Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Lift NP12 Permit Ban
A perceptive MDN reader emailed yesterday to ask us the status of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit (NP) 12, blocked for all pipelines in May by a Montana federal judge appointed by Obama (see Obama Judge Blocks New Pipe Projects that Use NP12 Permit). We have an update on this important issue because it impacts ALL pipeline projects using NP12, including Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP).
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Talen Energy Corp. subsidiary NorthEast Gas Generation owns two natural gas-fired electric generation plants–one in Athens (Greene County), NY, and one in Charlton (Worcester County), MA. Yesterday Talen/NorthEast filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the third time NorthEast has filed since 2014. The current plan is to hand over ownership to the company’s debtholders.
Two weeks ago to the day MDN took a swipe at Chesapeake Utilities and their fascination with producing natural gas from chicken poop (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Ovintiv lays off 25% of workforce after oil demand slumps; Report details benefits of natural gas across Illinois, especially during COVID-19 recovery; NATIONAL: Dow, Shell announce joint plans to develop electric cracking technology; The oil and gas situation: the E&P sector faces a reckoning; Failing cities and states use climate change lawsuits as fiscal escape hatch; INTERNATIONAL: 800 Enbridge workers voluntarily leaving company.
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 
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