Where Does Most “Associated Gas” Come From?
A few weeks ago MDN said the Marcellus/Utica produces more than twice as much natural gas as the Permian–33.3 Bcf/d in November for the M-U versus 16 Bcf/d for the Permian (see EIA Oct ’19 Drilling Report: Permian Gas Grows More than M-U). The Permian, an oil play, is a serious competitor to our region when it comes to gas production because when you drill for oil, gas comes out of the borehole too (associated gas). But the Permian is not the only play that potentially competes with the M-U on gas. There are other oil plays producing “associated gas.”
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Thank you to MDN subscribers and readers yesterday who had to endure MDN website outages. Believe me, it was frustrating for me too! A quick update on the site moving forward, and what I’ve done to (hopefully) ensure what happened yesterday does not happen again.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PADD 1 distillate shortage threatens winter price spikes; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Phasing out natural gas yields dubious benefits, but much economic pain; NATIONAL: The Trump administration begins the formal U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement; Disney Cruise Line orders LNG-fueled trio; KBR immune from shale slump during third quarter; Natural gas soars on cold-weather forecasts; The peak oil denier takes a victory lap; The cost of decommissioning wind turbines is huge; INTERNATIONAL: Fracking could start again as firm behind drilling tries to get ban overturned; Energy companies say the oil glut–and shrinking profits–aren’t over yet; Saudi Aramco starts IPO; OPEC sees its market share shrinking for years as shale triumphs.
Dominion Energy released their third quarter 2019 update late last week. The company reports earnings of $975 million ($1.17 per share), an increase of 14.2% from the previous year. Dominion, as you may know, is a huge company involved in not only the pipeline business, but the utility business. They generate and deliver electricity to millions of customers. They deliver natural gas to millions of customers. The key issue right now for us with regard to Dominion is the status of their Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project. CEO Tom Farrell says that ACP is still a go.
Gulfport Energy, one of the biggest drillers in the Ohio Utica Shale (210,000 acres), concentrates its drilling in the Ohio Utica and the Oklahoma SCOOP plays. Gulport’s third quarter 2019 update shows the company produced 1,527.0 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d) in 3Q19, up 7% from 1,427.5 MMcfe/d produced in 3Q18. The company lost $48.8 million (31 cents per share) in 3Q19. The biggest news, for us, is Gulfport’s announcement they are shopping some of their non-operated assets in the Ohio Utica.
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Western New York (near Buffalo), is the only remaining fully integrated energy company left in the Marcellus/Utica region–maybe in the country. Meaning they are the only company that drills for the energy (oil and gas), pipelines the energy they discover to market (midstream), and is also the utility company that delivers the energy to end users. Big company. Important company. NFG’s drilling arm is called Seneca Resources, and their pipeline/midstream arm is Empire Pipeline. Last Friday NFG issued its quarterly (and full year) update. Both Seneca and Empire got talked about.
Before environmentalist wackos got really wacko in opposing *anything* remotely related to natural gas, including gas-fired powered plants, Competitive Power Ventures got their 680-megawatt CPV Valley Energy Center in Wawayanda (Orange County), NY approved and (eventually) built and online (see 
With friends like these, who needs enemies? Two utility companies–National Grid and Eversource, both operating in Massachusetts–are the primary customers for the gas that flows through the Spectra Energy/Enbridge Atlantic Bridge pipeline project. The last piece of that project is to build a compressor station in Weymouth, MA. National Grid and Eversource now say the Weymouth compressor is not necessary–they have enough gas without it. Thanks guys! You just screwed Enbridge royally.
EdgeMarc Energy, headquartered in Canonsburg, PA (with 50,000 acres of Marcellus/Utica leases), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, looking to sell all of the company’s assets (see 
EQT, the largest natural gas producing company in the U.S., issued its third quarter update yesterday–the first such update since Toby Rice took over as CEO of the company in July. There was a LOT of news coming out of yesterday’s update and conference call. Perhaps the biggest news is that EQT plans to whittle down its outstanding debt by $1.5 billion by selling its stake in Equitrans (formerly EQT Midstream), and by selling “noncore” assets outside of its wet gas operating area. That is, EQT is looking to sell its assets in southern West Virginia, Ohio and central Pennsylvania.
Williams, one of the largest midstream (pipeline) companies in the U.S., released its third quarter update yesterday. The company has major operations in the northeast, including the Marcellus (mainly) and the Utica. Williams is the operator of the mighty Transco pipeline system that carries a significant amount of Marcellus gas south. The company wants to build a new 23-mile pipeline to the New York City/Long Island region, called the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline, which is currently being blocked by both New York and New Jersey. We have news from yesterday’s 3Q update on NESE, Transco and the Williams northeast PA gathering system.
As MDN reported in early October, so-called “activist investors” Elliott Management and D.E. Shaw want Marathon Petroleum (parent of MPLX, otherwise known as MarkWest Energy) to split itself into three separate companies, and a couple of other large shareholders called for Marathon CEO Gary Heminger to be fired (see 
Yesterday MDN brought you the news the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging whether or not the state Attorney General’s office has the right to use a consumer protection law to prosecute companies like Chesapeake Energy and Anadarko over royalty payment shenanigans (see 
Paul Driessen is the senior policy advisor for the