The following Shale Directories Members are OPEN for BUSINESS during COVID-19 related shutdown.*
Support them when and how you can!
ACF Environmental
Allison Crane & Rigging
Anderson Excavating
American Energy Fabrication
Barbco, Inc.
Beaver Excavating
Boyd CAT
Cintas
Dawood Engineering
Doss Enterprises
EJ Breneman, L.L.C.
Frontier Group of Companies
Furbay Electric, Oil & Gas Division
Green Valley Seed
HYTORC Penn Ohio
Inland Tarp and Liner
Kessel Construction
MJ Painting Contractor Corp.
Mansfield Crane Service
Marshall County Co-Op – Southern States
Mustang Sampling
NAI Ohio River Corridor
Oglebay Resort and Conference Center
ORT Tool
Skycasters Converged Wireless
Wampum Hardware
Water Transport
Zimmerman Steel and Supply Company, Inc.
*list subject to change
Shale Directories Conferences
BRAND NEW DATE (as of 1/8/21)!
8th Annual Utica Downstream
New, New Date: February 25, 2021
New Location: Holiday Inn Belden Village
Canton, OH
8th Annual Upstream PA 2020
New Date: February 4, 2021
Toftrees Golf Resort
State College, PA
Appalachian Basin Real Estate Conference
New Date: March 25, 2021
Oglebay Resort
Wheeling, WV
Latest facts and two rumors from the Marcellus, Utica, and Permian, Eagle Ford Plays
UGI Buys Mountaineer. UGI Corporation announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Mountaintop Energy Holdings LLC, owner of Mountaineer Gas Company (“Mountaineer”), the largest gas local distribution company in West Virginia for an enterprise value of $540 million, which includes the assumption of approximately $140 million of debt.
Mountaineer serves nearly 215,000 customers across 50 of the state’s 55 counties. The customer base is approximately 90% residential, with the remaining 10% comprised of commercial and industrial customers. Mountaineer is fully regulated, and its system has nearly 6,000 miles of distribution, transmission, and gathering pipelines.
It’s Very Cold in the Northern Hemisphere. Oil, gas and coal prices rally as cold winter sets in. Higher demand for oil, natural gas, and coal due to colder than usual winter temperatures in many parts of the northern hemisphere is driving up the regional prices and international benchmarks of all three fossil fuels at the start of 2021. Oil demand in rising in northeast Asia, where not only is the weather freezing, but China is increasingly using diesel generators amid a tight supply of electricity. China’s increase in oil demand amid the cold snap and factories turning to diesel power generators in light of electricity shortages have supported oil prices in recent days, analysts say.
Could a Polar Vortex Be Coming? US weather forecasters said there are indications that cold air outbreaks could begin during the third week of January while polar vortex conditions could develop, bringing Arctic air into the Midwest and Northeast, which could increase power and natural gas prices.
Market impacts
If polar vortex conditions were to push Arctic air south into the US, extreme cold temperatures could put upward pressure on Northeast gas and power prices, analysts said.
“The potential for the presence of polar vortex conditions certainly poses upside risk to Northeast gas and power prices for the balance of January and February, although futures reflect some market skepticism,” Kieran Kemmerer, power market analyst with S&P Global Platts Analytics, said in a Jan. 7 email.
NatGas Prices Up in 2021. Natural gas prices projected to jump in 2021 on strong export demand, moderate production. Increased domestic industrial energy use, coupled with strong and ongoing demand for U.S. exports, could more than offset a gradual rise in production and drive natural gas prices this year well above the level at which they finished a pandemic-plagued 2020, analysts and industry insiders say. Analysts at Raymond James and Associates Inc. estimated gas futures could reach $4.00/MMBtu by the end of 2021.
Barging Frack Water. (Thank you, MDN) DeepRock Disposal Solutions has secured all of the necessary permits and authorizations it needs (over 30!), including authorization from the U.S. Coast Guard, to begin transporting shale (produced) wastewater via barge on the Ohio River. DeepRock will begin its barge service in first quarter 2021.
$9 Billion Shale-Related Investment in OH. The latest annual report on shale-related investment in Ohio by researchers at Cleveland State University (CSU) found a $9 billion increase from 2018 to the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2019, showing once again the importance of the natural gas industry and hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) to the Buckeye State economy.
The report, released in October 2020, found “total investment [in shale] from July through December 2019 was approximately $3.06 billion, including upstream, midstream and downstream. Indirect downstream investment, such as development of new manufacturing as a result of lower energy costs, was not investigated as part of this Study. Together with previous investment to date, cumulative oil and gas investment in Ohio through December of 2019 is estimated to be around $86.4 billion. Of this, $60.0 billion was in upstream, $20.2 billion in midstream, and $6.2 billion in downstream industries.”
CSU also found upstream investment was down 10 percent in the second half of 2019 compared to the first half of the year, but production was still the highest the state has ever seen, and 11.3 percent higher than the beginning of 2019, as more product is being produced through fewer wells.
Still, there were 122 new wells either being drilled or producing in Ohio in the second half of 2019, bringing the state’s total to 2,709 wells. According to the report, “Belmont County was the leader in new upstream investment, with 31 new wells and an investment of around $401.8 million between July and December of 2019. Jefferson and Harrison Counties were second and third, with 29 and 18 new wells, respectively, to go along with $332.3 and $206.3 million invested.”
How important has shale development and fracking been for Ohio? The development of the Utica shale play in Ohio has turned the state into the fifth-largest producer of natural gas in the United States. This massive increase in domestic shale development, led by fracking, has caused natural gas prices to plummet in Ohio, saving state residents and businesses more than $40 billion from 2006 to 2016, according to a September 2018 study from the Consumer Energy Alliance. This is backed up by a September 2019 report prepared by Kleinhenz & Associates for the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program showing total savings thanks to fracking for Ohio residents from 2008 to 2018 amounted to $45 billion.
Additionally, the oil and natural gas industries supported more than 262,800 jobs in Ohio in 2015, producing $14.7 billion in wages and $37.9 billion in economic impact, according to a 2017 API study prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
BKV Investing More in U.S. Shale. Banpu Plc, a non-oil energy conglomerate, aims to become a leader in technology-driven natural gas exploration and production after Oaktree Capital Management LP, a leading investment management firm, injected US$100 million in capital into Banpu’s gas business unit in the US.
The American company has invested in the preferred stocks of BKV Corporation, which is 96.3% owned by Banpu.
BKV operates in the Marcellus shale basin in Pennsylvania and Barnett shale basin in Texas, with combined production capacity of 700 million cubic feet per day.
Banpu chief executive Somruedee Chaimongkol said the fund injection will accelerate the company’s goal to be a key player in natural gas exploration and production, which is in line with its commitment to expanding natural gas business in the US. Over the long term, the company plans to start a gas-to-power project in the US.
Banpu said earlier it viewed Oaktree as a strategic partner, with the investment reinforcing Banpu’s image as a trusted international versatile energy provider.
Banpu estimated its clean energy resources and clean energy generation will account for 50% of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), up from 20% at present, in five years. The company said the other half will be generated by coal-fired power generation and coal mines, which accounted for 70% of Ebitda last year.
Banpu’s clean energy-related businesses include renewable energy, energy storage systems, electrical vehicle development and car-sharing platform management.
This segment was allocated almost 90% of $2 billion in capital expenditure, said Ms Somruedee.
Optimistic Outlook for 2021. Oil and gas sector outlook for 2021 more optimistic: Federal Reserve survey. Fourth quarter oil and gas sector activity jumped, energy executives said in the survey of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas released Dec. 30, while about half of those surveyed said they expect spending to improve in 2021 compared to the current year. “Six-month outlooks improved notably … a stark recovery from the significantly negative readings in first and second quarter 2020,” when the coronavirus pandemic loomed large and created widespread uncertainty over demand and the trajectory of oil prices, the Dallas Fed said.
Undoing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Regulators get plan for undoing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The developers of the now-canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline have laid out plans for how they want to go about unwinding the work that was done for the multistate natural gas project and restoring disturbed land. In a filing with federal regulators made public Tuesday, the pipeline company proposed an approximately two-year timeline for efforts across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, where progress on the project ranged from uninitiated to essentially complete.
Win for NatGas Producers in WV. 4th Circ. royalty ruling a win for W.Va. gas producers. On Dec. 1, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued its decision in Young v. Equinor USA Onshore Properties Inc., ruling for the first time on the deductibility of post-production costs in calculating gas royalties at the wellhead under West Virginia law. The court unanimously sided with the producers, Equinor USA Onshore Properties and SWN Production Co., and held that they are entitled to deduct post-production costs in calculating royalties under the plaintiff royalty owners’ oil and gas lease.
VA Still Trying to Block MVP. Proposed Virginia rules cloud Mountain Valley NatGas pipeline startup. Virginia environmental regulators have proposed stream-crossing rules that analysts say may delay startup of the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline to 2022, but the companies involved said on Tuesday they were sticking with their late-2021 target. Natalie Cox, a spokeswoman at Equitrans Midstream Corp, one of the companies building the pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia, said the Mountain Valley team was aware of the revised state regulations but “remains confident in achieving its targeted in-service date of late 2021, at a total cost estimate of $5.8-$6.0 billion.”
More Flaring Regulations in TX. Two Texas House bills look to curb natural gas flaring. A pair of bills filed for the 2021 Texas legislative session would curb the use of natural gas flaring and venting common in oil and gas drilling. Flaring — the controlled burning of excess gas — and venting release the harmful greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere. Oil and gas producers in Texas flared and vented more natural gas than any other state in 2019, according to federal data.
Texas-New Mexico Pipeline Could Be in the Works. Double E seeks U.S. approval for Texas-New Mexico natural gas pipeline. Double E Pipeline LLC has asked U.S. energy regulators for permission to start building its natural gas pipeline project in Texas and New Mexico, a filing made available on Tuesday shows. According to its website, Double E is owned by units of Summit Midstream Partners LP, which has 70%, and Exxon Mobil Corp, which owns 30% of the company.
LNG Price Recovering Globally. Liquefied natural gas traders anticipate a swift demand recovery in 2021 after a year in which the coronavirus pandemic prompted dramatic price swings. Colder weather in key importing nations, outages at major production hubs and congestion along global shipping routes already have combined to push spot prices in Asia to the highest level since 2014. That’s a more than sixfold jump from a record low in April, making Asian LNG the best performer among major commodities in 2020.
NatGas Rail Transport Approved. New Trump administration rule allows natural gas transport by rail in dense areas. In an effort to boost natural gas exports, the Trump administration has reversed longstanding federal policy and approved transport of gas by rail anywhere in the country. Opposition has come from Hollywood stars, state attorneys general and local residents who worry about the danger this poses. But plans are moving ahead for a New Jersey project that calls for one of the longest such transport routes in the country: 200 miles through densely populated areas of the East Coast. The gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale would first be sent by pipeline to a new liquefaction plant in the rural northeast part of the state.
Longest Onshore Lateral. A well in the Marcellus Shale in Plum Borough in Allegheny County, PA (a suburb of Pittsburgh) has dethroned a well in the Ohio Utica as the longest onshore lateral drilled…in the world! Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley Exploration) has drilled and completed a well with a 20,060-foot lateral–3.8 miles long!
Kudos to Ohio. Ohio could become the latest state with enhanced penalties for crimes on “critical infrastructure,” if Gov. Mike DeWine signs a bill that lawmakers passed Tuesday. Senate Bill 33 cleared its final vote in the Senate Tuesday afternoon. Over a dozen states have passed similar bills since 2018, as environmental and climate demonstrations have centered on energy facilities. Critics say the bill deters free speech and attempts to silence civil protests about important issues of the time.
Drilling Permits up in the Eagle Ford. South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup: Houston drillers target Austin Chalk for oil, gas. Interest in the South Texas’ Austin Chalk grew over the last two weeks with five applications filed to drill new oil and gas wells in the geological formation. On Dec. 21, Houston-based Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: MGY) submitted applications for four new gas wells in Washington County’s Austin Dec. 17 application to drill for oil in the same area.
TX Pipeline Goes into Service. Permian Basin natural gas pipeline goes into service, connects to markets on Gulf Coast. Albuquerque Journal. A major pipeline to transport natural gas out of the Permian Basin to market went into service at the start of 2021, as the fossil fuel markets continued to show gradual signs of recovery from an historic collapse last spring created by the COVID-19 health crisis. The Permian Highway Pipeline, owned by Kinder Morgan, went into full service on Jan. 1, delivering natural gas from the Waha Hub on the Texas side of the Permian to Katy, Texas near Houston with connections to the refinery and export markets on the Gulf Coast.
RGGI Does Nothing for PA. Pa.’s participation in RGGI will accomplish nothing for environment. Erie Times-News. Gov. Tom Wolf has started the process to enlist Pennsylvania in the battle to stop climate change. He has proposed for Pennsylvania to join something called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI, pronounced “Reggie”). RGGI is an agreement between Northeast states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions via a cap-and-trade system. If Pennsylvania joins RGGI, power plants in the state will be required to purchase permits for every ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted.
NJ Tries to Stop PennEast Pipelines Supreme Court Hearing. N.J. presses Supreme Court not to hear PennEast Pipeline case after feds throw support behind it. NJ.com. The New Jersey Attorney General is urging the Supreme Court not to review and overturn a federal appeals court ruling issued last year against a $1 billion natural gas pipeline that will run through New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley. The Federal Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled in September 2019 that the PennEast Pipeline cannot seize New Jersey-owned land in order to build the gas line.
Can a TX NatGas Pipeline Reduce Flaring? Can a natural gas pipeline help the climate? News. Kinder Morgan Inc. said this week that a major Texas pipeline would cut gas flaring and emissions, but environmentalists are questioning whether that is true for the project and pipelines generally. The 429-mile Permian Highway pipeline began “full commercial in-service” last Friday, moving natural gas from the Permian Basin to southeastern Texas, according to a statement from the Houston-based company. In its release, Kinder Morgan echoed a common industry argument: More pipelines coming online will help to curb flaring — or the burning of natural gas at well sites.
Online Auction of 100+ TX and NM Leases. Texas, New Mexico to offer 100+ oil and gas leases in online auctions. EnergyNet will be hosting several online oil and gas lease sales in January of 2021. Two of the larger sales to be held include BLM New Mexico and the Texas General Land Office. The BLM New Mexico State Office will be offering 37 parcels covering 6,850.72 acres. The parcels stretch across 4 different states: Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. This will be a live online auction beginning January 14, 2021 at 9:00 am CT with closings beginning the same day at 11:00 am CT.
PA Permits December 17, 2020 to January 7, 2021
County Township E&P Companies
- Beaver Marion Penn Energy
- Beaver Marion Penn Energy
- Beaver Marion Penn Energy
- Beaver New Sewickley Penn Energy
- Bradford Leroy Chesapeake
- Bradford Wilmot Chesapeake
- Bradford Wilmot Chesapeake
- Bradford Wilmot Chesapeake
- Cameron Shippen Seneca
- Cameron Shippen Seneca
- Cameron Shippen Seneca
- Cameron Shippen Seneca
- Cameron Shippen Seneca
- Cameron Shippen Seneca
- Greene Franklin Rice
- Greene Franklin Rice
- Greene Washington Rice
- Susquehanna Gibson Cabot
- Washington North Bethlehem Rice
- Washington Smith Range
- Washington Smith Range
- Washington Smith Range
- Washington Smith Range
- Washington Smith Range
- Washington Smith Range
- Westmoreland Derry Campbell
- Westmoreland Hempfield APEX
- Westmoreland Hempfield APEX
- Westmoreland Hempfield APEX
- Wyoming Meshoppen Chesapeake
- Wyoming Meshoppen Chesapeake
- Wyoming Meshoppen Chesapeake
- Wyoming Meshoppen Chesapeake
OH Permits December 17, 2020 to January 7, 2021
County Township E&P Companies
- Harrison Franklin EAP OHIO
- Harrison Franklin EAP OHIO
- Harrison Franklin EAP OHIO
- Harrison Franklin EAP OHIO
- Monroe Center Gulfport
- Monroe Center Gulfport
WV Permits December 18, to January 1, 2021
- Lewis HG Energy
- Ohio SWN
- Ohio SWN
- Ohio SWN
- Marshall Tug Hill
- Tyler Antero
- Tyler Antero
- Tyler Antero
- Tyler Antero
- Tyler Antero
