Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Aug 11, 2020
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA DEP publishes new policy on replacement, restoration of private water supplies impacted by shale drilling; Range Resources hosting career seminar for ag students; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Sempra launches full commercial ops at Cameron LNG; Dakota Access pipeline given three weeks by judge to detail options; NATIONAL: Low cost shale drilling might not boost oil production this time; Climate activists pressure Biden to take “no holds barred” anti-fossil fuel stance; Oil, gas and mining industries shed jobs again in July.
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CBS News, an ultra-biased mainstream media news outlet that we don’t typically watch or read, is publishing a series of articles on the effects of COVID-19–how it has changed the lives of average Americans. In a somewhat unusual twist, CBS focused on landowners in southwestern Pennsylvania who leased property for shale drilling. How has COVID impacted them? CBS interviewed several landowners who have seen their royalties drop like a rock over the last year–down some 75% from just a year ago. While CBS doesn’t say COVID is responsible for all of that drop, they do theorize it has contributed. Has it? Or is something else responsible for the huge drop in royalties?
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 Marcellus is part of the company’s “legacy” systems that doesn’t get as much love (and money). Last week the company issued its 2Q update. The company’s Utica operation was the star performer in 2Q, increasing flows through Summit’s system by 60%.
Even though the price of natural gas selling at regional trading points like Dominion South has gone up, don’t expect more production in the Marcellus/Utica. Diversified Gas & Oil (DGO) CEO Rusty Hutson, in an interview with S&P Global Platts, said most of the larger drillers in the M-U will not increase production even with higher prices. The ones who will drill more are smaller companies leveraged to the hilt–they have to drill to keep the cash flow coming in.
Two different trade unions are asking some great questions about Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax on coal and gas-fired electric generating plants. For example, how would a $2.36 BILLION carbon tax reduce carbon dixoide emissions any more than is already happening by the use of natural gas? PA already reduced CO2 emissions by 32% over the same time period RGGI (a coalition of liberal northeastern states) began–far more of a reduction than RGGI states have experienced!–without belonging to the RGGI tax plan.
The onshore rig count continues to bump along near the bottom. A few weeks ago we noted that after hitting bottom, the Enverus rig count had once again started to climb (see 
MDN is taking a rare vacation day today, Friday, August 7. We will be back on Monday to catch you up on all the latest news.
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest (by number wells drilled) producer in the Ohio Utica Shale, issued its 2Q20 update yesterday. Back in June, the company said it would shut-in some of its production, delaying production until later this year (see 
It’s been a loooong road getting the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline system, which includes building two pipelines side-by-side from eastern Ohio across Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia area, done. From what we can tell, ME2 is now done–with the possible exception of a few miles where smaller pipeline is being used until a bigger replacement is done. For all intents, ME2 is done. However, ME2X, a second pipeline being built next to the first, is not yet done. But it’s getting close! According to comments from Energy Transfer (ET) made during a quarterly conference call yesterday, ME2X will be in service by the end of this year, and the entire project will be done-done sometime in 2Q21. Finally!
Most of the layoffs during this particularly brutal (and historic) downturn in the oil and gas market have taken place in oilfield services companies like Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Sclumberger. But exploration & production companies are not immune. Chevron is laying off workers in their Marcellus/Utica operation because the company is selling all of its Appalachian assets and leaving the region (see 
In February MDN told you about an effort by the radicalized Sierra Club to block a New York landfill from accepting drill cuttings from the Pennsylvania Marcellus (see 
Three weeks ago there were 27 new permits issued in Pennsylvania for shale drilling. Two weeks ago there were only three new PA permits issued. But over the past week, from July 27-31, PA permits issued for drilling new wells jumped to 32! New permits issued in Ohio last week were six, and two new permits were issued in West Virginia.