The Marcellus Shale| March 2020
Field Overview
The Marcellus Shale is the largest gas play onshore in the US. Located in the Northeast, it supplies the high demand markets along the East Coast. Most of the basin’s gas is produced through unconventional methods, while the little oil produced is mostly by conventional means. Some of the top formations include Onondaga and the Huntersville.
State Drilling Statistics
Active Drilling Rigs in Basin- 41
Total Rigs in Pennsylvania- 25
Total Rigs in United States- 664
Total U.S. Rigs down 35.2% YTD
State Top Producers
Top Gas Producer- Cabot
Top Oil Producer- (-)
Financial & Economic Updates
Why falling oil prices could boost the Marcellus Shale
The Saudi-Russia spat that sent oil prices plunging over the weekend could be bad news for Permian Basin oil producers — which could, maybe, be slightly good news for Marcellus and Utica natural gas producers. At least that’s one of the thoughts driving Wall Street, where several publicly traded natural gas producers saw their shares go up Friday despite the 256-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average and the general coronavirus-fueled volatility of global markets. The leader was Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. (NYSE: COG), which was up 9.7 percent to close at $16.37 a share Friday. Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC), one of the largest producers of natural gas in Pennsylvania, saw its shares rise 3.5 percent to $2.62 a share. Southwestern Energy Inc. rose 4 percent to $1.31 a share. CNX Resources Corp. is up 1.1 percent to $5.14 a share. EQT Corp., which had been up 7 percent during trading Friday, closed up under 1 percent to $6.39 a share.
State Highlights
A fight over fracking at a Pennsylvania steel mill is forcing a reckoning among Democrats
U.S. Steel’s plan, in the works now for more than two years, to lease 10 acres to a New Mexico-based oil and gas company to extract natural gas a mile beneath the surface through hydraulic fracturing has the town people worried. “A lot of this area is in a flood zone,” Chardae Jones, a local, said. “We’re near a river. It just seems like a recipe for disaster.” As word spread, others grew suspicious of what the proposal might mean for public health. Some of them got elected to local and state office. And in January, a neighboring town revoked the gas company’s permit to build part of a well site on its land. Opponents hope that might kill the proposal altogether — something that one prominent local Democratic politician, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, warns could cause U.S. Steel to shut down the mill and force mass layoffs, even as the company promises to invest more than $1 billion into the mill and another Pittsburgh-area facility to make them more energy efficient. The company says the on-site natural gas source would significantly reduce its costs at a moment when the steel industry has faced new struggles. It comes as one of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders, has proposed a federal ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a technique for unlocking natural gas from rock formations like the Marcellus Shale with high-pressure injections of water, chemicals, and sand. Some Democrats warn that a fracking ban would clear the way for President Donald Trump to again win the critical electoral battleground of Pennsylvania. As with much else in American life, tribalism and mistrust exacerbate tensions, especially when the stakes seem so high. Jobs might be at risk. If climate change is an urgent threat, the fracking opponents wonder what it says if their elected officials won’t take a stand in their own backyard.
Driller, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., pulls out of talks in $5M suit
One of Pennsylvania’s largest gas drillers pulled out of settlement talks aimed at resolving its $5 million lawsuit against a resident whose drinking water was contaminated and who has spent years bashing the energy industry. Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. sued Dimock resident Ray Kemble and his former lawyers in 2017, claiming they tried to extort the company through frivolous litigation. Cabot also claims Kemble violated a 2012 settlement agreement by repeatedly “spouting lies” about the company in public. Kemble, a high-profile fracking opponent who has traveled the country talking about his experiences with the gas industry, charges that Cabot is trying to shut him up. The company, which has drilled hundreds of wells in the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation, pulled out of a settlement conference scheduled for Friday because the parties have made “no progress” toward resolution, Cabot said in a legal filing.
Top Gas Producers
| Rank | Company | Production (MMscf / Month) |
| 1 | Cabot | 88,650,345 |
| 2 | Chesapeake | 77,418,288 |
| 3 | Range | 64,864,423 |
| 4 | EQT | 55,278,219 |
| 5 | Rice | 47,436,011 |
Top Oil Producers
| Rank | Company | Production (Bbl) |
| 1 | Cabot | 0 |
| 2 | Chesapeake | 0 |
| 3 | Range | 0 |
| 4 | EQT | 0 |
| 5 | Rice | 0 |
Refining
Marcellus Production
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