Recent Important Ohio Oil and Gas Court Decisions
The legal beagles at the Vorys energy law firm have been keeping a close eye on court cases in Ohio that affect the oil and gas industry. Two of those cases caught our attention as being worthy of mention because they have the potential to affect Utica Shale rights owners, and conversely drillers, in the Buckeye State. In one case, a landowner thought she could terminate a lease by not picking up her mail and depositing royalty checks in the mail. Just ignore the mail and claim the driller wasn’t paying up. Oops. Nice try, but that didn’t fly in court. In another case, a landowner with an old oil & gas lease (dating back to the 1970s) tried to break the lease because the driller is happy as a clam to simply get gas out of conventional/vertical/shallow wells, and not go after (or allow someone else to go after) the deeper shale layers. The landowner tried to get the court to at least agree to free up the deeper layers so he could lease those–but no dice. The court found the existing lease is producing in “paying quantities” and under the terms of the lease, the landowner does not have the right to sever the lower layers from the upper layers. Here’s the details, with copies of the respective court decisions…
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Last week MDN’s favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, posted an article about the increase in LNG exports from the United States. The article highlighted the one existing and five forthcoming LNG export facilities that are changing the world energy picture by exporting (literally) boatloads American natural gas. The existing, going-full-bore LNG export plant is Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass plant, located on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Two of the five forthcoming plants (Cove Point and Elba Island) are located on the East Coast–Maryland and Georgia respectively. Cove Point is due to begin exports this month (see 
The lefty propagandists, who refer to themselves as “editors” of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, are at it again. Last Friday they ran an editorial calling out State Rep. Eli Evankovich, a Republican from Murrysville, saying he should be “ashamed of himself.” Why? Did he secretly use false personas of his own constituents to attack the oil and gas industry? No, that was State Rep. Jesse White, whom the Post-Gazette “editors” were strangely silent about (see 
This is sick. Grab your barf bag before you read it. A group of radical adults have brainwashed (we’d call it mentally abused) a group of children to the point the children are allowing their abusers to use them in a lawsuit against the United States government–to force the government to turn over its sovereignty to other nations in the name of man-made global warming. 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 
Events related (or of interest) to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, primarily pro-drilling events.
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Pipeline expansions feeding more Marcellus gas to New England & NY; Chinese investment in WV could include PE resin; the super basin behind US natgas dominance; DOE Sec. Perry discusses LNG exports to Saudi Arabia; shale producers, OPEC playing two different games; Moody’s says o&g industry to continue recovery in 2018; shale oil myths; and more!
Yesterday the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s request to slap an ongoing block of construction for Millennium Pipeline’s Valley Lateral Project. As a quick reminder, Valley Lateral is a tiny, 7.8 mile pipeline that will connect the main Millennium line to the CPV Valley Energy Center gas-fired electric plant, currently under construction, due to be completed in the first quarter of next year. The DEC doesn’t like the power plant project (approved by the State of New York), and is using the pipeline as a political football to try and keep the plant from opening–no doubt at the direction of our corrupt governor, Andrew Cuomo. The DEC arbitrarily, after more than one year of review, ruled against issuing a federal water crossing permit for the pipeline. In an historic decision, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) overruled the DEC in September (see 
Did you know there is major news this week about the proposed Pennsylvania severance tax bill, House Bill (HB) 1401? No, you won’t read anything about what has happened with the bill this week, since the return of the PA House, in mainstream media. Why? Because mainstream media refuses to actually report news any more. They only pedal advocacy. HB 1401 continues to be blocked by courageous House Republicans, even though a variety of amendments have been raised and there was more floor debate on the bill–this week. The bill’s failure to garner a vote and the increasing likelihood it won’t, doesn’t fit mainstream media’s “this tax is inevitable” narrative. Go ahead–do a news search. Nothing in the Harrisburg Patriot-News (the “record” of what happens in the state legislature). Nothing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a reliable anti-drilling screed. Nothing in the Philadelphia Inquirer (is Andrew Maykuth on vacation?). And yet, there IS major news! The only source we could find to inform us of what’s happening is the leftist, Big Green former Secretary of the state Dept. of Environmental Protection, writing on a blog site. Our hat is off to David Hess for his willingness to do the job no one else will do, bringing us the blow by blow of what’s happening with HB 1401…
It continues to be a banner year for natural gas production in Pennsylvania, going by the latest quarterly production report. Yesterday, the PA Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released their latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for Jul-Sep 2017 (full copy below). It shows natgas production rose 4.8% compared to the same period last year. It also shows the number of producing wells is up 9.3% from last year. Total natural gas production volume was 1,326.2 billion cubic feet (Bcf) and the number of producing wells in 3Q17 was 8,073. The biggest news is that 3Q17 saw the highest quarterly production of natural gas in the state–ever. The previous quarterly report had been the highest ever until this report came out (see 
In August, Ohio Gov. John Kasich officiated at a ceremony to launch a new Utica gas-fired electric generating plant in Oregon (Lucas County), near Toledo (see 
Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)–a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA–scored an important approval yesterday. Virginia’s Water Control Board issued a water permit/certification for the project. MVP, when built, will run through six Virginia counties. Prior to voting to approve the permit yesterday, the Water Control Board held a public hearing on Wednesday, largely so antis could spout off and feel better about themselves. Following yesterday’s vote, antis did what they always do–behaved like petulant, spoiled rotten children. At least one anti “screamed profanities at the board members and vowed to visit them where they live.” Yeah, bullying. Threats of violence. That’s the anti crowd for you. In early November the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) waived their right to issue a permit for MVP, instead deferring to the just-as-strict version of the permit issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers (see 
On Wednesday the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) “waived” the state’s authority under the federal Clean Water Act to determine if Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) will harm rivers and streams, instead deferring to the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Nationwide permit. The USACE Nationwide permit has the same exact standards as found in the WV version–so there’s no need to duplicate the paperwork. This is not the first time WVDEP has deferred to the USACE’s permit. They did the same exact thing with a water crossing permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline project in November (see 
Yesterday was not a good day for our “little energy company that could,” Rex Energy. Their stock price sunk to a new low for the year–closing at $1.65 per share. Rex, focused mainly on the Marcellus/Utica (headquartered in State College, PA), has had its share of financial challenges. In the past it has swapped out old IOUs for new IOUs, converted debt (IOUs) into equity (shares of stock), sold off assets in other basins–a whole lotta stuff to keep on drilling (
We find this particularly loathsome. A Big Green supporter and far-left radical environmentalist who lives in Chester County, PA, Caroline Hughes, has filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission against PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s deputy chief of staff, Yesenia Bane. The complaint is a ginned up allegation that Bane “was regularly involved in meetings and travel related to her husband’s natural gas industry clients.” The so-called evidence comes from a copy of Bane’s travel schedule in 2016. She attended various shale meetings and conferences, on behalf of Gov. Wolf, and because she did so, Ms. Hughes would like to see Ms. Bane lose her job. Nice people those antis. Hughes makes the baseless charge that because Bane attended meetings where Bane’s husband, first a lobbyist for the shale industry and now an employee of EQT, had clients, her mere presence at such meetings constitutes a “conflict of interest.” Why? Because Bane’s presence somehow “benefits” her husband and his business. There’s no allegation of back room dealings or financial benefit from those meetings. No. Just a wild accusation, targeting someone because her husband has the gall to work for the shale industry. But that’s not all. Ms. Bane had the gall to remove a anti-pipeline radical from the Wolf Pipeline Task Force back in 2015. That little episode is mentioned in the same Big Green story as the charge that Bane had a conflict of interest. In other words, the conflict of interest charge is a ruse. This is payback for Bane’s action in removing the anti from the Task Force…