Williams Planning Layoffs as Northeast Drillers Scale Back
Last week midstream giant Williams released its second quarter 2019 update. Although the company reported net income of $175 million, up 130% over the previous year’s 2Q, total revenue dipped a tad from $2.09 billion to $2.04 billion. Amidst a lot of good news, there was one cloud. Because northeast drillers are pulling in the production reigns (given super low prices), and because Williams has recently sold off a bunch of assets, the company has launched a “voluntary separation program” to reduce head count.
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Last week National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Western New York State (operates drilling subsidiary Seneca Resources and pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline), issued its quarterly update. The company says it plans to cut back on its natural gas drilling in central and western Pennsylvania next year from three rigs to two, but will increase investment and work on pipelines.
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. The company released its operating and financial update for 2Q19 last week. As we told you in May, 2019 is “the year of the DUC” for Gulfport (see 
Another so-called “study” has appeared bashing Pennsylvania Marcellus fracking. This one is co-authored by a global warming Kool Aid drinker affiliated with the Post Carbon Institute, making the claim pregnant women in Pennsylvania have a 4% higher chance of becoming anxious and/or depressed if they live near fracking activities. How these people are not laughed out of any room they walk into is beyond us.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Trump to visit Beaver County ethane cracker plant Thursday; The millennial taking the helm at EQT is a baseball jock turned shale guru; NATIONAL: Oil price correction triggers shale meltdown; Texas shale pioneers struggle to appease investors; U.S. shale shippers will pay surcharge for Trump steel tariffs; Natural gas truck sales surge even as electric trucks get the hype; Big oil’s big bet on natural gas has been a big headache; INTERNATIONAL: Turning natural gas into fuel just became cheaper; Here’s Putin’s answer to the U.S. shale boom; Potential loss from outlawing unconventional drilling techniques could cost Mexico $45B by 2040.
Yesterday Antero Resources, one of the biggest (and best) drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, issued their second quarter update. The company spent the lowest amount of money to drill in 2Q of any quarter since 2013 (just $303 million), yet production was 28% higher in 2Q than a year ago.
Last December MDN brought you news of a new Transco pipeline expansion project, the Williams “Leidy South Project,” to expand Transco capacity in Pennsylvania (see 
A new group has formed in New York State with the aim of using a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision as ammunition to sue NY over its ban on hydraulic fracturing. The new group, called Landowner Advocates of New York (LANY), was started by MDN friend Vic Furman. Could this finally be the solution to force Andrew Cuomo to allow fracking?
Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile natural gas pipeline from West Virginia into Virginia (being built by Equitrans Midstream) is now 85% complete. Lawsuits are holding up completion of the pipeline, now expected to be done in mid-2020. The project has faced opposition from a small but dedicated group of loons willing to break the law (see 
This is no joke. It’s not an “Onion” piece where we’re trying to fool you. In June the New York State legislature passed a horrific “energy” bill that was later signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (see 
How much “due diligence” must a landowner engage in when it comes to locating a long lost mineral rights owner in Ohio? According to Ohio’s Dormant Mineral Act (ODMA), the landowner who wants to reclaim mineral rights that were severed must (a) send a certified letter to the last known address of the rights owner, and (b) if that doesn’t work, publish a notice in local newspapers to try and find the long lost rights owner. After that, the landowner can reclaim the mineral rights (an oversimplification, but you get the idea).
In March MDN reported that work has restarted, after eight years, to complete an injection well in Mahoning County, OH (see 
In March, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf traveled to an elementary school in South Philadelphia with the message that only a severance tax on Marcellus Shale production stands in the way of cleaning up lead paint problems that are poisoning the little kiddies at the school (see