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Antero Resources 1Q19: Marcellus Economics Better than Utica

Antero Resources, one of the biggest Marcellus/Utica drillers (pure play) released first quarter 2019 numbers yesterday. The Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline, which Antero uses to ship and sell natural gas liquids (NGLs) had a huge beneficial effect for the company. Antero’s production was massive: 3.1 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) in 1Q19, up an astonishing 30% from 1Q18. But here’s the kicker: Nearly one-third of Antero’s production (29%) was NGLs. Without ME2, that big number would have been a small fraction of Antero’s production.
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Williams 1Q19: Becoming Besties with Encino in Ohio Utica

Williams, one of the biggest midstream (pipeline) companies in the U.S., issued its first quarter 2019 update yesterday. Williams is a gigantic company with operations in multiple regions, not just here in the northeast. It would be folly for us to try and summarize everything about the company and its many projects, so we’ll concentrate on projects in the Marcellus/Utica.
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DTE Midstream Buys Another 30% of WV Gathering System

click for larger version

In 2016, DTE Energy, a BIG utility and midstream company based in Detroit, MI, purchased 100% of M3 Midstream’s Appalachia Gathering System (AGS), located in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and 40% of M3’s Stonewall Gas Gathering (SGG), located in West Virginia (see DTE Energy Buys Marcellus/Utica Pipelines for $1.3B). The reason? To feed natgas-fired electric plants the utility wants to build (see DTE’s Reason for Buying M-U Pipes: NatGas-Fired Electric Plants). DTE has just cut a deal to buy another 30% of the Stonewall system in WV.
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Opposition Mounts to Tiny Pipeline in Albany, NY Region

The bright red line indicates the pipeline’s proposed route (click for larger version)

On February 1, 2019, National Grid filed a petition with the New York Public Service Commission for a “Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need” (i.e. permission to build and operate) for a tiny 16-inch, 7.3-mile natural gas transmission pipeline. The purpose of the new pipeline is to beef up supplies of natural gas in the Capitol region of the state–around Albany. Opposition by radical green supporters continues to mount, with those opposing calling it a “fracked gas pipeline.”
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The Case Against “Quick Take” Eminent Domain for Pipelines

In March a group of Pennsylvania landowners from Lancaster County asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case in which they say they’ve been screwed over by Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, that the pipeline should not have had the right to use eminent domain to build the pipeline before the matter of compensation was fully adjudicated (see PA Landowners Beg US Supreme Court to Hear Atlantic Sunrise Case). Williams, via their Transco subsidiary, responded and asked the Supremes to toss the case entirely (see Williams Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Toss Atlantic Sunrise Case). Do Lancaster County landowners have a legitimate beef?
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Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, May 3, 2019

OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian’s Driftwood LNG wins non-FTA export approval from DOE; Shell not ‘desperate’ to grow US shale despite Anadarko sale; NATIONAL: Net injections into working natural gas in the Lower 48 states totaled 123 Bcf; FERC holds the line on one-year limit for state review of Clean Water Act certifications for interstate natural gas pipelines; Paying too much for natural gas? Thank the Jones Act.; Fossil fuel tax breaks would get killed under Senate bill; American LNG positioned to win with IMO 2020; INTERNATIONAL: Activists call for halt on U.S. LNG shipments to Europe despite growing demand; US to EU: Our liquefied natural gas is more reliable than Russia’s; Europe’s imports of American natural gas are soaring.
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