PA PUC Distributes $200M from Impact Tax, Down $52M from Prev Yr
Each June the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), the agency charged with keeping tabs on impact fee revenue from shale drillers (PA’s version of a severance tax) releases the final numbers for impact fee revenues and disbursements for the prior calendar year. Yesterday was the appointed day for 2019 fee revenue generated. The PUC reports impact fees on natural gas producers in 2019 totaled $200,364,500, down roughly $52 million from $251,830,900 generated in 2018. With this year’s distribution, over the past nine years, PA has collected and distributed over $1.9 billion to communities across Pennsylvania–a massive amount!
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There’s no getting around the fact that the Marcellus/Utica region, collectively called Appalachia, is THE 800-pound gorilla when it comes to natural gas production. We produce more natgas than any other region of the country–more than twice as much as the next highest producer, the oily Permian Basin. Yet the Haynesville Shale, a gas-focused play located in Louisiana, also produces a lot of natgas (about 36% of what the M-U produces). According to recent research by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), new wells in the Haynesville are more productive (producing more gas on average) than new wells drilled in the M-U. Huh.
On Monday Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) scored a major victory at the U.S. Supreme Court with a decision that allows the project to drill and install pipe underneath the Appalachian Trail (see 
Earlier this week Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced an indictment of Cabot Oil & Gas for allegations of methane migration going back more than a decade (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: ‘Desperate’ to get natural gas out of Appalachia, pipeline builders face long battle; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: WE Energies eyes Ixonia for gas storage facility; Officials want emails with climate activists and private lawyers kept from public; NATIONAL: US shale companies to boost oil output by 500,000 bpd by month-end; INTERNATIONAL: Why natural-gas prices haven’t yet bottomed despite this year’s 20% drop; U.S. is the surprising winner in China’s LNG market; Saudi oil exports to U.S. plunge toward lowest level in 35 years.
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) finally restarted issuing permits for Utica drilling last week after a month-long drought of not issuing any new permits. There were 10 new permits issued in PA for shale drilling June 8-12. There were 6 new permits issued in OH for shale drilling during the same time period. There were no new permits issued in WV for shale drilling last week.
A word you will likely see a lot more of in quarterly updates by oil and gas drillers across the country is the word “impairment.” It’s an accounting term that means the value of an asset (leased acreage or wells) is adjusted, down, to reflect a company’s best guess as to how much revenue that asset can generate. We wrote about impairments back in 2015 (see 
Equitrans, formerly EQT Midstream, separated from EQT in November 2018. Equitrans, via its EQM Midstream affiliate, gathers, processes, and flows most of EQT’s natural gas production, getting it to market. In February Equitrans announced it will absorb EQM, a limited partnership, into the fold (see 
We previously told you that Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai, a long-time champion for the Marcellus Shale industry, would leave office as of Monday (see 
Vallourec, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, manufactures steel pipes used in the oil and gas industry. The company employs some 19,000 people in 20 countries, including the U.S. In fact, Vallourec employed (at least at one time, prior to recent layoffs) more than 750 at three Youngstown, Ohio units: Vallourec Star, VAM USA and Vallourec USA Corp. The company has just announced a new high torque connection for shale drill pipes, something they call “a technological breakthrough for the industry.”
We finally have a major court victory over the forces of anti-fossil fuel evil, so let’s sit back and soak in the warmth and sunshine of this moment. Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a decision we expected, a decision that allows Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), a 600-mile project from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina, to cross under the Appalachian Trail. The decision is not only a victory for ACP, which is only about 6% built, but also a victory for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is 92% built. MVP also needs to pass under the Trail.
We’ve been on bankruptcy watch for Chesapeake Energy for some time now. We told you yesterday that the company faced a $17 million debt payment deadline yesterday, and faces a $134 million bond interest payment on July 1 (see 
The door has been closed on “Dimock” (in Susquehanna County, PA) for years. Dimock, you may recall, was made famous by Josh Fox’s so-called documentaries Gasland and Gasland 2, aired endlessly on HBO. His allegations about fracking malfeasance by Cabot Oil & Gas were completely debunked in a real documentary called 