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New Fortress Energy Signs Long-Term LNG Export Agreement

New Fortress Energy, which funds and builds LNG (liquefied natural gas) infrastructure to “help accelerate the world’s transition to clean energy,” yesterday announced it has signed a 10-year supply agreement for the purchase of 27.5 million MMBtu per annum of LNG (approximately 8 cargoes a year) to an unnamed buyer at a price indexed to Henry Hub–through January 2030. The announcement does not contain details about who the buyer may be, or what the actual price is they will receive–but we have some speculation about all that.
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CNX Proved Reserves Up 7%, More Color on 2019 Drilling Numbers

Nearly two weeks ago CNX Resources issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2019 update (see CNX Reports $271M Loss in 4Q19; Cutting Back on 2020 Drilling). Yesterday CNX issued a followup, further outlining details about their 2019 drilling program (41 Marcellus and 10 Utica wells), along with an update on the company’s proved reserves. CNX reports total proved reserves of 8.43 Tcfe (trillion cubic feet equivalent) as of December 31, 2019, a 7% increase over Dec. 2018.
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Warm Weather Forecasts Cause NatGas Prices to Crash and Burn

Gasmageddon, as this current low natural gas price climate is being called, is getting worse. Based on the latest weather models (the natgas market has some of the best long-range weather forecasting in the world), gas prices have crashed and are burning (pun intended). Yesterday the NYMEX futures price closed at $1.77–in the dead of winter! Spot prices for gas bought and sold in the northeast lead the loss in value. A Raymond James survey of energy executives found most execs believe we will exit 2020 with the price of gas in the $1.50-$2.00 range, and that gas will not go above an average of $2.50 this year. Although we now use 50% more natgas than just 10 years ago, prices remain stubbornly low. Why?
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American Energy Partners Adds O&G Education Co. to Portfolio

American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, has just added a fifth subsidiary/division to the company. AEPT agreed to acquire 100% of the membership units of Oilfield Basics, LLC in exchange for 1,000,000 shares of American Energy’s common shares. Oilfield Basics is an educational company, providing courses and training in the oil and gas space. It’s an interesting addition to a portfolio of companies that includes drilling, remediation, water, and valuation services.
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PA Gov Wolf’s $4.5B Severance Tax Debacle Dead as a Doornail

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s Santa Claus routine is wearing thin. As he has done year after year with his annual proposed budgets, Wolf once again is calling for a massive tax increase of $4.5 billion, assessed solely on the Marcellus Shale industry, in order to fund a panoply of projects (see Wolf Lies About 2020 Proposed Budget – Includes $4.5B Tax Increase). The PA House and Senate (both chambers controlled by Republican majorities) are standing firm against Wolf’s desire to tax the Marcellus out of existence. They recognize his tax would kill the goose laying economic golden eggs in the state.
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Dem Union Members Call Wolf Petchem Veto “Attack on Jobs”

Yesterday MDN brought you news about Democrat trade union members in Pennsylvania turning on one of their own–Gov. Tom Wolf (see Unions Push PA Legislators to Override Wolf Veto of Petchem Bill). Wolf has pledged to veto a bill recently passed by large bipartisan majorities in both the PA House and Senate that would attract new petrochemical investment (and jobs) to the state. In a followup to yesterday’s story, the union members have turned up the heat on Wolf (to boiling hot), including a mobile billboard running up and down the streets of Harrisburg.
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Bankrupt Phila. Refinery Owners Want Cheaper Sale – Why?

The sale of the bankrupt former Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery has officially become a soap opera. Last June a series of explosions and a massive fire at the facility, the East Coast’s oldest and largest oil refinery, closed it down (see Massive Explosion, Fire at Philadelphia Refinery). In pretty short order PES, which was already struggling financially, filed for bankruptcy. In January PES cut a deal to sell the site to a warehouse developer from Chicago (see Philadelphia Energy Solutions Oil Refinery Permanently Closed). The deal means over 1,000 refinery workers are permanently out of work. Yet there was a higher bid from another party that wants to keep the facility operating as a refinery. So why is PES is pushing the sale to the Chicago developer at a lower price?
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EIA: U.S. on Track for CO2 Emissions 4% Lower in 2050 than 2019

If you add up all of the forms of energy used by the U.S.–electric power generation, transportation, home and business heating and cooling, etc.–and you measure the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) all of that energy usage pumps into earth’s precious atmosphere, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says the CO2 we will pump out in 2050 will be 4% LESS than what we pumped out in 2019. And that’s with continued heavy use of fossil fuels. Which exposes the lie that we must dump the use of fossil fuels now, certainly by 2050, or we’ll all die from high temperatures.
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