Andrew Place, Formerly of EQT, Resigns as PA PUC Commissioner
Nearly five years ago Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf nominated Andrew Place who worked at EQT at the time to become one of five Commissioners at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (see PA Gov Wolf Appoints EQT’s Andrew Place to Public Utility Commission). Place announced last week he is resigning. Indeed he is now gone (as of Sunday). Place has accepted a job out-of-state. He did important work at the PUC during his tenure and will, no doubt, be missed.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: House Republicans want PA DEP to reasonably pause adopting new regs; DEP invites comments on proposed Water Quality Certification for NFG pipeline project; Upside in a down market: Northeast gas dynamics to advantage regional midstream companies; NATIONAL: Trump administration working to ease drilling industry cash crunch; Do U.S. shale drillers deserve to exist in free markets?; Half of announced North American oil cuts come from just three companies; Lower 48 oil, gas permitting expected to ‘collapse in April’ amid pandemic; Oil, natural gas and NGLs in post-COVID, 2021-25 markets; Oil and gas shut-ins risk royalty litigation; New FERC commissioner hints at market action, announces staff; INTERNATIONAL: Global LNG production shut-ins seen imminent as prices continue falling; USMCA solidifies the best oil and natural gas alliance ever; Fall of natural gas prices speeds energy shift in East Asia; Oil and gas giant Shell targets ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050.
Yesterday we told you that Chesapeake Energy’s reverse stock split (effective on Wednesday) of combining 200 shares into a single new share didn’t work out so well initially (see 
In late March we told you about the biggest one-week drop in U.S. rig counts in the past four years when the rig count dropped by 47 in a single week (see 
For years we’ve had a Canadian LNG export project on our radar, bringing you news about the project, hoping that prodigious amounts of Marcellus/Utica gas would be used at the plant. The project is called the Goldboro LNG project, planned by Pieridae Energy for the coast of Nova Scotia. In July 2018 we told you Pieridae was getting close to a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion project (see 
LNG Limited (LNGL), based in Australia, has been working on a couple of North American LNG export projects over the past half-decade or more. One of them, called Bear Head, would be built in Nova Scotia, Canada and (potentially) export Marcellus/Utica molecules. The other, Magnolia LNG, would be located in Louisiana and yes, potentially export M-U molecules as well. LNGL was in the process of selling itself and its LNG projects to Singapore investor LNG9 PTE for $75 million. LNG9 has just canceled the deal, leaving the future both the Bear Head and Magnolia projects in question.
While shale oil producers are suffering mightily during the current oil price crash, brought on by both the COVID-19 coronavirus travel restrictions and the Saudi price war, the oilfield services (OFS) companies that do all of the drilling and fracking for the oil producers are suffering even more. Companies like Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes (among many others) are laying off employees and writing down billions of dollars worth of assets. On Monday Baker Hughes said it will write down $15 billion in value. While this carnage is not affecting the Marcellus/Utica per se, all of the aforementioned companies taking it on the chin in other plays also drill here in the M-U.
Chesapeake Energy pulled the trigger on a reverse stock split after the close of trading on Tuesday, combining 200 shares into one single new share (see 
As cases of COVID-19 coronavirus began to climb in relatively rural Beaver County, PA, local politicians pressured Shell to stop work on the mighty ethane cracker plant facility they are building in Monaca. Shell quickly complied, sending nearly 8,000 workers home in mid-March for what was thought to be “a few days to a few weeks” (see 
Officials from both Delaware County and Chester County (suburbs of Philadelphia) sent a letter to state officials earlier this week asking the state to once again shut down critical work being done on the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. The county officials, at the prompting (control?) of the uber-leftist and radical Clean Air Council, are using the COVID-19 crisis as their excuse to try and shut down work on the project. In their letter, county officials cite unnamed and anecdotal “sources” who claim (lie?) that workers on the pipeline are violating social-distancing rules–at work and off. Ninny nannies tattling. Do you think workers would jeopardize their own health and the health of their families? No, we don’t think so either.
We see a very positive sign that the U.S. Supreme Court is potentially interested in accepting and ruling on a case of tremendous importance to the oil and gas industry. The case is PennEast Pipeline v State of New Jersey. NJ is attempting to block the PennEast project by denying it access to run across tracts of land either owned or controlled by the state, claiming federal eminent domain authority does not apply to state-owned land. NJ won the case in lower courts and PennEast appealed it all the way to the Supremes, who have now taken an active interest. No, they haven’t officially accepted the case…yet. But they have just signaled a strong interest.
Back in December MDN told you that Thailand’s Banpu, which has invested $500 million so far in the Pennsylvania Marcellus, had developed a wandering eye and cut a deal to buy Devon Energy’s Barnett Shale assets in Texas for $770 million (see 
Economists at consulting powerhouse The Brattle Group have released an assessment/report on the impacts through early April 2020 of COVID-19 on the electric and natural gas industries. The report (full copy below) summarizes recent developments in energy commodity spot and forward pricing, electricity demand, and financial markets, and speculates on what will happen if the pandemic persists. One of the surprising findings (for us) is that weather is having far more effect on keeping natgas prices low than COVID-19. There’s plenty of charts and analysis–really good stuff to ponder. Battle Group has a lot of smart people thinking about this stuff.