Range Resources Promotes Dennis Degner to COO; CEO-in-Waiting?
Over the years we’ve reported on the rising star of Dennis Degner at Range Resources. In 2016 Degner was named vice president for Range’s Southern Marcellus Shale Division (see Range’s Dennis Degner Named VP of Southern Marcellus Shale). In 2018 Degner was promoted again, to senior VP of operations, including responsibility for the company’s Louisiana Haynesville Shale drilling program in addition to the Marcellus (see Range Resources Update: Dennis Degner Promoted, $333M Profit). And now, Degner has been named Chief Operating Officer for the company.
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Anti-fossil fuel fanatics attempting to ban natural gas extraction, the pipelines that flow it, and even end-use of natgas have blathered on for years that “
We’ve been saying the following until we’re blue (flame) in the face (pun intended): Natural gas is not a *bridge* to the future of energy, natural gas is THE DESTINATION. We have enough gas supplies for at least 100 years, likely much longer. Natgas is low emissions. It’s not harming Mom Earth. What’s not to love about extracting and BURNING natural gas? It seems others are now embracing this view. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal asks the question, if Warren Buffett is willing to invest $10 billion to help Occidental Petroleum buy Anadarko Petroleum, what does old Warren know that we don’t? Here’s the better question: What if renewables don’t pan out after all? What if renewables can’t supply all of our energy needs? Is that what old Warren is thinking?
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Shale royalties workshop in Greene aims to help demystify process for landowners; Cuomo vs. New York; Giving back while they frack; Dept. of Energy Under Secretary Menezes visits southwest PA; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Expert predicts more Wisconsin frac sand mines may close; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas prices remain low and stable; Better odds with pipelines; Natural gas is the green new deal; NY’s anti-Trump AG asks court to deny Exxon access to climate crusaders’ emails.
One of the false allegations made against shale drilling is that it somehow pollutes the air–of particular concern near schools. A new independent two-year study commissioned by Range Resources at one of their drilling sites, located about a mile from a local school, thoroughly debunks that allegation. A first-of-its kind public health and long-term ambient air monitoring report (full copy below) provides analysis from nearly two years of continuous data from an unconventional Marcellus Shale well site nearby a high school and elementary school campus in Washington County, PA. The study found no health impacts from shale drilling.
Yesterday New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo dropped an economic atom bomb on New York City by rejecting a natural gas pipeline to bring more supplies of clean-burning natgas to NYC and Long Island (see 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, arguably PA’s worst governor in a generation, has just thrown in his lot with uber-leftists Andrew Cuomo (governor of NY), Phil Murphy (governor of NJ), and John Carney (governor of DE) to support a total, permanent ban on fracking *and a ban on any drilling-related activities* in the Delaware River Basin (DRB). Put another way, Wolf has just turned his back on thousands of PA citizens living in the Wayne and Pike counties (in PA) who could be, right now, benefiting from Marcellus Shale drilling.
Yesterday two northeast Pennsylvania legislators–state Representative Aaron Kaufer (Republican) and state Senator John Yudichak (Democrat)–hosted a rally to promote proposed new bipartisan legislation aimed at luring a “world-class” petrochemical manufacturing plant to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. A big plant, on the order of the Shell cracker plant in southwestern PA. But no, not an ethane cracker. The kind of plant the two legislators want to attract in northeastern PA would leverage the huge volume of locally extracted Marcellus dry gas (i.e. methane).
A year ago we told you about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launching a new study examining the possibility of treating oil and gas wastewater and (gasp) releasing the cleaned-up wastewater into lakes and rivers, instead of injecting it back down holes in the ground (see 
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus, Utica and other Appalachian shales happening in the next 90 or so days. Send your calendar items (listed for free!) to: jim (at) marcellusdrilling.com.
Hey New York Islanders NHL team–you’re screwed. No new stadium because your governor, Andrew Cuomo has just directed his corrupt Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to deny a permit to build the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline, a pipeline your new stadium needs or won’t get built. You can thank Andy for blowing your billion dollar project. Oh, and residents in NYC’s tenement buildings who won’t have heat next winter because their landlords are being forced by the city to dump fuel oil and now have nothing to switch to? They can thank Andy too, as they huddle with their winter coats on in their freezing apartments.
Yesterday MDN told you that Pin Oak Energy Partners has purchased Protégé Energy’s 10,000 acres of Utica Shale leases (and other assets) located in Washington and Noble counties in Ohio, and Wood County in West Virginia (see 
From time to time we check in on Epsilon Energy, which concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA. Does Epsilon actually do any of its own drilling? No. They partner with (give money to) other companies and the other companies do the actual drilling. Epsilon, according to their website, owns ~4,000 net acres in the PA Marcellus–down from 5,750 net acres which their website showed in February. Epsilon released their first quarter 2019 update earlier this week.
Holy Toledo! Enbridge, a really big pipeline company headquartered in Calgary, Canada, is in the process of buying the 23-mile Generation Pipeline located in northwest Ohio for $100 million. Enbridge owns the Texas Eastern Transmission Company (Tetco), as well as a 50% share in the NEXUS Utica Shale pipeline in the Marcellus/Utica region. It is that later project, NEXUS, that prompted Enbridge to pursue a purchase of Generation Pipeline.