Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Oct 14, 2020
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: NYPA reaches peaker agreement; NATIONAL: Chart buys Worthington cryogenic and hydrogen business; ConocoPhillips in talks to buy Concho Resources in big shale bet; Morgan Stanley sees oil prices struggling to break above $50; Chevron to stay wedded to shale, for ‘incredible flexibility’; America in 2022 after a Biden-Harris win; The Supreme Court is taking critical step towards resolving frivolous climate suits; Down and out: bankruptcy valuations portend production declines.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Oct 14, 2020”
We spotted a couple of stories, one in Barron’s the other in the Wall Street Journal, about the pickup in the futures price of natural gas over the past week, and how those recent gains have led to impressive gains in the share price for Marcellus/Utica drillers. Yesterday the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price closed up 4.11% to $2.74/Mcf. The rising tide lifts all boats.
Here we go again. Just last week we told you that a New York City law firm couldn’t find enough interest to make a class action lawsuit against Cabot Oil & Gas using a sham indictment from the highly political Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, so the law firm pulled the plug on the case (see 
In July MDN told you that frac sand company Hi-Crush, which has customers in the Marcellus/Utica, had filed for bankruptcy (see 
Donald Trump is NOT lying about Joe Biden and the words Biden has used about his desire to ban fracking *and* eliminate the use of fossil fuels. We have the video (below) showing clips from various Biden events where he unequivocally states he will ban fracking, and (in time) eliminate the use of all fossil fuels. This is Biden in his own words. So was Biden lying then? Or is he lying now?
Each year the International Energy Agency (IEA) issues a special World Energy Outlook report. The 2020 edition was released this morning. Of course, the pandemic and energy demand destruction resulting from the pandemic is front and center in this report. The report forecasts global energy demand will drop by 5% in 2020, energy-related CO2 emissions by 7%, and energy investment by 18%. When will things turn around?
After more than a year of being on pause due to lawsuits from Big Green groups, the 92%-complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) finally has permission to resume construction in West Virginia and Virginia. Late Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted permission to MVP to restart work on all but a 25-mile segment. We suspect workers are back on the job even as you read this.
Chesapeake Energy filed for bankruptcy in June (see 
Well that’s disappointing. Earlier this year Energy Solutions Consortium (ESC) asked the State of West Virginia to guarantee a $5.5 million loan for a proposed new shale gas-fired power plant planned for Brooke County which would help them secure even more funding for the project. Several weeks ago the state went one better than the original request and said it would not only guarantee the loan, it would actually make the loan (see 
Anti-fossil fuelers have struck out again with another of their wild claims about pipelines poisoning the environment. Antis alleged steel pipes coated with epoxy (that had to sit in storage on location for years due to sham lawsuits by Big Green groups), are not safe. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) says otherwise.
Nearly a month ago sources talking to Reuters let it slip that EQT has offered $750 million for Chevron’s $6.5 billion worth of Marcellus/Utica assets (see 
The ongoing, persistent meme that fossil fuels are evil and causing the destruction of the earth and threaten all life on earth is so pervasive in mainstream media that it has become a religion, an article of faith. If you dare challenge the meme by using science or rational thought, you are immediately branded a heretic, a kook, a “denier”–someone to be avoided at all costs. But what if the meme is wrong? What is fossil fuels are not the great evil they are portrayed as?
Dear MDN Reader,
Ryan Energy Services