Caithness Cuts Ribbon on Marcellus-Fired Plant Near Wilkes-Barre
In September 2018, the 1,050-megawatt Moxie Freedom Marcellus-fired power plant located near Wilkes-Barre, PA (Luzerne County) went online, feeding the electricity it produces into the local power grid (see Moxie Freedom Marcellus-Fired Plant Near Wilkes-Barre Online). And yet Caithness Energy, owner of the plant, held the official ribbon-cutting ceremony…yesterday. More than a year after going online. Why?
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Our friends at RBN Energy launched a new mini-series of blog posts delving into Marcellus/Utica gas processing and fractionation back in August. The first post in the series dealt with an overview of processing and fractionation in the wet gas region–meaning southwest PA, eastern OH, and the northern panhandle of WV (see 
IHS Markit, a global analytics company that tracks data in the oil and gas industry, recently published a new report titled “IHS Markit Conventional Exploration Results in Early 2018 Through 2019: No Rebound in Activity or Results.” Although we don’t have a copy of the full report, we do have IHS Markit’s excellent summary of the report. Here’s how we summarize their summary: Conventional (vertical only) drilling for oil and gas is pretty much dead and will remain dead–and shale killed it.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Schlumberger introduces at-bit steerable system for drilling horizontal wells in a single run; David Benson, P.E. joins Steel Nation engineering; The big change that’s about to happen at the Shell cracker site; Pittsburgh Technical College launches initiative for region’s changing workforce; NATIONAL: The energy sector lagged in the third quarter; Renewable Portfolio Standard Scam (Part 2) – video; INTERNATIONAL: Capitalism is what really worries global warmists and fractivists.
A group of Ohio landowners sued Chesapeake Energy in 2015 in a class action, alleging that Chesapeake had shorted them on royalty payments (see 
Our good friend Charlie Schliebs, managing director of 
EQT Corp. is offering to sublease “more space” at its downtown Pittsburgh headquarters building. Back in April, before the change in leadership at the top, EQT offered up to 46,000 square feet of space to lease at its massive 250,000 square foot building known as EQT Plaza, located at 625 Liberty Ave. (see 
Two very important (perhaps we should say critically important) cases now sit before the U.S. Supreme Court–cases that have a direct bearing on the Marcellus/Utica region. Both cases deal with pipelines. The first case we’ve written about before: Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline case to overturn a nutty decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that judicially creates a new law that pipelines can’t cross under the Appalachian Trail without (no kidding) an Act of Congress. The other case involves the Hoopa Valley Indian Tribe in California–a case that has profound implications for the Constitution Pipeline from Pennsylvania into New York.
Superior Energy Services serves the drilling, completion and production-related needs of oil and gas companies worldwide through a number of subsidiaries including Wild Well Control, International Snubbing Services, and SPN Well Services. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) warned Superior in August that its share price had fallen below $1/share for more than 30 consecutive days and was in danger of delisting. Superior said at the time they have a plan to boost the per-share price. However, NYSE delisted their stock as of last Friday (six weeks later) and the stock now trades over-the-counter.
It’s time for the oil and gas industry (i.e. fossil fuels) to begin fighting for our right to exist. Irrational fossil fuel haters like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren utter the most outrageous lies and pledge to ban fracking nationwide. It’s now time to go on offense–to respond and set the record straight. It’s time to tell the truth about fossil fuels and the vital role they play now, and will play for years to come. A newly-formed group called The Empowerment Alliance (TEA) is doing just that.
Every now and again we like to check in on a company that continues to keep the faith with respect to shale drilling in New York State. Empire Energy, according to its website, owns “large scale shale acreage” in the Marcellus, Utica and Bakken. Most of Empire’s Marcellus/Utica shale acreage is in New York State–where shale drilling is (so far) not allowed. According to a recent press release, Empire continues to hold its NY shale acreage “at minimal cost.”