IFO: PA Natural Gas Production Hits New All-Time High in 2Q19
Yesterday the PA Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released their latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for April through June 2019 (full copy below). It shows natgas production rose 14.5% compared to the same period last year–to yet another new all-time high of 1,667 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas. Put another way, that’s 1.7 TRILLION cubic feet of gas produced over a three-month period. There has now been an unbroken chain of quarter-over-quarter increases in horizontal shale gas production in PA for twelve consecutive quarters (three years running).
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In May, Columbia Gas Transmission was forced to haul the State of Maryland into court over the state’s refusal to grant an easement to drill a tiny 3.5-mile pipeline under the Potomac River (see 
Last September MDN brought you news that six men had been charged with conspiring to illegally alter emission systems on 30+ trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines used to haul water and wastewater to and from Marcellus Shale wells (see 
We should have seen this one coming (but didn’t). Yesterday MDN told you that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) had revoked the right of the Beaver County Conservation District (BCCD) to issue and monitor permits for erosion and sediment control, two permits used in building both pipelines and drill pads (see 
Two weeks ago MDN told you about an incident near Philadelphia in which the flare stack at a Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline pump station ignited causing a loud noise, which we likened to flatulence (see 
In 2006 the Pennsylvania State Legislature passed a bill (signed into law) that protects certain information about pipelines from being divulged via open records requests. It’s all too easy for terrorists (foreign or domestic) to use that information to inflict pain and suffering, even death–or to stop the flows along those pipelines. Good law, good call. But now several PA House members from the Philadelphia area want to pass a new law that would repeal the 2006 law–all in the name of pipeline “transparency.”
Everyone knows that shale drilling is a house of cards, right? Just look at shale gas drillers in the northeast. Company stock prices down 90% over the past 5-10 years. Yuck. And don’t even get us started talking about shale oil companies (filthy monsters). Their balance sheets and share prices are even *worse* than shale gas drilling companies! They NEVER make any money. EVER! Shale oil companies just keep getting new investors to invest so they can pay off old investors, like a Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Except–what if the media narrative pounded into your head day in and day out isn’t true? What if shale companies are actually (gasp) making money?
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Not enough students to fill positions in northeast PA; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Commonwealth LNG files for FERC permit application; Longmeadow approves zoning change to block natural gas infrastructure; Carbon taxes have failed globally, but the left-leaning Denver city council will vote to impose one locally; NATIONAL: Challenging times for U.S. shale: The industry has seen it all before; INTERNATIONAL: Legal tussle prevents $2.5 billion gas pipeline to Mexico from opening.
CNX Resources has just laid off (i.e. fired) roughly 50 employees company-wide, most of them at company headquarters in Canonsburg. But not all. We heard from an MDN trust source who said at least nine workers got their walking papers in West Virginia. Given the company employs about 500 people, 50 fired represents 10% of the workforce. Question is, will there be more firings?
The boneheaded new law passed by the Ohio legislature known as House Bill (HB) 6, meant to save a couple of failing nuclear plants along with a few coal-fired electric plants, has just claimed its first casualty. And it’s major. Clean Energy Future Inc. which has already built two natural gas-fired power plants in Lordstown (Trumbull County, OH) announced it is canceling a project to build a third Lordstown power plant–costing the state $1.1 billion of investment. What a disaster.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just given Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project a huge thumbs up and assist by approving permit changes made by West Virginia that will allow MVP to restart work in crossing hundreds of streams and rivers in the state.
The National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO), with a mission “to encourage and promote exploration and production of minerals in the United States while preserving, protecting, advancing and representing the interests and rights of mineral and royalty owners” is getting a brand new state chapter–in Ohio. The Ohio chapter of NARO is an offshoot from the NARO Appalachia Chapter–in order to focus exclusively on issues in Ohio.
Here’s something we didn’t know: The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) does not do all of its own work to issue permits for things like erosion and sediment control. In some (many?) cases, the DEP delegates and farms out authority to issue and monitor/inspect permits for erosion and sediment control to county conservation districts. DEP is not happy with the way Beaver County has been performing those functions and has just snatched it back, revoking the county’s right to issue and monitor erosion and sediment control permits for projects like pipeline construction and building well pads and roads.
North Carolina is going bonkers. The state Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ), under the direction of Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, released a plan last week to tax carbon dioxide (get ready to hold your breath because you breathe out CO2!). The plan ultimately takes direct aim at limiting the use of natural gas by taxing it to death–Democrats’ favorite play to cater to the leftists in their base. The DEQ plan is certifiably nuts, but less nuts than that of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo. If that’s any consolation.
On those occasions when we engage in conversation with friends and family about what we do, and drop the little factoid that the U.S. (because of shale) is now the #1 producer of both natural gas (surpassing Russia) and oil (producing more oil than Saudi Arabia)–our friends and family look at us like we have two heads. Why does the general population not know this? Because mainstream (biased) media doesn’t want them to. Yet it’s the truth. We flew by Russia back in 2011 to produce the most natgas of any country on the planet, and we flew by the Saudis last year to produce the most oil. We also set another world record last year–the biggest one-year increase in energy production of any country on Mom Earth. Thanks to shale.