Seneca Reports Big Jump in Natural Gas Production From New Pennsylvania Assets
Seneca Resources Co. LLC’s acquisition of the Royal Dutch Shell plc Pennsylvania assets last year helped drive a significant gain in fiscal second quarter production volumes.
Seneca last July closed on a deal to acquire 450,000 net acres across the state including 350 producing Marcellus and Utica shale wells in Tioga County. Seneca, a subsidiary of National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG), said fiscal 2Q2021 production increased 43% year/year to 85.2 Bcfe.
The bulk of the production gain came from the Eastern Development Area (EDA), which includes Tioga County. Net production increased by 21.2 Bcf year/year to 50.2 Bcf in the EDA, while volumes from Seneca’s Western Development Area in northwest Pennsylvania increased 4.6 Bcf to 31.3 Bcf over the same time. The company was most active on the western side of the state, however, bringing online 13 wells in the WDA during its second quarter.
“My administration is committed to safeguarding our critical infrastructure, much of which is privately owned and managed like Colonial,” Biden said at the White House. “Private entities are making their own determinations on cybersecurity.”
The Colonial Pipeline hack has shined a light on long standing concerns around private industry owning and operating the vast majority of the nation’s critical infrastructure, often leading to less transparency for the federal government into security operations.
It has also raised concerns that the oil and gas sector has less oversight than other utilities.
In the wake of the ransomware attack on the pipeline carried out by a criminal organization known as DarkSide, according to the FBI officials are taking a closer look at the sector.
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Asian and European natural gas prices on Tuesday soared to multi-month highs, continuing a run of strength as demand remained unseasonably high.
Tuesday’s gains came after the prompt Title Transfer Facility benchmark finished Monday at $8.973/MMBtu and the prompt National Balancing Point broke through the $9.00 barrier to hit $9.05 after a stretch of continued strength last week. Prices were moving higher along the forward curve too.
Weaker pipeline imports from Russia and Norway, along with stubborn cold across Europe and record high carbon prices, were further incentivizing natural gas for power generation and pushing up prices.
“The single most important driver of higher European gas and power prices in 2021 is rising carbon prices,” said UK consultancy Timera Energy. “This is acting to pull both hard coal and lignite switching levels higher. Rising switching levels translate directly into higher European gas hub prices, with power prices following suit.”
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It was not a matter of if, but when. On Friday, Colonial Pipeline Company, the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, closed its entire 5,500-mile pipeline system that carries liquid fuels, including gasoline, from the Gulf Coast of Texas to New York and surrounding communities. Colonial was forced to take these measures as result of a ransomware cyberattack. As of this Monday, Colonial’s main systems remain offline, but the company working to develop a restart plan for its pipeline system.
The Growing Threat of Ransomware
In prior blog posts, we have discussed the growing threat of ransomware attacks, such as the one perpetrated here. A ransomware attack typically involves blocking access to a victim’s computer files. Once the targeted company pays the specified ransom, access to the files is restored. While ransomware attacks have traditionally focused on companies’ information technology (IT) networks, information security