Industrywide Issues

PA DEP Smears Conventional Drillers Regarding Abandoned Well Issue

The vast majority (up to 99%) of Pennsylvania’s abandoned conventional wells are “orphans,” or wells without an identifiable, documented owner whom the state can hold liable for cleanup. Orphan wells date back to the Civil War in some cases. Even with “newer” wells, the problem has been poor recordkeeping by the PA Dept. of Environmental…

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August STEO Predicts Avg Henry Hub Price Over $3 This Winter

Once a month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. Starting in June, the EIA axed its monthly Drilling Productivity Report that focused on shale plays and instead rolled it into the…

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6th Circuit Rules Sabre Energy Can’t Get Royalties from Deeper Wells

Here’s a court case that flew under the radar until now. It’s a case that has the potential to affect some drillers and some royalty owners in Ohio. Sabre Energy Corporation (the plaintiff) sued Gulfport Energy Corporation and Antero Resources Corporation (the defendants) for breach of contract. Sabre Energy owns Overriding Royalty Interests (ORRIs), or…

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Multi-Year Study Tries to Understand Support for Fracking in PA

This is fascinating. A leftist researcher rented an apartment and lived in Williamsport for eight months in 2013. He interviewed over 100 residents of Greater Williamsport (Lycoming County), PA, to learn their views on fracking. He followed up with the participants and made return visits to the region for the next eight years until 2021….

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AES Indiana Spending $1.1B to Convert Last Coal Plants to NatGas

AES Indiana, formerly known as Indianapolis Power & Light Company, is a utility company providing electric service to the city of Indianapolis. It is a subsidiary and largest utility of AES Corporation. AES Indiana said yesterday that it wants to invest $1.1 billion in Pike County, IN, to convert the company’s two remaining coal-fired power…

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EIA Says Natural Gas Supply and Demand Coming Into Balance

As we’ve discussed many times before, the price for natural gas (especially the NYMEX futures price) is primarily determined by supply and demand — Economics 101. When there is too much supply with the same or less demand, prices go down. And boy, have they gone down! The problem we’ve struggled with all this year…

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MVP Cuts Gas Flows for Maintenance 2 Mos. After Launching

A section of the recently completed 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) was shut down on Tuesday for “pigging” operations and maintenance. Certain sections of MVP have dropped to zero flows, while other sections have dropped to drastically lower flows. We’ll ask the questions no one else will: Why the heck is MVP shutting down a…

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NFG Qtly Update: Filing Tioga Pathway Pipe with FERC This Month

National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Buffalo, NY, is the parent company for Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources and the parent of midstream company NFG Midstream (and subsidiary Empire Pipeline). Last week, NFG issued its latest quarterly update. During the quarter (considered the company’s third quarter), Seneca produced 96.5 Bcf (billion cubic feet) of natural…

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PA May Not Be Able to Keep All the Lights On in Four Years

The CEO of the Energy Association of PA who is also a former chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) asks this question: What can Pennsylvania lawmakers do about a looming regional power shortage that they didn’t cause and can’t easily fix? He says this dilemma poses the most important energy issue facing the…

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Williams Launched REAE Aug. 1; Completed Marcellus South Gathering

Pipeline giant Williams, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica and the owner of the mighty Transco pipeline that flows huge quantities of M-U gas south and southwest, issued its second quarter 2024 update yesterday. CEO Alan Armstrong called attention to the “crisp execution of key projects” that will benefit the company. Among those projects was…

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3 Conv. Drillers Sue Multiple OH Injection Wells for Contamination

In April, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission upheld a regulatory order from the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) suspending operations of three wastewater injection wells located in Torch (Athens County), OH, owned by K&H Partners, a subsidiary of Tallgrass Energy (see Ohio O&G Commission Votes to Shut Down 3 Athens Injection Wells). K&H…

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WV Landowner Lawsuit Against EQT, Diversified re Old Wells Continues

In June 2018, MDN exclusively brought our readers the news that Diversified Gas & Oil (now called Diversified Energy) had purchased EQT Corporation’s Huron Shale assets, with a bunch of conventional wells, in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia for $575 million (see Diversified Gas & Oil Adds to Conventional Assets in KY, VA, WV). A…

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Hog Lick to Begin Work on ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub Depot

Last November, MDN told you about Clean Fuel Services LLC, a subsidiary of Hog Lick Aggregates LLC, one of fourteen partner companies from West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania providing hydrogen production, offtake, and connective infrastructure for the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) project (see Clean Fuel Services to Build Hydrogen Depot in WV, Part…

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The Story of Utica Oil Part 3: The Secret Fracking Recipe

Writing for Hart Energy’s Oil and Gas Investor magazine, author Nissa Darbonne penned a fabulous overview of the Utica, bringing us the history of oil drilling in Ohio (in the 1800s) all the way up to the present day and Encino Energy’s dominance in oil drilling in the Utica. The article includes details about Encino…

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Amped Up Locals Claim LNG Storage in NC Will Cause Cancer

Dominion Energy wants to build a liquified natural gas (LNG) storage facility in Person County, North Carolina, to enhance natural gas service reliability for residential and business customers in the growing region (see NC Residents Freak Out Over Proposed Dominion LNG Storage Tank). Dominion studied several potential sites and collected a boatload of data during…

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