Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Nov 24, 2020
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: DRBC lawsuit update: still waiting on the federal court; Canton Chamber moves Utica Downstream event to January as COVID-19 cases spike; Renewables, GOP supermajority loom large over energy and environmental groups’ 2021 state legislative priorities; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: SDG&E to test blending hydrogen with natural gas supply; NATIONAL: Biden names John Kerry as ‘climate czar’ in new administration; Investment in US clean energy to total $55 billion in 2020: Generate Capital; Could U.S. propane demand plus exports draw down inventories enough to spike prices?; Pipe dreams leave U.S. energy firms caught in climate trap; INTERNATIONAL: Oil majors are paying the price for investing in renewables.
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Last Wednesday Shawn Lehman, from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation & Natural Resources’ (DCNR) Resource Inventory and Monitoring Section, gave an update on DCNR’s ongoing efforts to monitor environmental and natural resource impacts of shale gas drilling on state forest land. We learned some interesting facts about shale drilling on PA state land as part of the presentation.
When a pipeline company considers whether or not to build a new pipeline, the company conducts an “open season”–a time when drillers (producers), traders, buyers and others who want guaranteed capacity along that pipeline can sign long-term contracts. Such contracts guarantee pipeline companies will be able to make back the considerable amount of money they have to spend to build the pipeline. What happens when those 5-, 10-, and 20-year contracts expire?
The plot thickens in the $60 million FirstEnergy nuclear subsidy bribery scandal. Last week MDN brought you the news that Ohio’s Attorney General, David Yost, had filed a second lawsuit to stop the collection of money from ratepayers that funds $150 million annual payments to FirstEnergy provided for under the law known as House Bill 6 (see 
The natural gas industry is proving effective at policing itself–far more effective than having the jackboots of the federal government step on its neck. Case in point: an industry group called Our Nation’s Energy Future (ONE Future), a coalition of 32 natural gas companies, released its 2019 report (below) that shows member companies collectively beat the group’s methane intensity goal by 67% for the year.
Kimmeridge Energy Management Company is a private equity investment firm focused on the upstream energy sector (drillers). Last week the firm published a white paper entitled, “Bringing Alignment and Accountability to the E&P Sector” (full copy below). The thesis of the paper is this: the alignment between drilling company executives and shareholders is “broken” and “a root cause” for the problem of poor earnings at drilling companies.
Earlier this month the Sierra Club filed yet another lawsuit (we’ve lost count of how many they’ve filed) attempting to block construction of the final 8% of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). The Clubbers asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to “temporarily” block a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (see 
Believe it or not, there are still two environmentalist wackos living up a tree in Montgomery County, Virginia, preventing work crews for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from cutting trees to clear a path for the pipeline. This has been going on for years and frankly, everyone is tired of it. A county judge has found the two cowards not willing to reveal their names (known as Tree-sitter 1 and Tree-sitter 2) in contempt of court. Starting today if they don’t come down, they are both on the hook for a $500 per day fine.
We were wrong. In August MDN told you that the tenth and final mini-train had gone online at Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island, Georgia LNG export facility (see 
Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) is a small-to-midsized driller headquartered in Morgantown, WV. The company drilled its first shale well in 2013. NNE currently owns 49,000 acres of leases “in the heart of the Marcellus Fairway,” operating 27 Marcellus wells and over 100 conventional oil and gas wells, mainly in West Virginia (with some located in southwestern Pennsylvania). In April 2017 MDN reported that NNE had obtained $300 million of investment from two investment firms (see 
Antero Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, working primarily in West Virginia, has just won a major sales tax case in the WV Supreme Court that affects the entire oil and gas industry, including M-U drillers.
The Enverus U.S. rig count rose by 3 to 382 over the past week. Prior to that, the count rose by 20, 11, 11, and 13 for each of the four weeks prior, respectively. That’s up 58 rigs over the past five weeks! The Marcellus and Utica each remained constant last week (same as the week before), not adding and not dropping. The Marcellus stands at 27 rigs, and the Utica at 6.
The Dept. of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is actually five laboratories, including locations in Pittsburgh, PA, and Morgantown, WV. The current director is West Virginian Dr. Brian J. Anderson (great guy!). NETL recently published a notice on its website to talk about the “generational opportunity” to leverage the superabundance of natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica. NETL, says Anderson, is on the case and has a new initiative to leverage M-U gas.