after pullback; Climate Fraud (video); INTERNATIONAL: Germany’s Maas confronts Pompeo over pipeline threat.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Aug 13, 2020”
Holy smokes! We didn’t see this one coming. Just yesterday MDN brought you the second-quarter update from Montage Resources (see Montage Resources: 5 New OH Utica Wells, Profits Tumble in 2Q). Little did we know the company was in an advanced stage of negotiations to sell itself to Southwestern Energy. Perhaps “sell” isn’t quite the right word. The two companies are merging, with Southwestern taking over Montage, in an all-stock deal worth roughly $204.3 $857 million (NOTE: We amended this article after Raymond James calculated the deal to be worth a much higher amount, see our update below). The combination will create the third-largest (by acres leased) Marcellus/Utica driller with a combined 786,187 net acres.
Read More “Stop Press! Southwestern Energy Buying Montage Resources for $857M”
Democrat governors across the country are now mimicking the example set by the dictator of New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo abuses state power to reject fossil fuel projects (unconstitutional in our opinion), telling NY’s state environmental agency to reject all new pipelines. Roy Cooper, governor of North Carolina, is the latest Cuomo wannabe. Cooper instructed his state’s environmental agency, the Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ), to reject permits for Equitrans’ proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project. Which the DEQ did yesterday. The agency tried to disguise the rejection using lame excuses, but the reason for the rejection was politics, plain and simple.
Read More “Politics: North Carolina Rejects MVP Southgate Pipe Permits”
Underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the Mariner East 2 pipelines (two of them, 2 and 2X) have a history of springing leaks. They’re called “inadvertent returns”–when you drill horizontally underground for a pipeline and the drilling mud you put down the hole pops up in a place it’s not supposed to. The good news is that the drilling mud is non-toxic, the same stuff used in toothpaste. The bad news is that it can overwhelm little fishies and other aquatic life and kill (suffocate) them. ME2X drilling had another such incident earlier this week–in Chester County, PA.
Read More “Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill”
In June, Antero Resources, one of the biggest (and best) Marcellus/Utica pure play drillers concentrating most of their drilling in West Virginia, sold an overriding royalty interest (ORRI) in all of their wells for $402 million (see Antero Raises $402M by Selling Royalty Interest to Sixth Street). Yesterday Antero announced a similar (but structured differently) deal to sell a royalty interest to JP Morgan for $220 million.
Read More “Antero Raises $220M by Selling Royalty Interest to JP Morgan”
FirstEnergy Solutions (now called Energy Harbor) allegedly paid $60 million in bribes to (now former) Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four of his associates to gain their assistance in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6, which became law, gives Energy Harbor $1.1 billion in ratepayer funds to prop up the company’s uneconomic nuclear power plants (disadvantaging other energy sources, like gas-fired power plants). Four of the five defendants have just entered pleas–all of them “not guilty.”
Read More “Not Guilty Pleas in FirstEnergy Nuke Bailout Bribery Scandal”
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), is singing a different tune than it did less than two months ago. In late June, EIA published a post discussing the drastic drop in U.S. LNG (liquefied natural gas) exports, saying a recovery to pre-COVID levels would not happen until sometime next year (see EIA Says U.S. LNG Exports Fall by Half in 2020, Recovery Late 2021). EIA is back with a new prediction, which we like better…
Read More “The Sorry State of U.S. LNG Exports & When Will it Change?”
Permits to drill new shale wells in the Keystone State (Pennsylvania) remain brisk. Two weeks ago PA issued 32 new permits. Last week PA issued another 30 permits. That’s 62 new permits in two weeks! Ohio issued no new shale drilling permits last week (disappointingly), and West Virginia issued six new permits last week.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits Issued for PA, OH, WV: Aug 3-7”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: State grant aiding students at Utica Shale Academy and Southern Local; New poll shows majority of Pennsylvanians oppose fracking; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Pipeline doubts put Bakken shale reboot on hold; NATIONAL: Winter demand, slumping production to boost Henry Hub prices in coming months; Oxy struggles to cope with the impacts of its acquisition of Anadarko; Oil up on upbeat Aramco and US virus easing signs; What will it take for cities to get rid of natural gas?; INTERNATIONAL: Canada’s overseas propane exports come at the expense of the U.S.; Chevron’s interest in giant gas field led to $5 billion bid for Noble Energy.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Aug 12, 2020”