Marcellus Drilling News

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Time for Upstate New Yorkers to Sue, Overturn Permanent Frack Ban
April 6, 2020April 6, 2020

Although it seems counterintuitive to say this, maybe NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his legion of radicalized Democrats have done New York landowners a favor with a permanent ban on fracking, passed as part of the most recent state budget (see Cuomo PERMANENTLY Bans NY Fracking in Now-Adopted Budget). How so? They have overplayed their hand by passing a permanent ban. It gives Upstate New Yorkers a VERY strong case against NY in court, to argue that the state has engaged in a “taking” of our private property rights without just compensation as provided for under the U.S. Constitution. So says our good friend Tom Shepstone…
Read More “Time for Upstate New Yorkers to Sue, Overturn Permanent Frack Ban”
CARBO Ceramics | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Sand/Proppant

CARBO Ceramics Files Prepackaged Bankruptcy, Selling to Wilks
April 6, 2020April 6, 2020

Oil billionaire Dan Wilks is going discount shopping. He’s buying up companies in the oil and gas space that are struggling. One of them is CARBO Ceramics, a company that provides a ceramic alternative to sand for use as a proppant in hydraulic fracturing. Proppants, for those new to MDN, “prop open” the fractures created during the fracking process to allow natural gas and natural gas liquids (even oil) to drain out of shale. A special kind of sand called silica, mined mostly in the Midwest is the most prevalent proppant used. However, CARBO has an innovated a ceramic substance–tiny little beads–used as an alternative.
Read More “CARBO Ceramics Files Prepackaged Bankruptcy, Selling to Wilks”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Rig Count Drops Like a Rock, Biggest 1-Week Drop “in Decades”
April 6, 2020April 6, 2020

Two weeks ago MDN told you about the biggest single-week drop in U.S. rig counts since the final week of December 2015–more than four years ago (see Biggest Rig Count Drop in 4 Years – Who’s Still Drilling?). Rigs dropped by 47 in a single week. That was then. Last week rigs dropped by another 64! NGI says it was “one of the largest down weeks in the past two decades.” Call it a new (and somber) record for the past 20 years. The good news, if there is any, is that the counts in the Marcellus/Utica remained the same week over week. Once again it seems that gas-focused shale plays are the beneficiary of the oil price crash as everyone assumes associated gas coming from shale oil plays will (sooner or later) dry up.
Read More “Rig Count Drops Like a Rock, Biggest 1-Week Drop “in Decades””
Calendar

Going Virtual – List of Canceled, Postponed, and Virtual Events
April 6, 2020April 6, 2020

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. RBN Energy has taken its excellent School of Energy (next week) completely virtual this time around. That event will set you back some change, but it’s well worth it in our opinion.
Read More “Going Virtual – List of Canceled, Postponed, and Virtual Events”
Best of the Rest

Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Apr 6, 2020
April 6, 2020April 6, 2020

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Pennsylvania faces a new wave of abandoned oil and gas wells; Southwest Pa. runs on natural gas, coal; Cabot helping to stock food pantries in Marcellus Shale region; Your view: Wolf was wrong to veto HB 1100; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Texas gets double punch from coronavirus and oil shock. ‘There’s no avoiding this one.’; California issues first new fracking permits since July; NATIONAL: Free webinar on the impact of COVID-19 on oil and gas industry; Chaos, scrambling in the U.S. oil patch as prices plummet; Greenfield natural gas, oil projects in pre-FID ‘all at risk’ for deferral; U.S. oil industry can still surprise with resilience: Mercuria CEO; Embattled energy companies snub creditors to conserve cash; Starwood Energy, OGCI Climate Investments and Elysian Ventures launch new carbon capture project; Victor Davis Hanson: U.S. still the leader in crisis; Democrats’ energy policies hurt black Americans.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Apr 6, 2020”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Cuomo PERMANENTLY Bans NY Fracking in Now-Adopted Budget
April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

While no one was paying attention, distracted with literal life and death issues due to the coronavirus pandemic, the uber-corrupt and sleazy Andrew Cuomo (worst governor EVER) slipped in a permanent ban on fracking into the annual state budget bill which is now the law of our fallen (and sick) land. This is truly a sad day for those of us who live in New York State. We seriously doubt there will ever be a Republican legislature and governor in NY to reverse the horrific damage now done to our civil liberties. Freedom died yesterday in New York State. We now live behind enemy lines.
Read More “Cuomo PERMANENTLY Bans NY Fracking in Now-Adopted Budget”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Potter County | Wastewater

Earthworks Accuses PA DEP of Ignoring Complaints Due to COVID-19
April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

The radical organization Earthworks has been exposed for making a false accusation against the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), claiming the DEP ignored complaints of potential environmental violations in the shale patch due to distractions over the coronavirus pandemic. Earthworks claimed a frack wastewater treatment plant in Potter County is leaking onto the ground. DEP said it did investigate and no, there is no leak.
Read More “Earthworks Accuses PA DEP of Ignoring Complaints Due to COVID-19”
Enbridge | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines

Enbridge Plan to Import M-U Gas to Ontario, Export to New England
April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

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A proposed new pipeline project from Canadian midstream giant Enbridge has caught our attention. It’s called by a couple of different names: the “Dawn Parkway Expansion Project” and the “Kirkwall-Hamilton Project.” The project involves constructing 10.2 kilometers (6.3 miles) of 48-inch pipeline from the Kirkwall Valve Site to the Hamilton Valve Site in Ontario, Canada. According to Enbridge, some 90% of the gas flowing through the pipeline will be used in Ontario. We’re interested in this project for two reasons. (1) The source for some of the gas that will flow through it will come from the Marcellus/Utica, according to media reports. (2) Some of the gas this pipe flows will scoot across the rest of the Enbridge pipe system and some of it will be exported into New England.
Read More “Enbridge Plan to Import M-U Gas to Ontario, Export to New England”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Pipelines | Regulation

FERC OKs Phase 2 of NGPL Pipe that Flows M-U Gas to Gulf Coast
April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

One year ago MDN told about a Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America LLC (NGPL) project that carries Marcellus/Utica gas from the Midwest all the way to the Gulf Coast to feed just about any of the existing or under construction LNG export plants in the region (see NGPL Pipe Will Flow M-U Gas to Gulf Coast for LNG Export). Phase 1 of NGPL’s Southbound Expansion project was placed in service in October 2018, providing an extra 460,000 Dth/d (460 MMcf/d) of gas from NGPL’s interstate pipeline interconnects in Illinois, Arkansas and Texas to markets in NGPL’s South Texas zone. Phase 2 of the project just got Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) permission to begin construction.
Read More “FERC OKs Phase 2 of NGPL Pipe that Flows M-U Gas to Gulf Coast”
Energy Services | FMC Technologies | Patterson-UTI

Patterson-UTI Lowers 2020 Spending by 60%, TechnipFMC Down 30%
April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

Both Patterson-UTI Energy and TechnipFMC are big oilfield services (OFS) companies–drilling, fracking, completions, etc. Both have operations in the Marcellus/Utica region, as well as operations in other shale plays (TechnipFMC has ops in other countries). Both companies run in the same pack with much larger (but similar) companies like Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes. Because of their presence in the M-U, it caught our attention that both Patterson and TechnipFMC announced major cuts to their capital expenditure budgets for the balance of 2020. Patterson is axing more money from an already axed budget–now 60% lower than what they spent in 2019. TechnipFMC is trimming 30% from their budget this year over last.
Read More “Patterson-UTI Lowers 2020 Spending by 60%, TechnipFMC Down 30%”
Crude Oil | Industrywide Issues

National Rig Count Falls Another 45, M-U Rig Count Holds Steady
April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

Last week we told you about the biggest rig count drop in four years with a loss of 47 rigs in a single week (see Biggest Rig Count Drop in 4 Years – Who’s Still Drilling?). What has to be the second biggest rig count drop in the past four years happened over this past week, with the U.S. seeing another 45 rigs idled in the last seven days. The good news, if there is such a thing, is that the rig counts in both the Marcellus and Utica remained the same–although one rig changed locations from the “dry” Marcellus to the “wet” Marcellus.
Read More “National Rig Count Falls Another 45, M-U Rig Count Holds Steady”
Crude Oil | Industrywide Issues

Trump Says Saudis, Russians Agree to Major Oil Production Cut
April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

It’s pretty amazing what a single tweet can do. It can move the price of oil up by $5/barrel! Yesterday President Trump tweeted: “Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry!” The markets reacted quickly bidding up the price of oil to $25.32/barrel for WTI. Let’s hope it continues.
Read More “Trump Says Saudis, Russians Agree to Major Oil Production Cut”
Best of the Rest

Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Apr 3, 2020
April 3, 2020April 3, 2020

NATIONAL: Cheniere Energy’s Jack Fusco on the future of LNG; Surviving the coronavirus? Thank fossil fuels.; Oil and gas M&A deals crash along with prices; INTERNATIONAL: As oil sinks, some companies float idea of ‘zero clause’ in trades; Barclays aiming for net zero emissions by 2050, portfolio realignment starts with energy sector; Global natgas prices for 2020 expected even lower, set to feel COVID-19 symptoms for years; Chinese buyers snap up U.S. oil purchases at widest discounts ever.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Apr 3, 2020”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Crime | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Outlaws Anti Protesters Who Try to Block Pipeline Construction
April 2, 2020April 2, 2020

Last week MDN told you about a flurry of oil and gas bills passed by the West Virginia legislature signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice (see Flurry of WV O&G Bills Signed into Law Incl. Petchem Tax Credits). At the time we focused on a couple of petrochemical tax credit bills, but there’s another important bill in the batch we’d like to call your attention to today: House Bill (HB) 4615, a bill (now law) that clamps down on anti-fossil fuel protesters who like to take the law into their own hands.
Read More “WV Outlaws Anti Protesters Who Try to Block Pipeline Construction”
Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues

COVID Loan/Grant Money for Small & Medium-Size Biz, Including M-U
April 2, 2020April 2, 2020

Attention all small- and medium-sized businesses (those with fewer than 500 employees): Beginning tomorrow (Friday) you can sign up for the Small Business Paycheck Protection Program, part of the COVID-19 relief package recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump. This is important! The program, administered by local banks (won’t charge you any fees) will allow you to borrow money to cover payroll (and benefits), mortgage interest, rent and utilities for up to 8 weeks. Here’s the kicker: Those loans, provided they meet certain guidelines, will be FULLY FORGIVEN. In other words, this is a grant to help you get through the COVID crisis. And it applies to Marcellus/Utica companies and those who service them (as well as other kinds of businesses).
Read More “COVID Loan/Grant Money for Small & Medium-Size Biz, Including M-U”
Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Conventional Drillers Face Tough Decisions re Stripper Wells
April 2, 2020April 2, 2020

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Although some Marcellus/Utica drillers also own conventional (vertical-only) oil and gas wells as part of their portfolio, most conventional drillers are smaller “mom and pop” types of companies. Conventional oil well owners in the M-U, as well as across the country, face some of the same problems as shale drillers with a crash in oil prices: What to do with older wells? Thousands of older conventional oil wells produce as little as 10 barrels of oil per day. These low-producing wells are called stripper wells. With oil selling at $20/barrel, some stripper wells can still break even, but many cannot. It costs an average of $20,000-$40,000 to plug an old stripper well. Sometimes it’s more economic to simply keep a stripper pumping (and losing money) rather than pony up big bucks to close the well. It’s a conundrum.
Read More “Conventional Drillers Face Tough Decisions re Stripper Wells”