Marcellus Pipe Builder Otis Eastern Sells Itself to Atlanta Co.
Pipeline builder Otis Eastern, headquartered in Wellsville, NY (western part of Upstate) has built a lot of pipelines throughout the northeast since its founding in 1936. In recent years the company has worked on a number of Marcellus/Utica projects, including Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 project and National Fuel Gas Company’s Marcellus Gas to Market project. Otis is selling itself for an undisclosed amount to a much larger company, Artera Services, LLC, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
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We’ll ask the question no one else dares to ask publicly: How many more Ohio legislators are in the back pocket of FirstEnergy (i.e. Energy Harbor), guilty of taking part in an alleged $60 million bribery scandal that paid politicians to ensure Energy Harbor would get $1.1 billion of ratepayers’ money to prop up their economically failing nuclear power plants? It sure seems like there may be other Ohio legislators who have been paid off too, given their unwillingness to support the effort to overturn House Bill (HB) 6 and end the gravy train for Energy Harbor.
Evolution Well Services, headquartered in Houston with a regional office in Pittsburgh, specializes in “electric” fracking–using natural gas from the well pad (instead of diesel fuel) to power turbines to create electricity that drives fracking pumps. Evolution fracks for at least one Marcellus/Utica E&P (see
It’s been two weeks since we’ve updated the Enverus onshore rig count numbers. The good news is that the Marcellus/Utica region is staying steady with the Marcellus at 25 active rigs and the Utica at 6 active rigs (paltry numbers compared to months and years past). The bad news is that the count for the entire country is down from 280 a few weeks ago to 275 as of yesterday. That’s still higher than the record low of 264 in July.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: U.S. energy exports severely disrupted by Hurricane Laura; NATIONAL: Schlumberger and Thermal Energy Partners create STEP Energy, a geothermal company; Joe Biden’s climate plan would be a disaster for the environment; INTERNATIONAL: Why deaths from hurricanes and other natural disasters are lower than ever.
It’s been an uphill battle to complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile Marcellus/Utica gas pipeline from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA. The project has been vigorously opposed by radical environmentalists from the beginning. Frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit has been filed by Big Green groups bankrolled by billionaires. Finally in June Equitrans, the builder, said they should be able to complete the 92% done pipeline by next spring (see 

Oil and gas drilling giant Equinor (formerly called Statoil) is owned by the Norwegian government. Equinor/Statoil has drilled in the Marcellus/Utica for years. As recently as June 2019 the company reported drilling 9-14 Utica wells per year (see
We have chronicled the break between trade unions and Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Wolf over Wolf’s stubborn insistence on forcing the state to join a carbon tax scheme called RGGI–the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (
Yesterday MDN told you that Range Resources is planning to operate at net-zero carbon within the next five years, by 2025 (see
We always aim to have stories posted by noon each day. Due to an unforeseen circumstance, MDN stories are slightly delayed today. Look for them by mid-afternoon. An email will be sent with headlines as soon as stories are posted. Stay tuned!
We’re catching up the permit report for the past two weeks. Two weeks ago only Pennsylvania issued new shale drilling permits (16 new permits issued). Last week all three M-U states issued permits: PA issued 16 new permits, OH issued 7 new permits, and WV issued 2 new permits for shale drilling.