| | | |

Penn LNG CEO Says Philly Export Project on Hold, “Not Dead Yet”

On Monday, we told you the mayor of Chester, PA (a suburb of Philadelphia), Stefan Roots, boldly proclaimed that an LNG export project planned for his community called Penn LNG is “dead in the water” (see Chester, PA Mayor Claims PA LNG Export Project for Philly “Dead”). He bases his claim on Joe Biden’s recent declaration that all LNG export projects are “on pause” (see White House Makes it Official – Biden Declares War on LNG Exports). The radical-left Roots has been against the Penn LNG project from the beginning. However, the CEO of Penn America Energy, which plans to build the Penn LNG project, says it’s “not dead yet.”
Continue reading

| |

Iran-Backed Red Sea Attacks Increase Shipping Times & Freight Rates

We’ve talked plenty in recent months about the problems in the Red Sea with Iran’s puppets, the Houthis, trying to hijack ships, and (lately) lobbing bombs at ships sailing through the region. Those ships include LNG (liquefied natural gas) and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, or propane) carriers. The result is predictable: Ships have stopped using the Red Sea and the Suez Canal that connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
Continue reading

Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Feb 2, 2024

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Senators: Biden’s LNG pause hurting W.Va.; NATIONAL: Senate confirms nominee to lead EPA’s climate & clean air office; Documentary duo strike gold with DC climate trial ‘verbatim podcast’; INTERNATIONAL: Enbridge Gas open season for peak storage bids at Dawn Hub; Oil drops on conflicting reports of war ceasefire; WoodMac, Standard Chartered look at Biden LNG export pause.
Continue reading

| | |

Congress Working to Block Biden’s “Pause” on LNG Export Approvals

Congressional Republicans are turning up the heat WAY up on the Biden administration’s decision to pause natural gas export approvals. Last Friday, Joementia announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve a project (see White House Makes it Official – Biden Declares War on LNG Exports). Enough! Republicans are taking multiple actions to counteract Biden’s LNG policy change, including a new bill in the Senate to remove the authority to approve these projects from the Dept. of Energy (which is a puppet of the White House) and hand it to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Continue reading

| | | | |

Equitrans to Drill 2 New Gas Storage Wells in Greene County, PA

Equitrans, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline project, is more than just a one-trick (one pipeline) pony. Equitrans owns 940 miles of FERC-regulated, interstate pipelines that have interconnect points to seven interstate pipelines and multiple local distribution companies (LDCs). The transmission and storage system is supported by 43 compressor units, with total throughput capacity of approximately 4.4 Bcf per day and compression of approximately 136,000 horsepower, and 18 natural gas storage reservoirs, which have a peak withdrawal capacity of approximately 820 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day and a working gas capacity of approximately 43 Bcf. Two of Equitrans’ 18 storage reservoirs — Hunters Cave and Swarts, both in Greene County, PA — are getting a makeover.
Continue reading

| | | |

Duke Energy Seeks to Build 2 Massive Gas-Fired Power Plants in NC

click for larger version

Duke Energy is a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., and is one of America’s largest energy holding companies. Duke’s electric utilities serve 8.2 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, and it collectively owns 50,000 megawatts of energy generating capacity. Duke’s natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, and Kentucky. The company employs 28,000 people. Last summer, Duke announced plans to build a new gas-fired power plant in Person County, NC. The company just announced it wants to double it — build a second big gas-fired plant at the same location.
Continue reading

| | | |

New Fortress Finds Way Around Jones Act – Ship US LNG via Mexico

Altamira Fast LNG 1 (click for larger version)

You have to admire Wes Edens, CEO of New Fortress Energy. He’s figured out a way to get around the idiotic prohibition on shipping U.S. LNG from one U.S. port to another. The Jones Act, passed more than 100 years ago, aimed to boost American shipbuilding. The Act requires any cargo ship moving from one U.S. port to another to be built in the U.S., owned by a U.S. company, and crewed with U.S. citizens. There are precisely zero large LNG cargo carriers that meet those criteria. Big LNG carriers are built in other counties where it’s cheaper to build them. Edens figured out how to get around the Jones Act using a floating LNG (FLNG) platform just off the coast of Mexico.
Continue reading

|

Shapiro Pays Hollow Lip Service to NatGas in New Economic Strategy

Actions speak so much louder than words on a page, don’t they? Take Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. When he was Attorney General, he relentlessly threatened and attacked and harassed the companies in the Marcellus industry (see our many stories here). Now, as Governor, he’s trying to kill the Marcellus gas-fired power plants in the state by forcing a carbon tax on them begun by his predecessor (see PA Gov. Shapiro Proves He’s Radical Left – Appeals RGGI Decision). So when Shapiro, as governor, releases an economic development strategy document for the state (52 pages long) that pays lip service to the role of natural gas in the future of the state (four references total, and no mention of the Marcellus), color is not impressed. Yet some are falling all over themselves to heap praise on this do-nothing governor. Not here. He’s a putz. We’re here to remind you of that.
Continue reading

| | |

The True Impact of DOE’s Pause in LNG Export Licenses

Last Friday, Joementia announced a one-year “pause” on any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people pretend to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve a project (see White House Makes it Official – Biden Declares War on LNG Exports). What does the Biden pause actually mean for those 17 projects and other tangential projects? It creates chaos and harm, actual harm, for a number of those projects. The analysts at RBN break it down so we know which projects are most likely to be affected negatively and how.
Continue reading

Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Feb 1, 2024

NATIONAL: Cheniere announces uplisting to the New York Stock Exchange; Three reasons why moratorium on LNG projects is Biden’s latest misstep; ExxonMobil just set the climate alarm lobby on fire again; INTERNATIONAL: Impact on commodities, including LNG, due to chaos in the Red Sea.
Continue reading

| | | | | |

Ohio Protester Stops Work on MVP for 7 Hours, in Jail with No Bail

Madeline ffitch

It looks like the radical left is running out of locals (people in Virginia and West Virginia) willing to get arrested and jailed to block work on the 99% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, so they’re importing them. Madeline ffitch (last name spelled correctly, not a typo) is an obscure writer and activist from Ohio who works for a group called Appalachia Resist! It is a so-called direct-action group, meaning they get aggressive and commit crimes in order to make a point. Ms. ffitch had a fellow leftist put her in a “sleeping dragon” contraption connected to a piece of MVP excavating equipment in the Jefferson National Forest (Virginia side in Giles County) on Monday. It took police about seven hours to cut it off her and haul her away to jail, where she still sits, having been denied bail.
Continue reading

| | | |

San Francisco Protesters Demand Wells Fargo Pull MVP Funding

Photo: Leon Kunstenaar / Pro Bono Photo (click for larger version)

Not only did an out-of-state protester lock herself to a piece of equipment being used to finish up the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project on Monday (see today’s lead story), but protesters on both coasts held events outside the offices of Wells Fargo on Monday, demanding the bank withdraw funding for MVP. The pre-planned protests were held in front of the offices of Wells Fargo Bank in Blacksburg, Virginia, and San Francisco, California. Yep, the wackos of Cali got in on the bash-MVP action. And wow! What a show they put on! Complete with a coven of protesters who dressed themselves up in what looked to us like Klimate Klan uniforms.
Continue reading

| | | | | |

NC Dems Ask FERC to Strike MVP Southgate Extension, Redo Full Eval

Here’s one instance when antis may have a legitimate point. In 2018, Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), proposed to extend MVP (when it’s done) by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The 75-mile extension is called MVP Southgate. Last year, Equitrans asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend Southgate’s project timeline an extra three years. FERC agreed in December (see FERC Approves MVP Southgate Request for 3-Yr Extension to Build). A few weeks later, Equitrans announced it was significantly changing the project, cutting it by more than half and increasing the amount of gas flowing through it (see Equitrans Slices MVP Southgate Pipe Project From 75 to 31 Miles).
Continue reading

| | | | |

2nd Plum Injection Well Approval Suffers Minor Court Setback

Score a (very) minor victory for the radicals of a Little Green Group (funded with money from Big Green groups) called Protect PT. Last October, a lawsuit brought by Protect PT against a second injection well planned for Plum Borough (Allegheny County), PA, had oral arguments before the state’s Commonwealth Court (see PA Court Hears Arguments Against 2nd Plum Injection Well Permit). The lawsuit challenged an approval by Plum’s Zoning Board. Yesterday, the judges of the mostly conservative Commonwealth Court ruled in favor of the radicals to send the approval back to the Zoning Board for another look and more justification.
Continue reading

| | | | |

Encino Gives Evolution 3-Yr Contract Extension for Utica E-Fracking

Evolution Well Services announced a three-year extension of their current electric fracturing partnership with Encino Energy after achieving operational efficiencies and milestones in 2023. Evolution uses “e-fracking” technology. Traditional fracking uses diesel-fueled engines to produce electricity to power pressure pumps for hydraulic fracturing operations. E-fracking uses natural gas from the well pad (or CNG or LNG) to power turbines to create electricity. E-fracking uses a different type of “engine” and different fuel. E-fracking fleets are roughly half the size of traditional diesel fleets — and a whole lot quieter.
Continue reading

| | | |

Pittsburgh Airport NatGas Microgrid & Two Others Sold for $165M

In early 2013, the Pittsburgh International Airport and Allegheny County, PA, signed a deal with CONSOL Energy (now CNX Resources) to lease 9,000 acres surrounding the airport for natural gas drilling (see $50M Check in the Mail: Pittsburgh Airport Lease a Done Deal). The airport added an electric microgrid that burns Marcellus gas from airport property, and since July 2021, the airport has produced all of its own electricity (see Pittsburgh Airport Now Generates All Its Power Using Marcellus Gas). The microgrid was built and is owned by the utility company Peoples Gas (now called Essential Utilities). Essential announced yesterday it is selling the airport microgrid and two other microgrids it owns in the Pittsburgh region to Cordia for $165 million.
Continue reading