Update on Hess’ Activity in the Ohio Utica: Completing 5 Wells
It’s been a while–quite a while–since we’ve heard anything about Hess’ Utica drilling program. The last article we ran on Hess drilling in the Utica was in April 2016 when Hess management said that while they have “good rock” in the Utica, they would mothball their Utica operations until more pipelines are built. Looks like the pipelines are built. We spotted a story that gives new information about Hess’ plans in the Utica. They currently have 59 wells producing in the Ohio Utica. They’re working to complete another 5 previously drilled (in 2015?) wells, which will give them 64 producing wells “in the next month or so.” As for new drilling, the company will hopefully restart their program to drill new wells “hopefully in mid-2019.” Here’s what Hess’ “Utica operations area lead” guy had to say at a Kiwanis Club meeting last week in Steubenville about how much, and where, they’re drilling in the Utica…
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On Tuesday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted Williams’ Transco Pipeline permission to reverse the flow along part of the pipeline to begin sending more Marcellus gas south. The order allows Transco to start up modified compressor stations in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, and to begin flowing an extra 150 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of yummy Marcellus gas southward. Most of the time when we report on Atlantic Sunrise, we talk about the greenfield (brand new pipeline) being installed in 10 Pennsylvania counties. What’s often overlooked are other aspects of the project, like this one, that will kit out the Transco to flow 1.7 billion cubic feet per day of Marcellus gas to the south and to the Gulf Coast. The greenfield portion of the pipeline is due to be completed sometime soon–by “mid-2018.” This latest order allowing the startup of bidirectional flow along certain portions is an important part of the project…
THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, issued a letter/petition to THE Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) back in February–which escaped our notice at the time. The petition demands that the DRBC “man up” and exercise complete and total authority over the PennEast Pipeline project–and stop it cold by prohibiting tree clearing. Riverkeeper maintains that if tree clearing is allowed to begin, it will negatively impact water supplies in the Delaware River Basin–therefore it’s within the DRBC’s purview, in fact responsibility, to take hold of the situation and stop it. This is just one of a many-pronged attack by Riverkeeper to try and stop PennEast, a 120-mile pipeline that will run from near Wilkes-Barre, PA to near Trenton, NJ. The planned route passes through Luzerne, Carbon, Northampton, and Bucks counties in PA, and through Mercer and Hunterdon counties in NJ. The pipeline is needed to move PA’s abundant Marcellus gas to markets in NJ. Last week we told you about Riverkeeper’s latest lawsuits to stop PennEast (see 
Is there a white knight that can ride in and save the day for pipelines being blocked by radicals like Andrew Cuomo in New York State? There may just be! Last week while testifying at a House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing, Dept. of Energy Secretary Rick Perry said that he believes states do not have the right to block interstate pipelines. Perry stopped short of saying that President Trump would consider issuing an Executive Order to approve projects like the Constitution Pipeline and Northern Access Pipeline projects in New York. But he did appear to hint at the possibility…
The trend is undeniable that coal powered electric generating plants are closing, and in their place, natural gas-fired plants are being built. In fact, natgas is also bumping off old nuclear plants, which presents a delicious dilemma for enviro freaks who have traditionally hated nukes for their waste that lasts a thousands years, yet because the electricity they produce is “carbon free” they now support nukes. Grid resiliency is the watchword. If the electric grid depends too much on a single source, can the entire grid become threatened should that source dramatically increase in price, or worse yet, dry up? What’s the likelihood of that happening? That’s what PJM, the largest regional transmission organization (RTO) in the U.S. (that oversees the electric grid in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest) will study in the coming months. In other words, if coal plants, and nuclear plants, continue to shut down as they have been, and we’re left with mainly natural gas-fired plants in their place (as well as renewables and other sources like hydro), is that a “threat” to the entire grid?…
Here are some numbers that are, frankly, hard for us to wrap our heads around. LNG Allies, a nonprofit trade group, recently issued a study they conducted showing that LNG exporters will add between $716 billion and $1.267 trillion in cumulative “direct, indirect, or induced value added” to the U.S. economy by 2050. Yes, trillion, with a “t”. During the same period of time, the study says value added to the economy from supplying the natural gas to those LNG plants (that is, all of the drilling and fracking), will be worth $948 billion to nearly (gasp) $2 trillion! No wonder President Trump is pushing hard to get more LNG export plants online. Here’s a quick overview, followed by a copy of the study/slide deck…
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Dominion seeks OK to work on Atlantic Coast Pipe in North Carolina; Haynesville Shale making a major production comeback; these 2 oil shale plays are making a comeback too; natural gas curbs actually hurt the environment; Charif Souki says LNG plant financing needs a new model; Trump admin considering “fossil fuel alliance” to promote coal & natgas; Enbridge sells midstream biz in U.S. for $1.12B; longest lateral in Canada drilled; and more!
The average worker who works for producers (i.e. drillers) in the Pennsylvania Marcellus makes among the highest average salaries of any industry in the state. Looking at six of the state’s top Marcellus drillers, the average worker made $113,610 last year! That’s an average taken from workers at CNX Resources, Range Resources, Chesapeake Energy, Southwestern Energy, EQT and Cabot Oil & Gas. We hasten to add not “all workers” but “average” or “median” workers–meaning there are people who make below that number and people who make well above that number. It also means the majority of Marcellus workers in those companies made at least $100,000 per year. Those working for oilfield services (OFS) companies like Halliburton, Baker Hughes and others didn’t fare quite as well, making an average of $52,000-$80,000 per year. Still, hey, it ain’t bad money! Here’s a look at the average wage for top Marcellus drillers and the OFS companies that serve them…
Although the average employee at Range Resources made $123,500 last year (see today’s lead story, Average Worker at Top Marcellus Drillers Makes $100K+ Salary), those in upper management at Range made considerably more. We don’t have the 2017 number, but in 2016, Range CEO Jeff Ventura made $9.8 million (see 
If you’ve read MDN for any length of time, you know about a $6 billion ethane cracker plant being built by Shell in Monaca (Beaver County), PA–near Pittsburgh. The plant will chemically “crack” ethane, an abundant natural gas liquid (NGL) that comes out of the ground along with methane, creating polyethylene from the ethane. Polyethylene is, in essence, raw plastic. Manufacturers in the region and beyond will use the plastic pellets Shell will produce at the plant to create an unlimited variety products. Shell is a smart company. They’re as much a marketing company as they are an oil and gas producer and petrochemical manufacturer. They know the value of positioning and mind share. We hadn’t thought about it previously, but we always just thought of and called the project the “Shell cracker plant.” The plant now has a name: Shell Polymers. The name Shell Polymers has been around for a long time but had fallen out of use when Shell largely exited the plastics business. With the new cracker coming online in the next few years, it’s time to revive the Shell Polymers name/brand and apply it to the cracker plant, which is how the project was being pitched at the last week’s NPE2018 (formerly called the National Plastics Exposition) in Orlando, Florida…
In August 2015, MDN told you about a lawsuit brought by a group of left coast radicalized children who want to force the federal government to become communist and “force action” on mythical climate change (see 
Can you imagine an oil company being ashamed of the word “oil”? Sounds like a European thing–and indeed it is. Statoil, Norway’s largest oil company (in fact, the single largest company in Norway period) with operations in 36 countries around the world and over 20,000 employees–is ashamed of its own name. And so, as of today, Statoil is changing its name to Equinor. “Equi” stands for equal, equality, or equilibrium (take your pick), and “nor” stands for Norway. Whatever. We mention this bit of tomfoolery because Statoil (now Equinor) still has meaningful leases and assets in the Ohio Utica. According to MDN’s forthcoming 
A shocking and at times farcical tale of how an environmental lawsuit turned into the world’s biggest fraud is revealed in a new play. The world premiere of “The $18-Billion Prize,” based on the true story of rainforest natives and their New York lawyer “fighting for justice” against one of the world’s biggest oil companies, opens May 19 at San Francisco’s Phoenix Theatre. Performances continue through June 3. Written, or perhaps a better word is assembled, by Phelim McAleer and Jonathan Leaf, the play uses exact words from transcripts of court documents. In 1993, Steven Donziger, a Harvard-educated American lawyer, represented indigenous groups from Ecuador’s rainforest in a class action lawsuit against Chevron–a shakedown. The case received an enormous amount of media attention, including major coverage by Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and 60 Minutes to name a few, and it drew the support of international celebrities. Chevron, to their credit, fought back. An American court found evidence of fraud and ordered Donziger to hand over his files and diaries, which exposed a massive bribery and corruption scheme. The play will make you laugh, and cry, and make you angry that such a long-running fraud could be perpetrated here in the United States…
Nearly a year ago MDN reported that Big Green group THE Delaware Riverkeeper (aka Maya van Rossum) and the odious Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council (CAC) had suffered a crushing legal defeat in their attempt to interfere with shale drilling on the opposite side of the state from where the Delaware River and Philly is located (see