EQT is working on a deal to sell an “overriding royalty interest” (future share of royalty revenues) generated from the company’s prolific Marcellus/Utica production in return for a cool $1 billion. That’s according to a Reuters article published on Friday.
Read More “EQT Looks to Raise $1B by Selling Royalty Interest”
Late last week National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the parent company of Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources, issued its first quarter (everyone else’s fourth quarter) financial and operational update. NFG CEO and President Dave Bauer proclaimed, “Our team has done a great job cracking the code on our Utica development program” in Tioga County, PA. However, because of the ongoing pricemageddon with natgas prices in the basement, Seneca President John McGinnis said the company will drop to running a single rig for the balance of 2020.
Read More “Seneca Resources “Cracks the Code” on PA Utica; Cuts Coming in ’20″
You always hear about Energy Transfer’s Mariner East pipeline projects (ME1, ME2, and ME2X), but you hardly ever hear about Mariner West. Did you know that ET’s Mariner West hauls ethane from shale processing and fractionation areas near Houston, Pennsylvania to Marysville, Michigan and all the way to Sarnia, Ontario? That’s right. They can flow up to 50,000 barrels a day!
Read More “Mariner West Seeks to Move Marcellus Ethane to Michigan & Canada”
The Hickory Run Energy Center–an electric generating plant being built at a former manufacturing site in New Castle (Lawrence County), PA–is close to being done and is on track to go online in April.
Read More “Marcellus-Fired Hickory Run Power Plant in W PA Online in April”
Last November MDN told you that Range Resources was testing an all-electric fracking fleet at the Ziolkowski Pad in Allegheny County (see Range Resources Fracking Program – Meticulous & Thirsty). The results are in and Range likes what it sees. The company has signed on with U.S. Well Services to continue using “electric fracking.”
Read More “Range Resources Converts to Electric Fracking with US Well Serv.”
Opposition from green extremists continues against a tiny 16-inch, 7.3-mile natural gas transmission pipeline in the Albany, NY area. The purpose of the new pipeline is to beef up supplies of natural gas in the Capitol region of the state. The thing is, the people protesting the pipeline (those who live in the area) heat their homes with natural gas. Will they be the first to give up their gas, as a demonstration of their own sacrifice to Save the Planet? Not on your life!
Read More “Opposition Continues to Tiny Pipeline in Albany, NY Region”
Jimmy Cramer was one of the last Democrats of national prominence we actually respected. No more. Cramer has succumbed to the Dark Side of the Force. In a recent CNBC interview Cramer blurted out: “I’m done with fossil fuels. They’re done. They’re just done.” Later in the interview he called fossil fuels, “tobacco.”
Read More “Jim Cramer Succumbs to the Dark Side – “Done with Fossil Fuels””
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Wolf makes nearly $6 billion in pre-budget address announcements; Pipeline projects create jobs, grow unions; Dominion submits request to plug 3 gas storage wells in Westmoreland County; Newly revealed restrictions challenge redevelopment of bankrupt Philly refinery’s land; Proposed fund to help spur WV investment; NATIONAL: EID investigation sheds light on activist-driven media platform; A battle of interference: New York attorney general seeks to block group’s effort to intervene; U.S. oil fields flared and vented more natural gas again in 2019.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Feb 3, 2020”
Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) handed the PennEast Pipeline project a huge victory in its fight to overturn a poor decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. FERC said the judges of the Third Circuit were wrong in their ruling that PennEast cannot use FERC’s delegated power of eminent domain to cross property owned or managed by the State of New Jersey. The FERC ruling bolsters PennEast’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, making it far more likely the high court will now hear the case.
Read More “FERC Gives PennEast Huge Boost – Pipeline CAN Cross NJ State Land”
With the big news about Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) support of the PennEast Pipeline project, FERC ruling the pipeline CAN cross New Jersey state-controlled lands using eminent domain (see today’s lead story), another important bit of PennEast news from yesterday seems to have gotten lost in the sauce. PennEast filed a request yesterday with FERC to build the pipeline project in two phases. Break the project in two.
Read More “PennEast Asks FERC to Break Pipeline Project into 2 Phases”
CNX Resources reports losing $271 million in the fourth quarter of 2019–but it wasn’t an actual money-out-of-pocket loss. The company wrote down the value of its Marcellus Shale assets (called an impairment). The company took a $327 million impairment charge for its Marcellus assets in PA, and a $119 impairment charge for unproved gas properties in the Marcellus. Below we have details on how many Marcellus wells CNX drilled and completed in 4Q and for the full year, and what company’s top brass says about what’s ahead for CNX in 2020 and beyond.
Read More “CNX Reports $271M Loss in 4Q19; Cutting Back on 2020 Drilling”
CNX Resources is in a spat with Applied Construction Solutions over the construction of a compressor station Applied built for CNX. The spat is about money. CNX says it signed a contract to have its Morris Compressor Station built for $12.4 million. After several renegotiations (change orders) the price was adjusted to $15.2 million. But when CNX got a final bill for $19 million, they balked.
Read More “CNX Files Lawsuit Against Builder of SWPA Compressor Station”
The work is happening fast and furious at the West Virginia state legislature right now. Legislators only have a 60-day session each year in which to pass new laws. More states should limit the time like WV! Yesterday two different Senate committees voted to pass three different bills, including SB 554, also known as the Lease Cancellation Bill.
Read More “3 O&G Bills Advance in WV Senate, Including Lease “Cancellation””
Earlier this week our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, published an article chronicling the critical role of electric power generation in the supply and demand of natural gas. Natgas is the #1 source of fuel producing electricity in the U.S. today–and will be for the foreseeable future. We did some research on the PJM Interconnection–the largest grid operator in the U.S. covering 13 states and the District of Columbia. We located a list of the active gas-fired electric plants operating in PJM, and a list of planned gas-fired plants coming to PJM.
Read More “Power Generation is Critically Important Market for M-U NatGas”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA DEP to unveil draft regs to participate in RGGI, capping CO2 emissions from power plants, Feb. 13; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Arizona Senate panel – cities can’t stop developers from using natural gas; NATIONAL: Greenpeace pressures Democrats to reinstate the crude export ban; Reinstating the crude export ban would be a gift to OPEC and Russia; INTERNATIONAL: Japan’s average LNG import price to drop in 2020.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Jan 31, 2020”
Last June MDN brought you the news that Edge Gathering Virtual Pipelines 2 LLC (EDGE) had successfully deployed a special LNG unit to a remote Marcellus well in PA, converting gas from the well into LNG, selling that gas to a utility in New England (see Stranded PA Marcellus Gas Converted to LNG, Trucked to New England). EDGE’s “virtual pipeline” solution aims to solve the problem of flaring, lack of pipelines, and (frankly) lack of good local markets into which to sell the gas. Great news! EDGE is expanding its service in the Marcellus, converting gas into LNG from a “large producer” located in Tioga County, PA.
Read More “EDGE Expands Op to Convert Stranded Marcellus Gas to LNG in NEPA”