Some exciting news is chronicled in a recent post by our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Last year, in 2019, the United States exported more energy (oil, natural gas, coal, and petroleum products) than it imported. That’s the first time we’ve exported more than imported in 67 years!
Read More “US Became Net Energy Exporter in 2019 – First Time in 67 Years”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA House Republicans put language stopping new environmental regs in another bill; Nicholas S. Haden: Tariffs pick winners and losers in U.S. energy sector; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: NJ Transit natural gas plant in Kearny gets green light; NATIONAL: Halliburton cuts capex by half, reduces workforce, with bottom in 2Q; A hunt for any storage space turns urgent as oil glut grows; Biden says he’s open to ‘expanding’ his climate plan to win over young voters; INTERNATIONAL: Russia races to squeeze the U.S. out of Asian natural gas markets.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Apr 21, 2020”
Before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic hit, causing lockdowns and stay-at-home orders throughout much of the U.S. (and world), natural gas drillers in places like the Marcellus/Utica were hurting (due to low gas prices) but holding their own financially. Maybe not all, but a majority were doing OK. And then the bottom dropped out of everything with the virus causing demand “destruction” because people are not traveling. Right now there’s less of everything–less electricity being used (a major customer for natgas), less natgas used for heating big office buildings and factories, etc. Of course, that means less production, with shale gas drillers choosing to scale back new drilling and even shut-in some wells.
Read More “Marcellus/Utica Cos. Not Allowed Access to Fed Virus Loan Program”
The PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a notice in Saturday’s Pennsylvania Bulletin that the agency is proposing changes to the Residual Waste General Permit WMGR123, which governs the processing, transfer and beneficial use of oil and gas liquid waste to develop or frack an oil and gas well. Some of the changes include defining certain terms, including “processing,” “transfer,” and “storage”; changing the application from a registration to a determination of applicability; revising sampling and analysis requirements; and revising the frequency of inspections.
Read More “PA DEP Revising Regs for Recycled Wastewater Use in Fracking”
On Friday Chesapeake Energy announced it has suspended payment of dividends on each series of its outstanding convertible preferred stock effective immediately. The company also made the point that suspending this type of dividend does not constitute a default (failure to pay) under any of the company’s debt instruments. The suspension comes just a few days after the company completed a reverse stock split, combining 200 shares of old stock into 1 share of new stock (see Chesapeake Energy Reverse Stock Split 1-for-200). Following the stock split, the adjusted share price for the new stock continued to decline (see Chesapeake’s Reverse Stock Split Bombs, Company “On Life Support”). The downward trend continued on Friday with Chessy’s stock price sliding another 7%.
Read More “Chesapeake Suspends Dividend Payments; Stock Still Falling”
A federal court in Pennsylvania has just verbally slapped down THE Delaware Riverkeeper–both the umbrella Riverkeeper organization and (by name) the person who claims to be THE riverkeeper of the Delaware, Maya van Rossum, for a transparent and pathetic attempt at blocking the Mariner East 2 pipeline project with yet another frivolous lawsuit. In the decision, the judge says the litigation tactics of the Riverkeeper organization “do nothing to protect the environment.” The judge also said to impose liability against ME2 in this case “would offend basic principles of fairness and effect an absurd result” and “violate due process.” Ouch.
Read More “Fed Court Strongly Rebukes Riverkeeper for Harassing ME2 Pipe”
Last December MDN told you that investment firm Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, a major investor in pipeline company Tallgrass Energy, pursued and caught the company, tentatively convincing Tallgrass to sell its public shares of stock to Blackstone, which will take the company “private” –meaning no publicly traded shares of stock (see With Tallgrass Founder/CEO Gone, Blackstone Forces Sale/Merger). We incorrectly implied Blackstone had forced out founder and CEO David Dehaemers. It seems it was Dehaemers’ desire to cash in his chips and retire. The sale of the company was amicable and not forced. At any rate, last Thursday company shareholders voted to approve the deal and as of Friday, Tallgrass stock no longer trades on the New York Stock Exchange.
Read More “Blackstone Takes Over Tallgrass Energy, Stock Stops Public Trading”
Nearly five years ago Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf nominated Andrew Place who worked at EQT at the time to become one of five Commissioners at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (see PA Gov Wolf Appoints EQT’s Andrew Place to Public Utility Commission). Place announced last week he is resigning. Indeed he is now gone (as of Sunday). Place has accepted a job out-of-state. He did important work at the PUC during his tenure and will, no doubt, be missed.
Read More “Andrew Place, Formerly of EQT, Resigns as PA PUC Commissioner”
MDN is updating our Calendar page more frequently to bring you the latest news on events of interest that have either been canceled, postponed, or in some cases, have gone virtual. We encourage you to review the list. A number of free and low-cost webinars and online events have popped up as an alternative to in-person meetings.
Read More “MDN Calendar: List of Canceled, Postponed, and Virtual Events”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: House Republicans want PA DEP to reasonably pause adopting new regs; DEP invites comments on proposed Water Quality Certification for NFG pipeline project; Upside in a down market: Northeast gas dynamics to advantage regional midstream companies; NATIONAL: Trump administration working to ease drilling industry cash crunch; Do U.S. shale drillers deserve to exist in free markets?; Half of announced North American oil cuts come from just three companies; Lower 48 oil, gas permitting expected to ‘collapse in April’ amid pandemic; Oil, natural gas and NGLs in post-COVID, 2021-25 markets; Oil and gas shut-ins risk royalty litigation; New FERC commissioner hints at market action, announces staff; INTERNATIONAL: Global LNG production shut-ins seen imminent as prices continue falling; USMCA solidifies the best oil and natural gas alliance ever; Fall of natural gas prices speeds energy shift in East Asia; Oil and gas giant Shell targets ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Apr 20, 2020”
Yesterday we told you that Chesapeake Energy’s reverse stock split (effective on Wednesday) of combining 200 shares into a single new share didn’t work out so well initially (see Chesapeake’s Reverse Stock Split Bombs, Company “On Life Support”). The company was on life support…now it’s amputative surgery. The company is laying off 200 employees in Oklahoma–half at its headquarters and the other half in the field.
Read More “Chesapeake Energy Lays off 200 Okla. Workers, Stock Slides More”
Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in six unconventional resource basins, including the Marcellus and Utica. The company concentrates its time and money on four “core focus areas” including the Utica, the Williston (i.e. Bakken), the DJ Basin and the Permian. The company announced yesterday it has received notice from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that its per-share price has fallen below $1 for at least 30 consecutive trading days.
Read More “Summit Midstream Doing Reverse Stock Split Following NYSE Warning”
In late March we told you about the biggest one-week drop in U.S. rig counts in the past four years when the rig count dropped by 47 in a single week (see Biggest Rig Count Drop in 4 Years – Who’s Still Drilling?). A week later we told you another 45 rigs had disappeared (see National Rig Count Falls Another 45, M-U Rig Count Holds Steady). And now, a neutron bomb. Over the past week (ending Wednesday) the U.S. rig count lost 74 (!) rigs. The week before the rig count “took a skydive” and went down 80 rigs. The rig count is in freefall without a parachute.
Read More “Rig Count Plunges Another 74; M-U Count Steady as She Goes”
For years we’ve had a Canadian LNG export project on our radar, bringing you news about the project, hoping that prodigious amounts of Marcellus/Utica gas would be used at the plant. The project is called the Goldboro LNG project, planned by Pieridae Energy for the coast of Nova Scotia. In July 2018 we told you Pieridae was getting close to a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion project (see Canadian Goldboro LNG Inches Toward Final Investment Decision). The FID never happened, and now it will be delayed again, according to a statement released yesterday by Pieridae.
Read More “Pieridae Delays FID on Nova Scotia Goldboro LNG Export Project”
LNG Limited (LNGL), based in Australia, has been working on a couple of North American LNG export projects over the past half-decade or more. One of them, called Bear Head, would be built in Nova Scotia, Canada and (potentially) export Marcellus/Utica molecules. The other, Magnolia LNG, would be located in Louisiana and yes, potentially export M-U molecules as well. LNGL was in the process of selling itself and its LNG projects to Singapore investor LNG9 PTE for $75 million. LNG9 has just canceled the deal, leaving the future both the Bear Head and Magnolia projects in question.
Read More “Investor Bails on Nova Scotia Bear Head LNG Export Project”
While shale oil producers are suffering mightily during the current oil price crash, brought on by both the COVID-19 coronavirus travel restrictions and the Saudi price war, the oilfield services (OFS) companies that do all of the drilling and fracking for the oil producers are suffering even more. Companies like Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes (among many others) are laying off employees and writing down billions of dollars worth of assets. On Monday Baker Hughes said it will write down $15 billion in value. While this carnage is not affecting the Marcellus/Utica per se, all of the aforementioned companies taking it on the chin in other plays also drill here in the M-U.
Read More “Oilfield Service Companies Hit Hard by Crash in Oil Price”