This is your friendly (somewhat snarky) semi-regular reminder from MDN that the PTT ethane cracker project in Ohio is dead (see Facing Reality – PTT Ohio Cracker Plant Project is Dead). We periodically look for signs of life in the project, and it has been a flat line for YEARS. Nothing. Local and state leaders…
We’ll be blunt. Incoming Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday is already a disappointment for us. He recently posted details of his transition team to a special website. The co-chair of the transition effort is former RINO Governor Tom Corbett. That’s one strike. While there are several good members on the Energy & Environment Committee, Corbett…
It’s a mass exodus of U.S. big banks leaving the awful Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a group of woke banks managed by the equally terrible United Nations. The NZBA is all about defunding fossil fuels. The UN apparently didn’t get the memo that the U.S. has reversed course and now supports fossil energy. Over…
This is an interesting pattern we’ve not seen in a long time for the venerable Baker Hughes rig count. The national rig count and the count for the Marcellus/Utica remained the same for multiple weeks in a row. The national count was 589 active rigs last week (now four weeks in a row). The M-U…
There was a last-minute roller coaster ride for the NYMEX “front month” natural gas price earlier this week. On Monday, the price soared to $3.936 per million British thermal units (MMBtus). It was the largest one-day dollar gain since Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, and the largest one-day percentage gain since Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. Monday’s…
An undisclosed shale driller has asked the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) to consider opening up an additional 4,360 acres of state-owned Egypt Valley Wildlife Area for shale drilling under the land. A new “nomination” for drilling was also sent to the OGLMC for 383 acres of Jockey Hollow Wildlife Area, located…
On Monday, pipeline giant Williams announced it had placed into full service the Southside Reliability Enhancement Project, an important expansion and modernization of the mighty Transco pipeline network in North Carolina and Virginia. The project adds a total of 423,400 dekatherms per day (423 MMcf/d) of fully contracted pipeline capacity, providing the ability to meet…
In January 2024, MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a plan by Catalyst Energy to convert an existing conventional gas production well on Route 646 in Cyclone (Keating Township, McKean County, PA) into a shale wastewater injection well (see PA DEP Approves Shale Wastewater Injection Well in…
A little over one month ago, we confirmed a rumor that we previously reported regarding EQT Corporation selling a minority stake in its newly-acquired midstream assets from Equitrans to investment firm Blackstone in return for $3.5 billion in cold, hard cash (see Reuters Was Right – Blackstone Paying EQT $3.5B for Pipeline Stake). The deal…
The Baker Hughes national rig count dramatically increased three weeks ago, adding seven rigs for a national count of 589 (see OH Drops 1, PA Adds 1 Rig; National Rig Count Soars, Adds 7 @ 589). For the past three weeks, we have held on to the gains made (still at 589), including last week….
It took a full nine months, but New York’s leftist Governor, Kathy Hochul, didn’t disappoint her radicalized base of supporters. The NY legislature (both chambers controlled by Democrats) passed a ban on “CO2 fracking” (uses carbon dioxide instead of water) back in March of this year (see Radicals Win in NY – Senate Passes Permanent…
A lawsuit that slipped by us (and is still playing out) that began in Carroll County, OH, has major ramifications for landowners and drillers across the state. The case is EAP Ohio LLC v. Sunnydale Farms LLC, et al. in which 13 oil and gas leases were executed in 2008 and 2009 in Carroll County,…
Last week, MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had not followed up on the cleanup work needed for a shale well drilled some 12 years ago (see PA DEP Fails to Follow-up Forest County Shale Violations for 12 Yrs). As violations go, it’s pretty minor (tidying up the…
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally-owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility company in the country. In May 2023, TVA…
The NYMEX futures price for natural gas keeps climbing. Significantly. Last week, the “front month” contract for the NYMEX gained 46.8 cents per MMBtu (up 14% for the week). On Friday, the price closed at $3.748/MMBtu. The price soared 16.4 cents on Friday alone! Friday’s closing price was the highest since Monday, Jan. 9, 2023—in…