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.
Hello….
I own a mere fraction of some mineral rights in West Virginia. My question is general in nature.
My biological grandfather died in 1946 and my mother was his only child. My mother died in 1986 and I was her only child.
I was contacted in 2018 and informed of my “inherited” rights. (Sorry, not sure of the exact terminology, but I’m sure you get the gist.) If a thorough “landman search” had occurred years ago, would I have been eligible for royalties starting 30+ years ago? If so, would I have any recourse?
Hope this makes sense. And thank you for this Q & A site!
So, if there was production from the property that you own, then you should be entitled to some royalties. That said, the production was probably small, and the royalties would have been correspondingly small. Unless somebody drilled a Marcellus shale horizontal well. Then the royalties could be, well, more interesting. Either way, it’s worth asking about. If you know where the property is located you can look for it on the Office of Oil and Gas’ interactive website and see if there are any wells on it. https://tagis.dep.wv.gov/oog/ If you’ve been approached by a landman about leasing or selling, they’ll be able to provide you with some information. Good luck!
Love the welcome “letter”. Like stated my sister and I have inherited some mineral rights in Wetzel County. My mother passed and the letter came addressed to her. My sister tried to get hold of Antero Resources Corporation, a Deleware Corp. They are telling her to just send them our names and they will send the letter to us in our individual names.
That doesnt seem legit so here I am contacting you. It says it is a “Modification of Oil and Gas Lease”.
It also has only paid my mother $1.00/year.
Then it goes to two paragraphs titled Pooling. I dont know what it all means and we really need some help.
Your mother probably inherited a small share of a large tract of oil and gas. When she died, you two probably inherited her share. There was an old lease on the oil and gas rights already, possibly producing a little bit of gas from an old vertical well or being used for gas storage. Antero thinks the old lease is still effective (most of them are). In order to do horizontal drilling Antero needs to get the current owners of the oil and gas (including you two) to agree to what’s called “pooling”. Pooling means Antero can use your tract of oil and gas together with other adjacent tracts. Historically, this wasn’t part of oil and gas leases. Horizontal drilling makes it necessary. Antero’s pooling language isn’t crazy, but while they’re asking you for something you should ask them for something. First, get more bonus payment. Second, get a larger royalty (if you get 15% you’re doing great). Third, ask for a No Warranty of Title clause so that you’re not promising that you own the oil and gas. Fourth, ask for Notification of Assignment (so if they sell the lease to another company they’ll let you know). If you can get those things, you’re doing well. Good luck, and have fun!