Trend Accelerates: Pennsylvania Loses 2 More Rigs to West Virginia

A very big story is unfolding in the Marcellus/Utica, and nobody else is talking about it. There is a major reshuffling of rigs in the M-U, with Pennsylvania losing active rigs and West Virginia picking them up. Two weeks ago, PA dropped from 21 to 18 active rigs, the lowest count it has had in…

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Onerous New Regs for PA Liquids Pipes, Landmen Go Live in November

In 2019, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) began formulating new regulations for intrastate pipelines transporting gasoline, petroleum, crude oil, and natural gas liquids like ethane. In July 2021, the PUC finally published a draft of new regulations (see PA PUC Proposes New Regs for Pipelines—Landmen Must be Licensed). The onerous regulations landed with a…

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IFO 2Q24 Report: New Wells Drilled, Production Both Down in Pa.

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for April through June 2024 (full copy below). There were 63 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 2Q24, a decrease of 26 wells (-29%) compared to 2Q23. That number was also down significantly (37%) from the 100 wells spud in…

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RGGI Carbon Tax on Track to Hit New All-Time High of $27/Allowance

In 2019, when then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced he would unilaterally force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme aimed at forcing coal- and gas-fired plants out of business, he claimed the tax would only amount to a few dollars per allowance (or “short ton”) of CO2 (see…

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Pennsylvania Drillers Defeat Landowner Lawsuit After 9 Years

In 2015, a group of nearly 60 landowners in northeastern Pennsylvania who had leased their land for fracking filed a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy, Anadarko, Statoil (now Equinor), Mitsui E&P, and Access Midstream (later bought by Williams), alleging the companies had improperly deducted post-production costs (e.g., gas gathering and transportation expenses) from royalties owed to…

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Biden-Harris Bribe Pa. with Check for $76 Million to Plug Old Wells

What’s your price, Pennsylvania oil and gas industry? Are you willing to sell yourselves to the Democrats for $152 million (revised down to $114 million) in bribes? How about if Biden-Harris sweetens the pot and rushes a check for $76 million to the state, as they did yesterday? Can you not see through this sleazy…

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Pennsylvania Dropped 3 Rigs Last Week, Lowest Count in 2.5 Years

The big news (for us) with the weekly Baker Hughes rig count is that last week, Pennsylvania laid down its use of three active drilling rigs, resulting in the lowest rig count in the state in 2 1/2 years. PA now operates 18 active rigs, down from 21 the week prior. The last time PA…

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PA Sen. Yaw Introducing Bill to Attract New Gas-Fired Power

Hats off to Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw, who is floating yet another bill that will benefit the state, electric ratepayers, and the Marcellus industry — all at the same time. Yesterday, Yaw announced his intention to float a new bill that would create the Pennsylvania Baseload Energy Development Fund. What is it? It’s a…

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Why the Biden-Harris EPA Methane Rule is a Disaster for PA, PJM

Yesterday, MDN brought you the news that two dozen states have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to place a temporary block on new EPA regulations that will put all coal plants out of business and block most (if not all) new gas-fired power plants from getting built (see States Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Emergency…

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United Mineworkers Union Smells Money in Plugging Old PA O&G Wells

“Follow the money.” Never a truer phrase spoken. “The fix is in” is another trite but true phrase. Put the two together, and you have an apt description of the latest news to come from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration — that the state is now working with (giving money to) the United Mine Workers of…

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Report: PJM Electric Grid in Peril Due to PA Gov. Shapiro Policies

PJM Interconnection is the largest U.S. power grid operator, serving 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM supplies power to more than 20% of the U.S. economy. Most of the states in PJM are not energy self-sufficient. They don’t produce enough electricity to meet their…

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Analyzing Monthly New Permit Trends for PA, OH, WV Shale

We spotted an article on the always-excellent NGI website (the Daily Gas Price Index) that said exploration and production (E&P) permitting activity shows a “summer slump” in natural gas plays, including in the Marcellus/Utica. The information in the article is from data compiled by Enverus and Evercore ISI. So, we decided to review our weekly…

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PA DEP Hosting 3 Info Sessions on Scoring Bidenbucks to Plug Wells

With the presidential election only 80 days from now, the money coming from Washington, D.C. to swing states like Pennsylvania is flowing like a river, as we told you yesterday (see Convenient Timing: Biden-Harris Promise Pa. Another $152 Million). The orders have gone out to get this money (or rather, the promise of this money)…

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