Shale Gas News – July 4, 2020

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, 1600 AM, 104.1 FM and Sundays on YesFM, talked about greenhouse gas emissions, Haynesville Shale, Pittsburgh Steel Mill and much more last week.

The Shale Gas News has grown again to the Williamsport area on stations WEJS 1600 AM & 104.1 FM. 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 and now the Williamsport area. The Shale Gas News is aired on Saturday or Sunday depending on the station.

Every Saturday Rusty Fender, Matt Henderson and I host a morning radio show to discuss all things natural gas. This week, as guests, we had Patrick Henderson, Director of Regulatory Affairs of the Marcellus Shale Coalition  and Dr. Alice M. Davis, Executive Director of the Susquehanna County Career & Technology Center (SCCTC).

By U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy – U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, Public Domain

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the July 4th show (click above), we covered the following new territory (see news excerpts below):

• No rebound in sight for US shale. US shale curtailments are starting to ease on cautious optimism that the gradual exit from lockdowns globally will aid an oil price recovery. Independents including the likes of Devon Energy, EOG Resources, Parsley Energy and Continental Resources have all pledged to revive deferred volumes over the summer months with WTI hovering close to $40/bl.   But hopes for a swift and painless shale recovery look unlikely to be realized.
• Trump to release rule on gas flaring, royalty cuts. The Bureau of Land Management plans to propose a rule this summer that would eliminate royalties’ oil and gas companies pay on some flared gas, according to the Trump administration’s spring regulatory agenda released yesterday.
• House Democrats’ climate plan would end greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a plan to address climate change that would set a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, while pushing renewable energy such as wind and solar power and addressing environmental contamination that disproportionately harms low-income and minority communities. The election-year plan backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders is less ambitious than a sweeping Green New Deal that a group of progressive Democrats outlined last year to combat climate change and create thousands of jobs in renewable energy.
• New Haynesville Wells Produce More Gas than New M-U Wells. There’s no getting around the fact that the Marcellus/Utica region, collectively called Appalachia, is THE 800-pound gorilla when it comes to natural gas production. We produce more natgas than any other region of the country–more than twice as much as the next highest producer, the oily Permian Basin. Yet the Haynesville Shale, a gas-focused play located in Louisiana, also produces a lot of natgas (about 36% of what the M-U produces). According to recent research by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), new wells in the Haynesville are more productive (producing more gas on average) than new wells drilled in the M-U. Huh.
• ME2 Pipe Inspector Admits Falsifying Welding Records 77 Times. In March a worker hired to x-ray welds on sections of the Mariner East 2 pipeline in southwestern Pennsylvania was charged with falsifying records–that he falsely claimed to have performed work when he didn’t (see ME2 Pipeline Worker Charged with Falsifying Welding Records). Yesterday the worker, via a video hearing, plead guilty to 77 counts of falsifying documents.
• Town Revokes Permit to Drill Shale Well at Pittsburgh Steel Mill. In early 2018 MDN told you that Pittsburgh’s oldest still-operating steel mill, U.S. Steel Corp.’s Edgar Thomson steel mill, is looking to drill shale wells on its property in order to supply natgas for the mill. Following delays from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in ironing out permit conditions, the local town zoning board has capriciously revoked a conditional use permit that allows the wells to be drilled.
• Bids for Chevron’s 550K M-U Acres & 500 Wells Due in Mid-August. Last December Chevron announced it was writing down over $10 billion worth of its U.S. onshore shale assets, with $6.5 billion of that number coming from its Marcellus/Utica assets. Also in December, the company posted for sale ALL of their M-U assets (see Chevron Confirms M-U Assets for Sale, Asks Vendors to Avoid Media). Just sticking a “for sale by owner” sign on more than a half-million acres of leases and over 500 wells didn’t work, so in February Chevron hired investment bank Barclays to help shop their M-U assets.

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation