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PA DEP Suspends ME2 Pipe Drilling at Marsh Creek State Park
While drilling in Chester County earlier this week in the Marsh Creek State Park, Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2X pipeline experienced an “inadvertent return”–nontoxic drilling mud coming up out of the ground where it’s not supposed to (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill). In this case the mud came up in a small section of the 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake. Under withering criticism and pressure from anti-fossil fuel groups, the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a press release yesterday to say that all pipeline drilling at the site has been “suspended indefinitely.”
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At a ceremony in Pittsburgh yesterday, federal EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Administrator Andrew Wheeler unveiled two new rules for the oil and natural gas industry that removes ineffective and duplicative methane detection requirements while streamlining others. Just before the Obamadroids left office, the Obama EPA slapped onerous and costly new regulations on methane emissions that don’t do anything but cost companies money. They certainly didn’t do anything to help the precious environment. Yesterday, after several years in the making, the EPA fixed the Obama overregulation issue with respect to methane emissions.
In June MDN told you that a New York City law firm was “investigating” Cabot Oil & Gas with an eye to filing a class action lawsuit, on behalf of investors, over false allegations made by the Pennsylvania Attorney General who had filed felony charges against Cabot regarding a long-closed regulatory issue in Dimock, PA (see 
Another week, another look at the rig count. The onshore rig count continues to bump along near the bottom of historic lows. It’s not AT the bottom (thank God), but it does continue to flirt with low numbers. According to Enverus, which tracks rigs using GPS units, the count bottomed at the beginning of July with 264 active rigs. Since then it’s risen and currently stands around 280 rigs. Week to week it goes up and it goes down, but not down significantly. According to Enverus, the count lost a rig last week.
Looks like top management at Chesapeake Energy getting millions in bonuses just before declaring bankruptcy isn’t the only company to engage in this disgusting practice (see 
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.
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…
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 
Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company (ESNG), a subsidiary company of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (a company 
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.
Holy smokes! We didn’t see this one coming. Just yesterday MDN brought you the second-quarter update from Montage Resources (see 
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.