Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Jun 22, 2020
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: W.Va. natural gas industry works through pandemic; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Texas court criticizes climate “lawfare” against energy producers; NATIONAL: United States’ LNG exports slip in April; The green civil war; INTERNATIONAL: Higher Western Canada spot prices limit U.S. natural gas imports from Canada; ‘Fracking is over’ in UK, energy minister says; Shock finding? China is the world’s biggest energy producer.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Jun 22, 2020”
In Ohio, it costs drillers $5,500 to file for and receive a permit to drill a new shale well. In West Virginia, the cost is $10,150. In Pennsylvania, it has cost drillers $5,000 for a new shale well permit. Following a meeting yesterday of the PA Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC), PA’s permit fee is about to zoom to the top of the M-U list: $12,500 (2 1/2 times the previous fee). In fact, the cost of a shale permit in PA will become the highest in the country.
Last week S&P Global Platts reported the Enverus (Drillinginfo) rig count for the U.S. had slipped to a new all-time low of 299 (see 
A perceptive MDN reader emailed yesterday to ask us the status of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nationwide Permit (NP) 12, blocked for all pipelines in May by a Montana federal judge appointed by Obama (see 
Talen Energy Corp. subsidiary NorthEast Gas Generation owns two natural gas-fired electric generation plants–one in Athens (Greene County), NY, and one in Charlton (Worcester County), MA. Yesterday Talen/NorthEast filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the third time NorthEast has filed since 2014. The current plan is to hand over ownership to the company’s debtholders.
Two weeks ago to the day MDN took a swipe at Chesapeake Utilities and their fascination with producing natural gas from chicken poop (see 
There’s no getting around the fact that the Marcellus/Utica region, collectively called Appalachia, is THE 800-pound gorilla when it comes to natural gas production. We produce more natgas than any other region of the country–more than twice as much as the next highest producer, the oily Permian Basin. Yet the Haynesville Shale, a gas-focused play located in Louisiana, also produces a lot of natgas (about 36% of what the M-U produces). According to recent research by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), new wells in the Haynesville are more productive (producing more gas on average) than new wells drilled in the M-U. Huh.
On Monday Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) scored a major victory at the U.S. Supreme Court with a decision that allows the project to drill and install pipe underneath the Appalachian Trail (see 
Earlier this week Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced an indictment of Cabot Oil & Gas for allegations of methane migration going back more than a decade (see 
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) finally restarted issuing permits for Utica drilling last week after a month-long drought of not issuing any new permits. There were 10 new permits issued in PA for shale drilling June 8-12. There were 6 new permits issued in OH for shale drilling during the same time period. There were no new permits issued in WV for shale drilling last week.