Marcellus Shale Coalition Comes Out Against Oil Tariffs
We’ve brought you several stories about the Saudi-Russian oil price war underway in which both Saudi Arabia and the Russians are pumping oil like crazy and lowering the price they charge for their oil–all in a bid to bankrupt American shale oil companies. A number of ideas have been floated to “encourage” the Saudis to scale back on production, which would raise prices again (the Russians are a lost cause and not worth the effort). We’ve talked about an embargo on foreign oil coming into the country (see U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer Asks Trump to Embargo Saudi/Russian Oil), and our preferred response, a tariff on foreign oil (see It’s Time for a $40/Barrel Tariff on Saudi Oil Coming into U.S.). Not everyone thinks an embargo or tariff is a good idea, including the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC).
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Some 47 drilling rigs were idled last week according to data provided by Enverus Drillinginfo. That’s the biggest single-week drop since the final week of December 2015–more than four years ago. The rig count stands at 766. Of the rigs idled last week, 40 of the 47 were oil drilling rigs. Of the 40 oil rigs idled, half (20) were idled in the Permian Basin. The good news is that the Marcellus Shale and the Utica Shale remain unchanged at 38 and 10 rigs, respectively. Rig counts in each basin have held steady for four weeks running.
It seems no market has been left untouched by the COVID-19 coronavirus. Not even the LNG (liquefied natural gas) market. Force majeures–cancelations of LNG contracts due to circumstances “beyond our control”–are now an almost daily occurrence. Big tankers full of LNG often leave a port without a final destination, receiving instructions along the way on where the ship will unload the LNG. A cascading number of force majeures has some of those ships sailing around, “all dressed up but nowhere to go.”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: NY State Fairgrounds are the subject of major grandstanding by Cuomo; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Oil, gas prospects in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico ‘extremely pessimistic,’ says Dallas Fed; US oil, gas sector sees historic declines, but executives expect a price rebound: Dallas Fed; Murphy Oil CEO steps aside as coronavirus hits close to home; Gov. Baker prohibits reusable shopping bags during coronavirus emergency; NATIONAL: Coronavirus potentially ‘brutal’ for natural gas; storage report doesn’t lift bulls’ spirits; FERC issues guidance and regulatory relief in connection with coronavirus response; Coronavirus economic fallout may boost NGVs as alternative transportation; 2 reasons why midstream companies are not safe; API issues standards to improve safety of natural gas gathering pipelines; Have we seen the 2020 lows for natural gas?; INTERNATIONAL: Higher oil supplies will never make it to the market, global production shut-in is coming; Tanker firm predicts 100M barrels of oil stored on ships; China to resume U.S. LPG imports as Beijing waives trade-war tariff.
Oil and gas drilling giant Equinor (formerly called Statoil) is owned by the Norwegian government. Equinor/Statoil has drilled in the Marcellus/Utica for years. As recently as last June the company reported drilling 9-14 Utica wells per year (see 
Antero Resources, one of the biggest (and best) Marcellus/Utica pure play drillers, is slicing another $150 million off its previously announced drilling budget, now reset at $1 billion for 2020. The news came via an investor presentation given at the Scotia Howard Weil energy conference on Tuesday.
In February Montage Resources said in 2020 it will increase production approximately 6% over 2019 while slicing its capital expenditure budget by 44%, to $190-$210 million for the year (see 
This is truly disappointing. A few weeks ago we told you that Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled a long-running lawsuit involving Grant Township (Indiana County, PA) will continue on through the court system (see 
Diversified Gas & Oil owns close to 8 million acres of leases with some 60,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. Their focus has been to acquire quality production and cash flow–regardless of the well or commodity type (gas or oil)–in the Appalachian Basin. They currently have over 400 Marcellus/Utica shale wells in their portfolio too. When a gas or oil well quits producing, it needs to be plugged. We were aware of deals Diversified has cut with both Pennsylvania and West Virginia to plug old, non-producing wells (see 
We’ve been following the story of whether or not work on the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in Pennsylvania can continue during the current lockdown and order issued by Gov. Tom Wolf to cease all “non-life-sustaining” activity, including construction work on pipelines not yet in service (see 
What a change just a few weeks (and a pandemic and oil price crash) can bring! One month ago MDN brought you the sobering news that the stock prices for most Marcellus/Utica companies had sunk to new lows (see 
Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1100, aimed at attracting new petrochemical investment to the state, was passed by the PA House and Senate earlier this year. The bill provides a tax incentive for companies to build NEW plants in the state that use Marcellus methane gas. HB 1100 was finally delivered to the desk of Gov. Tom Wolf last week (see 
The confusion over whether or not the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project has (a) shut down all construction, except certain tidying up aspects at certain locations, or (b) has permission by the state to keep on building, is still not 100% settled. On Monday we told you that ME2 construction was in the process of ceasing under orders issued by Gov. Wolf (see 
The Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA), a non-profit representing people and businesses who work in the energy infrastructure supply chain, filed an “amicus curiae” (friend of the court) brief in support of PennEast Pipeline’s request to get the U.S. Supreme Court. PennEast has asked the Supremes to overturn a lower court decision that allows states like New Jersey to usurp federal authority by blocking PennEast, a FERC-approved pipeline.