Natural gas prices are $1.69/MMBtu, having hit a high of $1.89 and a low of $1.58. Gas in storage is at 2,283 Bcf, still well above the five year average, but better than it was a month ago. Drilling rigs are at 621, having gone up to as high as 629. We’ve been moving mostly sideways on rig counts since about October of last year.

Some protesters spent about 36 hours inside the Mountain Valley Pipeline. That’s a view that very few people will ever get.

The economy as a whole is benefitting from lower natural gas prices, even though it’s not good for producers or royalty owners.

Electricity burn from AI is a growth sector for natural gas, particularly in Appalachia.

The House has passed legislation that would affect some of the Biden Administration’s environmental policies. It’s unlikely to even advance to the Senate, however.

The Saudis’ long-term plan includes a 60% increase in natural gas production.

The PA cracker plant has been operating under a construction permit for air quality purposes. It has been notified that it will have to apply for a regular permit within 120 days.

Freeport LNG is shutting down trains for maintenance and inspection.

Sixteen states have filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration over the LNG export approval pause.

Some smart people up at WVU are working on how to make hydrogen less expensive. Not that there are a lot of uses for hydrogen as a fuel right now, but if the price comes down enough, maybe people will start adopting it.

A lawsuit against the Mountain Valley Pipeline is being appealed to the Supreme Court. This is the one that challenges the eminent domain power, and I’m all for that challenge. Eminent domain has been abused.

MVP is also being cited for environmental violations. I’m all for the pipeline, but dang if the builders didn’t mess just about everything up. There are good ways to do things, and bad ways to do things, and MVP has done just about everything badly from the beginning.

This article notes that Jim Justice vetoed a bill that would have made larger solar farms even cheaper in West Virginia. It’s not directly oil and gas related, but the same thing has happened with natural gas fired power plants. Jim Justice is a coal man, and has hamstrung the natural gas industry in order to protect his coal interests. This is bad for West Virginia.

The legal challenge against West Virginia’s forced pooling law has been dismissed, the judge stating that the plaintiffs had not shown standing, which essentially means they hadn’t been affected by the law in any way. We know of one attorney (not us) that wants to challenge the forced pooling law. If you have been affected by the forced pooling law and want to challenge it, give us a call and we’ll put you in touch with him. 304-473-1403.

This is….not great. The small town of Martin’s Ferry on the Ohio side of the river now has a hazardous materials mess on its hands. The hazardous materials are said to consist of waste from the fracking process, though I suspect that what they really mean is waste from the drilling process as it sounds like the waste is solid, not liquid. The article goes into some detail about the City Council meeting, but there’s enough detail about the actual situation to see that it’s bad. Somebody needs to clean it up. Hopefully the company that brought the hazardous materials to the site will take care of it, but when they’re the ones that caused it in the first place, it seems unlikely.

Chesapeake Energy will put about 80 wells into “suspended animation” this year. None seem to be in West Virginia, but this kind of thing is happening throughout the industry. It’s necessary, but will temporarily reduce or delay royalty payments.

Jerry Jones has doubled down on his investment in natural gas by buying an additional $100 million in stock in Comstock. Long-term, natural gas prices will come back.

The U.S. beat out Australia and Qatar in 2023 as the world’s largest LNG exporter. It wouldn’t take much for the U.S. to decisively take that top spot, but there’s this “pause” going on at the moment. Also, Freeport just can’t seem to operate continuously for an entire year.

Mountain V Oil and Gas is a West Virginia company based here in Buckhannon. They’ve acquired the assets of AXP Energy in the Appalachian region.

Someone did a deep dive on investing in natural gas over on Seeking Alpha, and decided that investing in companies that are working in the Marcellus/Utica area is the best bet at the moment.

OPEC+ has increased production cuts, resulting in higher oil prices, resulting in higher prices at the pump.

Marcellus/Utica production is down, and natural gas prices are up. Well, relatively up.

Here’s a report that says increased LNG exports do not affect the domestic price of natural gas. Now, I’m sure that’s true to some extent, but I guarantee that if exports were completely cut off, natural gas prices would tank even farther than they are now, and stay much lower on average. That said, the data is compelling, and the real driver of domestic natural gas prices, based off my personal observation of the industry, has bounced back and forth between weather and production.

Iraq produced more oil than its OPEC+ quota allowed for, as usual.

The Biden Administration’s LNG export pause could be used as a bargaining chip to get House Republicans to approve a Ukraine aid deal. I did not expect that.

The price of natural gas is down, but it won’t be too much longer before it starts to go back up.

The ridiculously low price of natural gas is incentivizing producers who have a lot of associated gas (natural gas that comes out of oil wells) to not produce as much oil as the current price of oil would otherwise dictate.

West Virginia has banned four more banks from getting state contracts because of the banks’ stance on using oil and gas.

Two more people blocked MVP work, this time in a giant wooden opossum.

Natural gas prices are at $1.66/MMBtu, having hit a high of $1.96 and a low of $1.58. Prices are low. Gas storage is at 2,325 Tcf, well above the five year average. Drilling rigs are at 629, up a little from last month.

The eminent domain challenge against the MVP has again been struck down by the 4th Circuit. The landowners plan to appeal again to the Supreme Court.

The saga of the West Virginia oil and gas tax debacle goes on. Update: We’re stuck with this law for another year.

The MVP is expected to be in service on June 1, 2024, in spite of recent delays due to weather.

Natural gas prices were ridiculously low for about two weeks of February. Then CHK, Antero, EQT, and Comstock all announced they were going to cut the amount of gas produced this year, and prices began to recover. Guess we were oversupplied. Here’s EQT’s official statement.

It seems that the Biden Administration’s 45V regulation may block all of the hydrogen hubs that the Biden Administration recently announced funding for.

A lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s pause in LNG permits is pending. It will be similar to the lawsuit against the pause in leasing a few years ago, as the FERC is supposed to allow permitting unless there’s been a clear finding that the shipments aren’t in the public’s best interest. That lawsuit was successful.

The State of West Virginia doesn’t do business with a few banks because of their stance on oil and gas issues. The State Treasurer warned a few more that they were at risk of losing the state’s business if they don’t change their policies.

Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, notes that the LNG pause will last months, and a different Biden advisor said it would be 10-14 months. That’s a long time.

Three people have been nominated to take positions at FERC.

The EPA has delayed finalizing carbon standards for power plants until after the election.

OPEC+ intends to extend its production cuts until after 2Q24.

Protesters blocked construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline again.

An Ohio jury has decided that the Utica shale formation includes the Point Pleasant formation. Not being a geologist, I don’t have an informed opinion about this part of it. As a lawyer, if you want to reserve back the Point Pleasant for some reason, you’ll want to specify that that’s what you want, just to be safe, even in West Virginia. Look closely at, and be sure you understand, any formation limit language that you get in your lease.

An oilfield services company, Heavy Iron, moved from Washington, PA to Chester, WV. Chester is the very northern tip of the northern panhandle.

EQT has agreed to buy Equitrans (which used to be part of EQT) for $5.5 billion in stock, giving EQT control of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The West Virginia Surface Owner’s Rights Organization (WVSORO) is recommending that people not sign leases for pore space. We heartily agree, and not just because we like the people over at WVSORO. Just like oil and gas leases, pore space leases are written by the company and for the company. Make sure to read and understand anything an energy company asks you to sign. Get legal representation. You won’t be sorry you did.

Gas storage analysts think we’re going to have too much gas in storage. Surprise? No. Not at this point.

OPEC+ said they were going to continue with production cuts, but analysts say they’ve increased production.

Natural gas prices are at $1.58/MMBtu, prices we haven’t seen since COVID. One month ago they were at about $3.00, and the crash has been pretty consistent. If prices stay this low for long, watch for somebody to start shutting in wells. Storage is at 2,535 Bcf, well above the five year average. Drilling rigs are at 621, one more than last month.

A local news outlet, WVNews in Clarksburg, has published an article that discusses the potential benefits that a natural gas power plant located here in West Virginia would have.

Libya has re-opened the Al Sharara field, the one that was closed down a couple weeks ago by protesters. That’s 300,000 barrels of oil per day back on the market. That will probably bump the price of gas at the pump down a bit.

West Virginia does not have enough well inspectors or enough money to plug abandoned wells.

The Biden Administration has paused approvals of new LNG export facilities.

West Virginia property taxes on oil and gas production are, once again, in the news for bad reasons. Somebody miscalculated the amount of tax that was supposed to be collected, and eight WV counties are short millions of dollars. Tyler County is particularly hard hit, being short almost $16 million. Nobody at the State level seems to have a solution.

The largest cruise ship ever just set sail from Miami, FL, under the power of LNG. Of course, environmentalists say it could actually be worse for the environment, even though it’s far better than the previous technology. Some people just can’t be happy.

OPEC+ intends to keep oil production at its current level in order to keep the price up.

Another protester locked themselves to some equipment to delay construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

So, there is a little rumbling about a West Virginia Senate Bill (SB 358) that would prohibit State employees from enforcing federal EPA regulations. While it’s a good idea, it’s unlikely to be effective, as the Feds have a unique tool that gives them a lot of leverage–money. West Virginia gets a lot of money from the federal government, and most of it is earmarked in such a way that the State has to use it in specific ways, and conform to federal regulations, in order to get the money. When States start feeling uppity, the Feds just start playing around with the requirements for this money. This law is unlikely to go anywhere.

One of Freeport LNG’s liquefaction trains is offline for about a month. That will not help the current oversupply situation.

How the G-7’s price cap on Russian oil is affecting things.

A gas pipeline in Oklahoma exploded, causing damage to some property, but not causing any injuries or deaths.

The PA cracker plant isn’t fully up and running. I probably knew this at one point. What I didn’t know is that Shell doesn’t expect it to be fully operational until 2025 or even 2026. You’ll have to search Shell’s earnings call transcript to find these nuggets.

The legal challenge against West Virginia’s forced pooling law is still ongoing, having been bounced around the Federal court system. The 4th Circuit has decided that the Federal circuit should make a ruling instead of moving the case to State court. So now we’ll wait while Judge Bailey decides whether the plaintiffs have standing.

West Virginia is being hurt by the Biden Administration’s LNG pause. Apparently, pretty much everybody agrees.

TC Energy is building a new building in Charleston, WV. Charleston could really use a nice, new building.

Harvard scientists are studying how cracks form and propagate. This will be useful in fracking and seismology.

A bill that would result in plugging orphaned oil and gas wells, and would keep new wells from ending up orphaned, has been in the legislature for six years, and doesn’t show signs of getting addressed any time soon.

Some folks in Virginia are saying that MVP construction is muddying the waters of their springs.

A company named Tenaska is working to sequester CO2 in the Marcellus shale region. They’ll be working in Hancock County, WV, as well as Ohio and PA. They will be asking for “leases” on the rock. This may not go to mineral rights owners, and the mineral rights owners only own the oil and gas, not the vacant space between rocks. This will probably go to surface owners.

Gas prices are $3.11/MMBtu, down from a high of $3.31 last Friday, but up from a low of $2.45 a few weeks ago. Drilling rigs are at 619, down a little from 623 last month, but numbers have been pretty flat since the end of October ’23. Gas storage is at 3,336 Bcf, down of course, but above the five-year average.

CNX is pulling out of participation in the ARCH 2 hydrogen hub because of uncertainty around the implementation of a tax break CNX thought it would be able to take advantage of, and because they haven’t been able to come to reasonable terms with the company that would have been buying natural gas from them. Most articles make it sound like the tax break is the deciding factor, however.

If you’ve been happy about the lower prices for gas for your car, part of the reason is that U.S. fracking companies have been increasing oil output enough to counter the cutbacks made by OPEC+. Here’s another article saying pretty much the same thing.

Democrats in the House of Representatives have opened up an investigation into Diversified Energy, focusing on how Diversified contributes to environmental problems. Diversified does more to take care of or plug old wells than the people and companies it buys them from. This feels like political grandstanding. Also note that Diversified’s stock fell a ton after this news broke. Care to make a wild guess as to who shorted Diversified? Wasn’t you and me.

FERC has approved a rate increase for the MVP, and extended time to build the Southgate Extension portion of the MVP.

If you’d like to know a little more about how NGLs are brought to market, RBNEnergy has a good post for you.

‘Tis the Season! The season of predictions for the upcoming energy year. The usual caveat applies: all predictions are bunk, it’s the analysis that’s useful.

Oilprice thinks that U.S. production will continue to grow in 2024, setting new record highs.

RBNEnergy does a look back at it’s 2023 predictions, along with a new set of predictions for 2024.

If what I’m reading is correct, and it seems like it is, the ARCH2 hydrogen hub is in serious jeopardy. The Biden Administration has proposed a new IRS rule, 45V, which will make it so that the hydrogen hubs will only be able to get the tax credit they were promised if they use green hydrogen. The ARCH2 hub was going to use blue hydrogen, or hydrogen which is sourced from natural gas, so it wouldn’t get the tax credit. Without the tax credit, the economics of the hub just don’t work.

Diversified Energy has sold some of its Appalachian assets, retaining a 20% ownership, while continuing on as the producer. It’s an interesting financial move, but unlikely to affect anyone whose well is operated by Diversified.

The TVA has added some more natural gas fired power plants. Tennessee can have them, why can’t West Virginia? Oh, right; politics.

Hope Gas is acquiring about 460 customers in Lewis County, WV by acquiring Standard Gas and Bazzle Gas. Slowly but surely, Hope Gas is growing.

The shale industry has become more efficient, laying down rigs and increasing production.

Toby Rice spoke with CNBC about the natural gas market. The video is about four minutes long and worth the time.

Unrest in Libya has shut down an oil field there, once again. It will take about 300,000 barrels of oil per day off the market. That should push the price of oil (and gas at the pump) up just a little.

Here’s the EIA’s oil and gas prediction. The EIA, being a government agency, usually has conservative forecasts.

Chesapeake and SWN are merging! I expect there are some papers to work and some regulations to hurdle, but this sounds like a deal that is likely to go through; I’ve been seeing headlines suggesting this could happen for several weeks already. For our clients who own minerals that are currently produced by SWN, little should change. The checks will keep coming, just with a new name.

RBN Energy has a good article about the differences between gathering lines and transmission lines.

EQT will provide a Texas company with gas for LNG.

Gas prices are at $2.49/MMBtu, down from a high of $2.96, but up from a recent low of $2.31. The drop was due to warmer winter weather, of course. Drilling rigs are at 623, up by five from last month, having hit a high of 626 last week. We may be bottoming out for the time being. Gas storage is at 3.557 Bcf, which is very close to the five year average and more than this time last year which was 3.337 Bcf.

An employee of the Mountain Valley Pipeline was injured by a falling rock.

Argentina’s new president intends to privatize the country’s energy sector, and shares in YPF (the national energy company) are going up. Argentina could become a big factor in oil and gas prices.

RBNEnergy has an article about LNG production and transportation that could be interesting to some of you.

Saudi Arabia would like OPEC+ to cut production of oil.

Royal Caribbean is accepting its first cruise ship that can be run on LNG.

Annual natural gas production dropped in PA in 2022. That’s the first time annual production has been down since the shale boom first started. Looking at the graph of wells drilled, it’s clear that the drop in production is a result of less drilling from 2020-2022 than from 2016-2019.

The only frac-out I’m aware of in our area happened last year in Greene County, PA. EQT has entered into an agreement with the PA DEP that allows them to continue drilling and producing from the pad with additional safety measures in place.

Equitrans, the company that built, or rather is finishing, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, is floating the idea of selling itself.

Hope Gas is growing again, acquiring Southern Public.

Brasil is hoping to join OPEC+.

The Supreme Court has ruled against the eminent domain case that was brought against the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

One of the news outlets in my little town of Buckhannon has posted an article about Hope Gas’ proposed pipeline up in Monongahela and Marion counties. I’m not sure why, as it won’t come close to us down here, but when a local news outlet does an article about my area of interest, I have to link to it. A news outlet a little closer to the pipeline location is trying to get detailed maps of the pipeline route through a FOIA request, and Hope Gas is fighting it.

Natural gas prices are at $3.19/MMBtu, a healthy price. The high this month was $3.58 and the low was $2.90. Drilling rigs are at 618, down four from 622 last month, but the decrease seems to be leveling out. Gas storage is at 3,833 Bcf, which is a little closer to the five year average than last month.

Three more protesters were arrested for blocking work on the MVP.

Follansbee, WV will have a hydrogen node, part of the hydrogen hub that’s coming to West Virginia.

Chesapeake is thinking about buying SWN.

Landowners challenging the MVP’s right to use eminent domain have filed an injunction in the D.C. Circuit court, which is the only court allowed to hear challenges to the MVP. UPDATE: the injunction has been denied. The MVP is suing the protesters.

This article over at Oilprice.com argues that the next phase in shale drilling is going to be mergers and acquisitions.

The MVP is going to cost somewhere around $7.2 billion, and won’t be finished until early 2024.

Some Pennsylvanians have filed a lawsuit alleging mining and fracking activities have polluted Dunkard Creek, which has it’s headwaters in West Virginia.

There’s an 8-inch pipeline project in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia that’s been the subject of litigation for years. The 4th Circuit has finally ruled in favor of allowing the project to use eminent domain. It will be interesting to see if environmentalist opposition continues to litigate this the same way they did the MVP.

Seeking Alpha posted Antero’s 3Q Earnings Call transcript.

Previously, Hope Gas and WATT Fuel Cell announced they would be distributing 500 natural gas fuel cells to West Virginians. They’ve added 5,300 to that number. The technology is interesting, and you can read about it in the link.

Here’s more material about the hydrogen hub.

Clean Fuel Services will build a hydrogen depot in Fairmont, WV. Hydrogen isn’t natural gas, but it will be produced using natural gas to run the hydrogen plants, so the development of hydrogen services directly affects natural gas production in our state.

Shale drilling has been producing more oil this year, apparently against expectations. This article states that it’s because producers are getting more efficient and drilling longer laterals. This article states that oil prices are being torn between war fear and a slowing global economy. Oil isn’t natural gas, but the two markets affect each other.

Here’s the transcript of SWN’s 3Q Earnings Call.

Here’s an inforgraphic of all the current and future North American LNG projects. Notice there are no proposals on the eastern seaboard. That’s because it will be impossible to get a new pipeline permitted on the east coast for at least ten years after MVP is finished. Opposition is too well organized and funded. Maybe the next round of pipelines will be built by companies that actually work with landowners rather than over, through, and around them. Then opposition wouldn’t have enough time to get organized and funded. The pipeline could get built on time and on budget if they’d treat landowners with respect.

The EIA has published its natural gas predictions. As usual, take predictions, even from the EIA, with a grain of salt or so.

The Freeport LNG plant is operating at reduced capacity again.

Gas prices are at $3.11, with a low of $2.61 and a high of $3.38. Drilling rigs are at 622 after hitting a low of 619, but still seem to be on a downward trajectory. Gas storage is at 3,529 Bcf, a little higher than the five year average, but closer to the five year average than last month.

RBNEnergy has published an excellent article showing why natural gas prices are where they are. It’s well worth the read if you don’t follow energy news.

DeSmog published a lengthy article about the water treatment plant in Doddridge County and the company that built it, Veolia. Antero has sued Veolia and won, and it may behoove Doddridge and Ritchie County residents to take a close look at the filings and judgments in that case to see if they’re at risk of environmental contamination. It seems that the plant never worked right, and that makes me wonder if it could have released unhealthy amounts of chemicals or radiation in the area.

One characteristic of the oil and gas industry is that there is always someone predicting that we’ve reached peak oil–the point at which the amount of oil we are able to pull out of the ground irreversibly decreases. This discussion with an oil executive shows why peak oil is so hard to predict with any degree accuracy.

Did you know that natural gas could be turned into diesel? I didn’t. That’s what they’re doing in Arkansas.

Wondering why oil prices are going up? OPEC+, of course. We’re producing a lot of oil here in the U.S., but not enough to swing prices around the way that OPEC+ can.

Exxon is trying to get federal subsidies for making hydrogen from natural gas.

This is odd. The company that bought the West Virginia land for a cracker plant back in 2015 just barely filed the deed. Apparently, there has been some interest in the property in the past year, which could be driving the filing of the deed, finally. Now speculation will begin as to who is interested and for what. Hydrogen hub property, maybe?

Mountain State Spotlight wrote a pretty good overview article about hydrogen and hydrogen hubs. However, they look at hydrogen as a power source. It’s not. It’s power storage, the same way a battery is, or refined fuels of any type are. When you think of it that way, it makes more sense.

Hope Gas will be building about ten miles of new pipeline in Monongalia County. This will connect with about 15 miles of existing pipeline. They’ll be taking gas from the Wadestown area down to the Harmony Grove area just west of Morgantown, then up to a facility they have in Osage. The line will curve south and apparently go into Marion County for about five miles. I hope to be able to help people negotiate their agreements with Hope Gas for this pipeline. Along with more money, we can make sure the pipeline location won’t change, the right of way will terminate when it’s no longer used, and do other things to protect the property.

The rise in oil prices usually brings about a corresponding rise in oil production in the U.S. Not so this time around. That’s because E&Ps are forecasting a reduction in the price of drilling supplies in the next 12 months, and since they’ve begun focusing on turning a profit for investors and shareholders, they’re all waiting for those prices to come down.

Something a lot of people don’t know is that gas can be sold in different places for different prices. The Henry Hub is the price most people look at, but the Eastern Gas South hub is where a lot of gas from the Marcellus Shale gets sold. That price is almost always less than the Henry Hub price, and has been below a dollar for a while.

Hart Energy did an analysis of how much longer the Marcellus and Utica shales will produce gas at current gas prices. I won’t spoil it, click through and read the article and examine the graphs. Keep in mind that recoverable reserves is always a function of the price of gas and the price of drilling supplies.

WACO Oil and Gas is paying an $825,000 fine and doing some cleanup work to restore wetlands and streams in Braxton County.

Hope Gas has finished it’s acquisition of People’s Gas.

It’s just a startup, so who knows whether this will become reality, but a company is trying to build tractor-trailer sized methanol plants that could be hauled out to an oil well that has produced gas and use that gas to make methanol.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline has agreed to inspect any pipe that is not already buried and undertake treatment for any corrosion.

Demand for gas is increasing, and unconventional wells (horizontally fracked) are needed to fill the gap.

RBNEnergy does it again! I’ve had clients ask how completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline will affect the value of their mineral rights, and this article details all the considerations.

Two more protesters have halted work on the MVP. One was named Mickey. The other was named Ben.

So, it seems there was still one more T to cross in the EQT/Tug Hill merger. The FTC required a couple of changes to the deal, and those changes required a public comment period, and that period just expired, so the FTC signed off on the deal and the deal is finally done.

The amount that West Virginian’s will pay for their natural gas will go down this year.

The hydrogen hub called ARCH 2 which will work in an area including West Virginia, Ohio, and PA, will receive federal funding.

Exxon has bought Pioneer for $60 billion. Pioneer doesn’t operate in West Virginia, but they are a pure shale operator and the dollar amount is staggering.

Natural gas prices are at $2.64/MMBtu, having gotten as low as $2.50 and as high as $2.80 in the last month. Gas storage is at 3,205 Bcf, which is a little closer to the five year average than it was last month. Rig counts are at 641, down one from last month, but up from the low of 631 a couple weeks ago. Perhaps we’ve hit bottom on the rig count?

PHMSA, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, has ordered MVP to inspect all the pipe that’s already in the ground and all the pipe that’s going to be installed. It’s also ordered that all surface locations be inspected for ground movement.

I’d like to see the MVP get built. I’d also like to see a case challenging MVP’s ability to use eminent domain go in favor of the landowner; I’m not a fan of where eminent domain law has gone. The case may still go forward in the D.C. circuit, but it hasn’t been ruled on yet.

The likelihood that West Virginia will benefit from the hydrogen hub grants being reviewed by the federal government has gone up. Another company has announced its intention to build a hydrogen powered data center in West Virginia.

EQT has completed its acquisition of Tug Hill. This shouldn’t change much of anything for royalty owners, but if it does, rest assured that EQT will not be easy to deal with. In spite of their recent changes, they’re still the bad boys on the block.

WV-GO published an article that states that West Virginia is the country’s fourth largest natural gas producing state and produces 10% of the country’s gas supply.

Work on the MVP re-started back on August 4th.

PHMSA has issued a new set of regulations for gas pipelines.

The Biden Administration has blocked six million acres of undersea oil and gas from inclusion in a federal lease. This will probably drive oil and gas prices up a little. This kind of development is very long-term, so short-term prices will not probably jump a lot.

There is a lot of talk in certain circles in West Virginia about hydrogen as an energy source and about carbon capture. The linked article does a pretty good job of addressing both subjects.

A coal fired power plant here in West Virginia has been brought back to life in order to provide hydrogen, among other things.

Someone used Molotov Cocktails on two pieces of heavy equipment that were being used to build the MVP.

Antero has donated $4 million to WVU’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. This comes at a time when WVU has announced that it is cutting a lot of staff and eliminating a number of degrees.

Reuters has a pretty good article about worldwide oil and natural gas production and prices. It’s definitely worth at least a skim.

Two more protesters have been arrested for locking themselves to heavy equipment used to build the MVP.

OPEC+ has extended its supply cut for another three months.

In Gulfport’s quarterly report, they note that their newest wells will produce an EUR (estimated ultimate recovery) of 2.5 Bcfe per 1,000 feet of lateral. That’s up from an average of 1.5 Bcfe per 1,000 of lateral.

Protesters stopped work on the MVP in Talcott, WV.

The power plant up in Pleasants County that started back up is going to need a little more land in order to convert over to running on hydrogen.

MVP is suing the protesters who have been stopping work on the pipeline.

MVP is requesting a rate increase to cover the additional cost of building the pipeline.

Freeport LNG just can’t catch a break. They’ve shut down, indicated by zero inflow of gas to the facility. There’s no news as to why.

The U.S. exported more natural gas than any other country in the first half of 2023.

Natural gas prices are at $2.66/MMBtu, having bounced around quite a bit from $2.48 to $2.96 this month. Drilling rigs are at 654, down another 21 from last month. Gas storage is at 3,030 Bcf, right between the five year average and the five year high.

Joe Manchin has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. So have the Republican representatives and senator. Chief Justice John Roberts is expected to decide the case on his own, but he could put it to the whole court.

The Appalachian Regional Commission is working on a project that will hopefully make the area more interesting as an energy storage hub.

Wondering whether we’ll run out of oil and gas to use? RBNEnergy analyzes the reported reserves we have in the ground.

TC Energy operates a lot of pipelines in the Marcellus Shale region, and quite a few of them are in West Virginia. They’re selling a 40% interest in the pipelines to Global Infrastructure Partners.

A 26-inch natural gas pipeline exploded in Shenandoah County, VA. The video and pictures were shocking. Subsequent investigation suggests that environmental cracking is the culprit.

Saudi Arabia is expected to keep its 1 million barrel per day production cut in place until September.

EQT claims to have drilled a world record 18,200 foot well in 48 hours.

The Supreme Court has vacated the stay imposed by the 4th Circuit. Construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline will probably start very soon.

The White House is creating a cabinet-level position to fight methane gas emissions.

A company called Zefiro has joined the Gas & Oil Association of West Virginia (GO-WV). Zefiro is a company that plugs old oil and gas wells in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It might seem strange for them to join GO-WV, but it will help them get to know the players in the industry.

This is a comprehensive article about West Virginia’s property tax law as it relates to oil and gas. The law is still difficult to understand and implement, and it’s made a lot of West Virginia oil and gas owners very angry and frustrated.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is expected to be in service by the end of this year. It should give royalty owners a slight, short-term bump up in royalty checks when it comes online.

West Virginia’s severance tax collections for July went down dramatically. Low natural gas prices are to blame.

An article over at Reuters goes into detail about how fewer drilling rigs has resulted in less natural gas production. That relationship seems obvious on its face, but details are almost always useful for analysis and decision making.

Cunningham Energy has been acquired by Houston Natural Resources and the merged company will be known as Cunningham Natural Resources Corp. Cunningham Energy was active here in West Virginia in horizontal fracking of shallow formations in the search of oil. It’s apparently more challenging that one would think, as Cunningham is the only company I’ve heard of that’s doing that. That fact continues to surprise me.

Some protesters have locked themselves to equipment that’s being used to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

A South Dakota Sioux tribe has said it wants to buy ammonia from a West Virginia plant that will produce ammonia using natural gas.

Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline filed challenges to its permits, but the 4th Circuit dismissed them, stating that there is no live controversy to adjudicate now that Congress and the Supreme Court have weighed in on the subject.

Natural gas prices are at $2.54/MMBtu, with the low of the month hitting $2.49 and the high hitting $2.80. Those aren’t good prices, but they’re better than they were. Drilling rigs are down from 687 on June 16th to 675 on July 14. The decrease may be flattening, but it’s a little early to be sure. Gas storage is at 2,930 Bcf, up from last month but just a smidgen closer to the five year average. Hot weather is driving that number.

A company called Capstone Green Energy will be supplying turbines that generate electrical power to an unnamed Marcellus/Utica producer. These turbines will be installed on natural gas pipelines at wellpads which do not have easy access to electrical power from the grid. In other words, the pressure from the reservoir, pushing the natural gas out of the ground, will spin these turbines and produce electricity on site. This is unlikely to directly affect the royalties that mineral owners are paid unless the turbines significantly affect the amount of pressure of the gas. Then the producer may have to use additional energy to run compressors on site, which could be powered by natural gas from the well, and producers try not to pay royalties on gas that they use on site. This is yet another thing to keep an eye on.

CNX is selling some non-operated producing assets in the Marcellus/Utica basin for $125 million dollars. There are no other pertinent details available. These will be wells that CNX does not operate, but has some ownership in (kind of like they’re the silent partner). They may be in West Virginia, but are probably spread around the basin.

Here’s some analysis of oil production on the African continent.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline has secured its final federal permit. There’s also a lot of old pipe that’s been sitting around in the sun, rain, heat, and cold for years. The company doesn’t want to build a pipe that will fail, but we all know that people will cut corners to get something done. Let’s hope MVP does this right.

Hope Gas, a company that has been operating in West Virginia in some way or other, and under various names, since 1898 (not a typo), has moved its headquarters to Morgantown, WV, from Illinois.

Opponents of the MVP are complaining that Congress overstepped its authority when it passed a law making it so that the permits for the MVP had to be approved. What the opponents don’t mention is that it was Congress that created the laws that created the permits and the permitting process in the first place. This isn’t Congress getting around the law, this is Congress changing the law, which is exactly what Congress’ job is. You might disagree with the law, and that’s OK. But you can’t say that Congress has overstepped its authority.

Apparently there is hydrogen in the ground, exactly the same way there’s oil and natural gas. There are also people who are drilling and exploring for it, just not in large numbers. We don’t have infrastructure for it, so that makes sense. What’s wild is the amount of hydrogen there is, and that people think it’s regenerating itself, so it would never run out.

The MVP has received FERC approval. Construction should re-commence shortly.

Shale drillers have matured, according to this article. In other words, they used to be focused on how much product they could pull out of the ground, ignoring the future consequences. Now they are more focused on turning a profit, which gives them a more predictable future.

RBNEnergy analyzes the effect that no new pipelines (except MVP) in the Northeast region will have on gas production and gas prices in the area. The short analysis is that producers have started to choke back wells during the summer and open them wide during the winter.

Fitch Ratings stress tested a number of oil and gas companies and determined that they are financially more sound than they were pre-COVID. EQT, Antero, CNX, and SWN were included in the testing.

The other argument that opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline have is that Congress violated the separation of powers doctrine. It’s a little complex, and this article does an OK job of getting into it, so click through if you’d like to read more.

Here’s some analysis of why oil prices are still relatively low in spite of OPEC+ reducing production. Short story, U.S. shale.

The State of West Virginia ended 2023 with a $1.8 billion surplus, of which a large portion was a direct result of oil and gas development. If they’d take my advice, they’d sock most of that money into the rainy day fund (which they’ve already done with some of it) and use some of that money to increase teachers’ pay so we can keep good teachers here.

The 4th Circuit has issued a stay in building the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which has Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito up in arms. The MVP itself takes the position that the court should dismiss the case because it no longer has jurisdiction. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

The federal government is handing money out to plug old oil and gas wells. This is a necessary and good thing. It’s really unfortunate that the federal government is doing this, as it really is the responsibility of the companies that drilled and made money off the wells, but if it doesn’t get done this way it simply won’t get done.

RBNEnergy discusses oil and gas exports.

This kind of thing doesn’t happen very often. Somebody working at a well pad in Ohio struck a wellhead and broke it. Gas leaked, people were evacuated and repairs are being made. A day later, and the well is under control, but hasn’t been fully repaired.

RBNEnergy has a pretty good article about the legal wranglings around the MVP.

A company called WATT Fuel Cells is providing fuel cell generators to 500 West Virginians. These are not hydrogen fuel cells, these are propane or LNG fuel cells, and if the information on the web site is correct, it looks like one could be hooked up to a typical home natural gas system. The nice thing about these fuel cells is that they emit far fewer noxious gasses (less exhaust to worry about) and seem to do it at higher efficiency levels than current internal combustion generators. I’ll be keeping an eye on this.

MVP has petitioned the Supreme Court to vacate the stays imposed by the 4th Circuit.