Shale Gas News – July 27, 2019

Bill desRosiers
External Affairs Coordinator, Cabot Oil & Gas

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The Shale Gas News, heard every Saturday at 10 AM on 94.3 FM, 1510 AM and Sundays on YesFM, talked about Range Resources, Lack of new NYC gas, West Virginia cracker plant and much more last week.

The Shale Gas News has grown again; welcome Gem 104 as our FOURTH station! Gem 104 helps to solidify the Shale Gas News coverage in an important Marcellus region, PA’s northern tier. The Shale Gas News is now broadcasting in Bradford, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wayne Counties, as well as in greater central PA. The Shale Gas News is aired on Saturday or Sunday depending on the station.

Every Saturday Rusty Fender and I host a morning radio show to discuss all things natural gas. This week, as a guest, we had Tom Shepstone of Natural Gas NOW.

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the July 27th show (click above), we covered the following new territory (see news excerpts below):

• CDL Drivers Needed in Gas Country and SCCTC Responds!  CDL drivers are needed in Susquehanna and Wyoming Counties and earn good wages thanks to gas. The Susquehanna County Career and Technology Center is helping train them.  With demand constantly on the rise for those qualified to drive commercial vehicles and heavy equipment, Elk Lake School District/SCCTC superintendent Dr. Ken Cuomo was happy to announce on July 18 that the Susquehanna County Career & Technology Center (SCCTC) would be offering an extensive CDL training program once all permits are secured, hopefully starting this fall.
• Braskem Gives Up on WV Cracker – Parkersburg Site for Sale. A sad end to the hope that Braskem, the largest petrochemical company in Latin America (headquartered in Brazil), is going to build an ethane cracker in Wood County, WV, near Parkersburg. We hasten to add Braskem leaving doesn’t mean someone else won’t will build a cracker plant there–it just won’t be Braskem. News is leaking that Braskem has put the land they had purchased for a possible cracker up for sale.
• Lack of New Gas Customers in NYC Beginning to Bite…Hard. The stories are beginning to appear in New York metro and now national media that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to block the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project is having serious negative economic consequences–right now. For example, the owners of a New York City deli had planned to open a new burger restaurant in Brooklyn. National Grid is refusing to run gas service to the ready-to-go restaurant, and now the deli owners are left holding a $400,000 bag (of loans) to repay for work in getting the new restaurant ready.
• JKLM Energy Stops Drilling in Potter County, PA…For Now. JKLM Energy, a Pennsylvania gas drilling company founded by Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula, is “temporarily halting” operation of its single drilling rig (in Potter County) due to the low price of natural gas. Frankly, we could only find one source, ace reporter Paul Gough from the Pittsburgh Business Times, who has mentioned this news.
• Range Resources Sells 2% Royalty Interest + 20K Acres for $634M. On Friday Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus well back in 2004, announced two deals that will net the company $634 million total. In the first deal, Range sold a 2% overriding royalty interest on 350,000 acres “in southwest Appalachia” for $600 million. In the second deal, Range sold ~20,000 non-producing acres in Armstrong County for $34 million ($1,700/acre).
• EQT Pauses Lawsuit Against Former Rice Employees. In February, EQT filed lawsuits in both Pennsylvania and federal courts against two former employees it had fired, claiming the employees, before they were fired, had systematically copied confidential information from company computers and took it with them when they left. In March, EQT alleged the employees “stole” the information to help Toby and Derek Rice in their bid to take over EQT via a proxy war.  At least one of those two cases has just been put on hold.

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation