Two oilfield service (OFS) companies, C&J Energy Services and Keane Group, have announced a “merger of equals” in which the two will combine into one with using an all-stock merger. Both C&J and Keane have operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. Both companies previously merged with or bought out other companies. This certainly seems to be a trend with OFS companies.
Read More “Oilfield Service Companies Keane and C&J Energy Merging”
Speaking of oilfield services (OFS) companies that are the result of mergers and acquisitions, for a number of years MDN tracked the monthly rig count for Patterson-UTI Energy as a proxy for rig count health in general and rig count health in the Marcellus/Utica in particular. Patterson operates many rigs in the M-U region. In April 2017, Patterson bought out and merged in Seventy Seven Energy, which was the spun-off former Chesapeake Oilfield Operating company (see Patterson-UTI Energy Completes Merger with Seventy Seven Energy). Because of a slow-down in drilling, Patterson is now looking to sell off its pressure pumping (i.e. fracking) business.
Read More “Patterson-UTI Looking to Sell Off its Fracking Division”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Shale Network hosts eighth annual workshop; High school climate indoctrination using AP environment textbooks; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California Delusion (video); NATIONAL: Small-scale LNG, virtual pipelines expanding to match demand in hard-to-reach areas; Pipeline project developers press FERC for project decisions.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Jun 19, 2019”
Got a well drilled and ready to produce with no prospects of connecting it to a pipeline system any time soon? No problem! We have exciting, breaking news to share. Edge Gathering Virtual Pipelines 2 LLC (EDGE) earlier today announced in May they deployed a special LNG unit to a remote Marcellus well in PA, converting gas from the well into LNG. The LNG was then loaded into a special unit and trucked to a gas utility some 300 miles away in New England. A new “virtual pipeline” is born!
Read More “Stranded PA Marcellus Gas Converted to LNG, Trucked to New England”
Although the second quarter isn’t over yet, EQT has just released “preliminary” 2Q19 financial and operational results in a bid to fend off a takeover attempt. EQT’s current management and board of directors is in a tough fight to retain control of the company. Toby and Derek Rice, formerly of Rice Energy (which was sold to EQT in 2017) are making a play to replace the board of directors and all of EQT’s top management.
Read More “EQT Releases Positive 2Q19 Results in Attempt to Block Rice Bid”
In the coming month, the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce a cumulative 81.4 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas, the first time U.S. shale production has surpassed 81 Bcf/d. Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report. The DPR is a forecast of oil and gas production in the country’s major shale plays for the coming month, made by the expert number crunchers at EIA. The Marcellus/Utica is forecast to increase production an amazing 1/3 Bcf in the next 30 days, for a THIRD month in a row. Just incredible.
Read More “EIA June ’19 Drilling Report: Shale Gas Production Passes 81 Bcf/d”
Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile pipeline from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA (now 80% built), may have just found a way to eliminate one of the last remaining obstacles to completing the project. Although MVP’s solution will delay completion and cost more money. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made Monday, Equitrans (builder of MVP) announced a deal with the U.S. Department of the Interior to swap ownership of land over which some of the Appalachian Trail travels in return for the right to drill under the Trail.
Read More “MVP Swaps Land to Feds in Deal to Cross Appalachian Trail”
As we chronicle today in another post, Marcellus/Utica gas continues to break new records for production. In July, the U.S. EIA says “Appalachia” gas production will hit a new all-time high of 32.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). Our region doesn’t use anywhere near that much gas, which means we have to find other markets that will use it. So where does all that gas go? And how does it get there? That’s the topic of a recent RBN Energy post that outlines the corridors and pipelines that flow our gas to other markets around the North American continent.
Read More “Pathways for Marcellus/Utica Gas to Exit Northeast Region”
Ann Bristow, Professor Emeritus at Frostburg State University and resident of Garrett County, is once again trying to foment irrational fear of the fossil fuel industry. Bristow was one of the “experts” that kept fracking out of Garrett County (one of two Maryland counties with commercial shale deposits), harming its citizens economically. Now she’s trying to whip up opposition to a regional ethane storage hub that won’t even be located in Maryland.
Read More “Anti Tries to Scare Maryland County re NGL Storage Hub Impacts”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Williams completes $3.8B strategic joint venture with CPPIB in Marcellus/Utica; Utica Shale Academy graduation ceremony; EdgeMarc energy gets nod for $108M bankruptcy loan; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: More on the changes coming to Texas Gulf Coast gas markets; NATIONAL: U.S. shale growth is decelerating; Debunking Democrats’ claims about fossil fuel tax breaks; INTERNATIONAL: Having a gas: Australia dominates China’s LNG supply; Russia to boost LNG output fivefold to supply Asia; A failure of OPEC+ could turn the U.S. oil boom into another bust.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Jun 18, 2019”
Several analysts at last week’s LDC Gas Forum Northeast conference in Boston offered their opinion that further growth in production for the Marcellus/Utica region is on the cusp of stalling. Why? Because they don’t see any new major pipeline projects on the horizon beyond the final “big 3” (Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Mountain Valley Pipeline, and PennEast Pipeline), and because major LNG export plants along the Gulf Coast will receive most of their gas from bountiful associated gas that comes from plays much closer to the Gulf, including the Permian and Midcontinent regions.
Read More “Analysts Say NatGas from Permian, Midcontinent to Limit M-U Growth”
Last week the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) approved a plan put forth by New Fortress Energy to build a $96 million 1,600-foot-long pier on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River at the former DuPoint dynamite factory site, to export LNG that will arrive already liquefied from northeastern Pennsylvania (see DRBC Approves New Fortress LNG/NGL Shipping Dock on Dela. River). How will New Fortress get the already-liquefied LNG from landlocked NEPA to the Delaware for loading onto tankers? Via special trucks. However, New Fortress would also like to use railroads. That’s about to become a reality.
Read More “New Fortress May Soon Get Federal Approval to Move LNG by Rail”
Energy Transfer continues to squabble with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) over the fate of the still-closed Revolution Pipeline in western PA. In May the DEP issued an order to Energy Transfer, builder of Revolution, to “identify and restore or mitigate all streams and wetlands that it illegally eliminated or altered during the construction” of the pipeline (see PA DEP Claims Energy Transfer Illegally Damaged Streams, Wetlands). DEP claims ET “illegally” eliminated at least 23 streams and changed the length of another 120 streams.
Read More “ET Appeals PA DEP Order on Revolution Pipeline to Enviro Court”
It’s time to smoke out irrational fossil fuel haters and use their own science against them. National Grid has just released a study (full copy below) commissioned with researchers from M.J. Bradley & Associates that shows there are FEWER so-called greenhouse gas emissions from using the proposed Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline to New York City than by using alternatives being pushed by New York State–alternatives like heat pumps. You read that right. LESS emissions by using a pipeline than the so-called “green” alternatives. If that doesn’t beat all.
Read More “NESE Pipeline Emissions LOWER than None-Pipeline Alternatives”
Pennsylvania antis from the Philadelphia area who don’t want pipelines running through their neighborhoods (NIMBY types) have beat the drums of war so loud and for so long, they’ve finally begun to intimidate the non-partisan, shouldn’t-be-intimated PA Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC last Thursday launched a “major review of its safety regulations for hazardous liquids pipelines” in response to pressure from Mariner East 2 pipeline foes. It’s sad to see a government body cowed by a few loudmouthed troublemakers.
Read More “PA PUC Launches “Safety Review” for Liquids Pipes – Antis Rejoice”
So-called environmentalists in the Albany, NY area are fine with a 333-mile underground electric cable that will pass through the area to bring hydro power from Quebec to New York City, but they object to a 7-mile underground natural gas pipeline that will increase supplies of natgas to the region–because natgas is vile and filthy “fracked gas” and these so-called environmentalists have an irrational (certifiably nuts) aversion to using fossil fuels as an energy source. It truly boggles the mind. Will anyone be left in New York State in another 20 years?
Read More “NY Antis Justify Support for Big Electric Line, Reject Small Pipeline”