Buffett’s EGTS Plans 52.5-Mile Oak Leaf Pipe, Leidy Gas to MD/VA
There’s a brand-new pipeline project on the board for our region, and it’s a good one. Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage (EGTS) — a BHE GT&S company, which means it ultimately belongs to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy — is proposing Project Oak Leaf, a 52.5-mile expansion of its PL-1 system that will move an extra 250,000 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) of natural gas from Clinton County, Pennsylvania down to customers in Maryland and Virginia. (A dekatherm is a heat measurement roughly equal to one thousand cubic feet of gas, so call it about 250 MMcf/d — 250 million cubic feet per day.) EGTS plans to file its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the fourth quarter of this year, with construction starting in early 2028 and gas flowing by the end of 2029. The Frederick (MD) News-Post picked up the story yesterday. Four public open houses are already on the calendar, the first one next week. Read More “Buffett’s EGTS Plans 52.5-Mile Oak Leaf Pipe, Leidy Gas to MD/VA”
DTE Energy reported second quarter 2026 results yesterday, and before we dig in, one piece of housekeeping. DTE used to be an M-U player in a big way — it owned gathering systems in the Marcellus and Utica plus half of the NEXUS pipeline. That business walked out the door on July 1, 2021, when DTE spun it off as DT Midstream (see 
Back in May we brought you the news that NextEra Energy is buying and merging with Dominion Energy in a deal valued around $66.8 billion (see 
Back in March, we told you about two radical green groups — the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Sierra Club — running to court to block new gas-fired turbines at Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen in Bartow County, Georgia (see 
Infinity Natural Resources, the Morgantown, WV-based operator running Utica Shale acreage in eastern Ohio and stacked dry-gas Marcellus/Utica positions in southwestern Pennsylvania, put out a preliminary hedging update on July 17th, giving the market a first look at its second-quarter derivative results before full Q2 earnings land. We thought that we would take the opportunity to try and explain (decode) what all of this hedging (derivatives) stuff is about. The headline number: a net derivative gain of approximately $57.5 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. That figure is a combination of two very different things, and it’s worth separating them. 
Back in May we told you about FERC’s proposal to modernize its natural gas “blanket certificate” program (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: The Rapid announces 8 new natural gas-powered buses to launch in 2027; Cheniere gets approval to introduce natural gas into final LNG expansion plant; Filled crude pipelines could cap Permian gas growth; NATIONAL: U.S. natural gas futures extend decline; Spot gas broadly lower as prices retreat across most regions; U.S. enters a new cycle of natgas power development, but execution challenges loom large; Baker Hughes posts nearly 50 percent YoY increase in orders; U.S. LNG feedgas demand continues to rise; Private equity-linked asset sales to fuel US oil M&A; INTERNATIONAL: Oil tumbles on diplomatic optimism; Iran launches surprise missile attack on U.S. forces; UAE LNG exports via Gulf press on. 
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its dysfunctional and irresponsible counterpart, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals and consumptive use requests for responsible, safe shale drilling. The SRBC published a notice in the July 25th Pennsylvania Bulletin that the SRBC approved and/or renewed 21 general water use permits in June for individual shale gas well drilling pads in Clearfield, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Wyoming counties. 
In April, we brought you the news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Kosciusko Junction Pipeline Project (see 
Ameren Missouri (a subsidiary of Ameren Corporation) announced yesterday that it has filed an application with the Missouri Public Service Commission (MoPSC) to build the West Alton Energy Center, a 2,100-megawatt (MW) combined-cycle natural gas power plant. The company expects the plant to come online in 2031, pending regulatory approval, and to create more than 1,000 construction jobs plus roughly 45 permanent positions. Ameren will build it right next door to its existing coal-fired Sioux Energy Center in West Alton, Missouri — sitting at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers just upriver from St. Louis — so it can reuse the transmission connections and other equipment already on site. Company officials pitched the project as around-the-clock, in-state generation that will “work alongside our other resources” as older plants retire and demand climbs. Translation: Missouri needs power that shows up whether or not the wind blows or the sun shines. 
In January, MDN broke the news that Duke Energy was eyeing a 1,360-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant on 1,600 acres in Davidson County, North Carolina (see 
There’s terrific news brewing in Grant County, West Virginia — with an asterisk roughly the size of a cooling tower. Word circulated over the weekend that Dominion Energy plans to build a brand-new natural gas-fired power plant at its Mt. Storm complex, the same site where three coal-fired units have been cranking out electrons since 1965. The key detail: the gas plant would run alongside the coal units, not replace them. That’s more power, not swapped power. We like that math. 
Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (NYSE: CPK) and its subsidiary Peninsula Pipeline Company (PPC) announced on July 13 a new intrastate natural gas pipeline project in South Florida called the Florida Energy Pathway, or FEP. The line will be 24 inches in diameter, running from Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade County. It’s already anchored by firm commitments of nearly 250,000 dekatherms per day from multiple investment-grade shippers. (A dekatherm, or Dth, is a heat measurement roughly equal to a thousand cubic feet of natural gas — so think of it as about 250 MMcf/d, or 250 million cubic feet per day.) Upstream supply will come courtesy of Florida Gas Transmission’s Phase IX expansion. The price tag is around $1.2 billion, with an in-service date of 2030. Chesapeake plans to sell off up to 49% of the project to one or more partners. CEO Jeff Householder pinned the need on Florida’s booming population, its growing economy, and “significant energy supply constraints” in the south Florida market.