shale gas news
Bill desRosiers
External Affairs Coordinator, Coterra Energy
Host, Shale Gas News

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The Shale Gas News, heard every Saturday at 10 AM on 94.3 FM, 1510 AM, 1600 AM, 104.1 FM and Sundays on YesFM, talked about Hydrogen hub, fuel cells, Venezuela oil and much more last week.

The Shale Gas News has grown again to the Williamsport area on stations WEJS 1600 AM & 104.1 FM. The Shale Gas News is now broadcasting in Bradford, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wayne Counties, as well as in greater central PA and now the Williamsport area. The Shale Gas News is aired on Saturday or Sunday depending on the station.

Every Saturday Rusty Fender, Matt Henderson and I host a morning radio show to discuss all things shale gas. This week, as a guest, we had George Stark, Director of External Affairs at Coterra Energy.

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the March 12th show (click above), we covered the following new natural gas territory (see news excerpts below):

• Oil Surges To $139 A Barrel As Biden Weighs Russian Bans And Pleads With OPEC For More. Oil prices surged Sunday night, hitting $139 per barrel on word that Western allies were moving toward a ban on imports of Russian oil. It’s a big reversal from a few days ago, when the Biden Administration said it had no intention of blocking petroleum supplies if it meant inflicting financial pain on consumers. Perhaps that’s too late; the price bump implies gasoline prices of $4.55 per gallon, and according to Patrick De Haan of Gas Buddy, American motorists are paying $250 million more per day for gas than they did a month ago.
• U.S. Officials Meet With Regime in Venezuela, to Discuss Oil Exports to Replace Russia’s. The Biden administration is seeking to ease oil sanctions on Venezuela as part of a broader U.S. strategy to temper oil prices that have skyrocketed because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter.  U.S. officials began rare face-to-face meetings with Venezuelan officials in Caracas over the weekend, with a view to allowing Venezuelan crude oil back on to the open international market, these people said.
• Experts Say Pittsburgh Region Prime Prospect for $2B Hydrogen Hub. The Washington County, PA Chamber of Commerce held its State of The Economy event yesterday. One of the speakers, Denise Brinley (former executive director of Pennsylvania’s Office of Energy) said that southwestern Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh region is a prime prospect to take advantage of establishing a $2 billion hydrogen hub. Western PA is in the “bullseye” of why funding was included in the recent federal infrastructure bill to establish four such hubs nationally, according to Brinley.
• New WV Forced Pooling Bill Moves Rapidly, Up for Full Senate Vote. Will this finally be the year that West Virginia has a new forced pooling bill passed into law? Quite possibly, given the supersonic speed with which Senate Bill (SB) 694 was introduced and, without any discussion, passed through the Senate Finance Committee (at the last possible moment), and sent on to the full Senate for a vote. Of course, the bill still has to go to the WV House. SB 694 is complicated, but this time the bill appears to have widespread support, not only from drillers but from royalty owners too.
• EQT Invests in Fuel Cell Co. – Foresees Future Market for NatGas. A fuel cell manufacturer located in Westmoreland County, PA, WATT Fuel Cell, disclosed yesterday it has closed on its latest round of financing. The biggest investor? EQT Corporation. WATT has added EQT CEO Toby Rice to its board of directors. According to Caine Finnerty, WATT president and chief operating officer, “This round of investment enables WATT Fuel Cell to continue our advancement and commercialization of residential fuel cells, while funding additional innovation to develop larger fuel cell units for the industrial market.” So what is a fuel cell and why is EQT so pumped about them?
• Range 4Q Update – Return to Drilling in Northeast PA After 5 Yrs. Range Resources, the very first company to sink a Marcellus well back in 2004, issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2021 update yesterday. The update includes a preview of what’s ahead for 2022. Among the blockbuster news is that after five years, Range, which has long specialized in drilling “wet gas” wells in southeastern Pennsylvania, is returning to northeastern PA this year to drill some dry gas wells. Why? The economics are there, says Dennis Degner, Range’s COO and top driller.
• Ukraine Crisis Forces Liberals to Get Honest About O&G, Renewables. A Forbes article caught our eye and we had to do a double-take. Two liberals from the Left Coast, professors at the University of Washington, Seattle, wrote an honest and transparent article about how the crisis in Ukraine is making their fellow liberals take an honest, probing look at the policies they advocate for. Renewables, which the two profs support, are not enough to power the world today. Not in the real world of 2022 with Vlad Putin threatening to overrun half of Europe.

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation