Local Governments Continue to Fight States for Right to Govern Fracking
The calculation of production royalties and the deduction of post-production costs remains a troubling issue for Pennsylvania landowners. But there is another frustrating and often confusing royalty-related issue which can,...more
Let’s assume you own 95 acres in Greene County, Pennsylvania. In 2019, you signed an oil and gas lease with ABC Exploration. During the negotiations, you agreed that only those post-production costs which actually...more
Shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, February 23, President Biden reinstated the sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that he had waived only last year. Depending on what side of the political divide you...more
When Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine to go conquer that democracy, all of the abstract concepts about energy ended. While not quite a Pearl Harbor moment in terms of instantaneous ideological shift, Putin's...more
Last week, President Joe Biden warned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky that a Russian invasion of Ukraine might be imminent. While Zelensky does not seem to share that assessment, full scale war in Eastern Europe seems...more
Dominion Energy and Duke Energy Cancel Construction of Atlantic Coast Pipeline - "Despite a recent win for the project in the US Supreme Court, ongoing delays, litigation and an expected increase in costs threatened the...more
Earlier in June, while trying to locate the successor to a longtime employee at Chesapeake Energy on behalf of a client, I asked a friend at another energy company if he knew whom I should contact. “I don’t know,” he...more
March 2020 will be the month the western world changed. As March began, there was relative normalcy except in China and isolated places in east Asia. By month’s end, much of the west – indeed, the entire world – was in...more
General Qassem Soleimani, the Commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), was killed by a United States drone strike this morning in Baghdad. Soleimani was the second most powerful man in Iran,...more
2019 was the year in which reality smacked the Marcellus Shale Basin in the face. Long held assumptions about asset valuation and infrastructure development fell apart. By year’s end, some of the most famous names in the...more
Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) announced this week that it is establishing a microgrid to supply power at the airport, connected to the main electrical power grid in case of emergency but otherwise separate from it. ...more
Two attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz have sent the energy world, and the world at large, on edge. It also shows the folly of the unilateral energy disarmament being practiced on the West Coast and in New...more
By a vote of 17-11, the Oregon State Senate last week just passed a five-year moratorium on fracking in that State. The Senate bill cut in half a 10-year moratorium passed in March by the Oregon House of Representatives, but...more
At 8:30 p.m. yesterday, the State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation rejected Williams Corporation’s proposal for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline. Citing potential water...more
While little noticed outside of the energy industry, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is about to make one of the seminal decisions of his tenure. Before May 16, 2019, Governor Cuomo must decide whether to allow the New York...more
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice made one of the most curious gubernatorial moves in recent years recently, when he vetoed a bill that would have directed money to plug the Mountain State’s approximately 4,000 abandoned gas...more
Residents of the Siberian town of Pervouralsk have been horrified by a sight they never expected – green colored snow. Vladimir Putin’s Russia, in the same way as the Communist Soviet Union, industrializes with little regard...more
U.S. Senate Committee to Discuss Climate Change, Electricity Changes - "U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said the hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is aimed at putting lawmakers and federal...more
More, Deeper Wells Planned for Existing Marcellus Site in Washington Township - "CNX has applied to the state Department of Environmental Protection for a permit to drill four new wells to tap natural gas from Utica shale...more
The Texas-Louisiana Salt Basin, and in particular the Haynesville Shale, is a prolific dry natural gas play in East Texas and Northwest Louisiana (Figure 1) strategically located near petrochemical complexes and LNG export...more
Last week, New York City area utility Consolidated Edison notified regulators that, as of March 15, it would accept no new natural gas customers in Westchester County due to supply shortages. It is possible that cutoffs in...more
WV Supreme Court Mulls Marcellus Shale Mass Litigation Case from Harrison, WV - "While the case centers on Harrison County, where the surface owners live and the Marcellus Shale operations are underway, the case could have...more
2018 began with the United States producing immense amounts of oil and natural gas; pipeline companies struggling to build out the national pipeline system but not being transparent about how they are doing it; Europe, led by...more
The simmering dispute over waterway rights between Ukraine and Russia broke into armed conflict this week. Its implications are enormous both for the energy world as a whole and especially for us in the Marcellus Shale...more
As has been reported in a number of news and industry outlets recently, West Virginia lags very far behind neighboring Ohio and Pennsylvania in developing new base load power plants that are powered and supplied by the...more