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Pipeline Chess: FERC Approves NESE into NYC; Your Move Gov. Cuomo

Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final approval for Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project by a vote of 3-1 (full copy below). The only remaining regulatory hurdles are for both New York State and New Jersey to issue federal Clean Water Act 401 certificates to allow the project to cross bodies of water in their respective territorial waters. All eyes are now on NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and what he will do. Will he approve the project, benefiting New York City and Long Island with much-needed gas? Or will he veto the project, harming millions of NY residents, simply to placate a small group of very vocal radical leftists who pretend to care about the environment? He has until May 16 to decide.
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Seneca Resources NatGas Production “Slightly” Disappoints

“In our exploration and production business, even though we achieved our highest ever average daily production rate this past quarter, we were expecting more. It’s a slight disappointment that we modestly lowered the midpoint of our production guidance to the low end of the range that we established last August.” So said National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) CEO Ron Tanski in talking about NFG’s Seneca Resources shale drilling subsidiary on a conference call last Friday.
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Gulfport Energy Sells “Small” Marcellus Leasehold in SE Ohio

Gulfport Energy, one of the biggest drillers in the Ohio Utica Shale (210,000 acres) with record production in the Utica last year, announced last week (as part of its first quarter update) it has sold a “small footprint” of Marcellus drilling rights on some of their Utica acreage in southeastern Ohio for $30 million. Gulfport concentrates its drilling in the Ohio Utica and the Oklahoma SCOOP plays. Piecing together the company’s plans for this year, we’re calling 2019 the “Year of the DUC” for Gulfport.
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Dominion Energy: Atlantic Coast Pipe Construction Restarts 3Q19

Dominion Energy, a huge (one of the biggest) gas and electric utilities (and power generator) in the U.S., as well as a major pipeline company, issued its first quarter 2019 update last week. Our main concern and focus with the update is what Dominion said about the 600-mile, $7-$7.5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project. Given the ongoing lawsuits by radical green groups that have delayed the project and skyrocketed costs, Dominion CEO Tom Farrell said “it’s been a very frustrating process,” but “we are winding our way through it…and we’re making progress.” Farrell still plans to restart construction of ACP (currently stopped thanks to lawsuits) in the third quarter of this year.
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Identity Crisis: a Philadelphia Gas Works…that Doesn’t Sell Gas?

This is a glittering example of how people who fancy themselves as “smart” are actually quite stupid. The so-called political leaders of Philadelphia are commissioning a study (paid for by Mike Bloomberg) on how the city can convert Philadelphia Gas Works, the nation’s largest municipal-owned utility company, into dumping natgas. Because, ya know, global warming. It’s bizarre (and breath-taking) to watch just how stupid people can get.
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Sierra Club Launches New MVP Attack Using Endangered Species Act

We’re sometimes criticized by MDN readers for too much “green bashing.” Yet how should we handle news like this: The Sierra Club is launching yet another attack on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which runs from Wetzel County, WV to Pittsylvania County, VA, by bastardizing the endangered species act in an attempt to bully the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service into blocking construction. Should we pretend to remain aloof and report that a respectable “environmental organization” is launching “new opposition” to a gas pipeline? Or tell you what we really think: That this evil, disgusting left-of-Attila-the-Hun group of thugs is once again organizing, using money from lefty billionaires like George Soros and Tom Steyer, to try and destroy a company and the people whose jobs depend on that company?
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TransCanada Dumps “Canada” from Its Name

In January, TransCanada announced it would change it’s name–from TransCanada to TC Energy–in order to more accurately reflect the fact they operate in more than just Canada (see TransCanada Changing Name to TC Energy). Indeed, TransCanada has a significant presence in the U.S. (and Mexico) simply from their purchase of Columbia Pipeline Group for $10 billion back in July 2016 (see TransCanada and Columbia Pipeline Tie the Knot Today). TransCanada is a big company with many projects, all over North America. As of last Friday, TransCanada (the name) is no more.
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Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, May 6, 2019

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Southwestern Energy helps restore West Virginia’s Cheat River; PA Auditor General DePasquale to hold May 13 climate hearing at Widener University; Pennsylvania youth join global student strike to demand action on climate change; ODNR issues 10 permits in Utica Shale; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Piedmont Natural Gas picks builder for North Carolina LNG facility; Energy Transfer, Shell issue EPC invite for Lake Charles LNG project; NATIONAL: ‘I believe in suing everybody:’ Activists double down on climate litigation; The number of drilled but uncompleted wells in the United States continues to climb; Top 20 oil companies improved cash flow by $34 billion; Only six TSA staffers are overseeing US oil & gas pipeline security; INTERNATIONAL: Occidental inks $8.8 billion deal to sell Anadarko’s African oil and gas assets to Total; OPEC is ‘likely to collapse,’ warns Iran’s oil minister.
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