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Ohio Utica Oil and Gas Production Takes a Tumble in 1Q20

Each quarter the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issues an update on Utica (and Marcellus) oil and natural gas production. Until the recent blowup of the ODNR website (still only partially restored) ODNR would issue a detailed list of all active wells with production by well. No more. That report is missing from the latest quarterly high-level update from ODNR covering first quarter 2020 numbers. What we can tell you, based on the information that has been released, is that production between 4Q19 and 1Q20 was down significantly.
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FERC Approves Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate Extension to NC

Equitrans Midstream’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project is now 92% complete and will be done and online in early 2021 (see Mountain Valley Pipe Will be Done and In-Service Early 2021). While Equtrans was building MVP a lightbulb went off and the company had a great idea. Why not extend MVP, which runs from West Virginia to southern Virginia, by another 75 miles into North Carolina? This new project is called MVP Southgate–and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just fully approved it.
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FERC Orders New Fortress to Explain Unauthorized PR LNG Facility

New Fortress Energy, which likes to build and own as much of the LNG supply chain as possible, has built and recently finished an LNG import terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Just one teeny, tiny problem: New Fortress didn’t get permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) before building it. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and subject to U.S. laws and regulations, including the regulation that requires FERC approval *before* building such a facility. Luuuucy, you have some ‘splainin to do!
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PHMSA and Fed Railroad Admin Publish Final LNG by Rail Regs

In April 2019 President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the Secretary of Transportation to write a new rule allowing specially constructed tanker cars for railroads (DOT-113 tank cars) to ship LNG, i.e., liquefied natural gas (see Here Come the “Bomb Trains” – Trump to Allow LNG by Rail). It took a while, but after a year-long process the final regs are ready, and soon after they are published in the Federal Register, they go into effect. Hallelujah!
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Enviro-Left Threatens CEO if Cabot Doesn’t Cop to Crimes

In the American system of justice, when someone is accused of committing a crime, they are presumed innocent under the law until it is proven, in a court of law, they have committed said crime. But when a defendant, someone accused of committing a crime, is a fossil fuel company, that defendant is automatically presumed to be guilty. There is no presumption of innocence. That’s what is happening to Cabot Oil & Gas.
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NJ Law Would Stop ALL New Energy Projects by Invoking Racism

Not even Andrew Cuomo, as grossly corrupt as he is, has thought up something this vile and evil–using the currently toxic environment of race relations across our country as a means to block all new fossil fuel energy projects–specifically pipelines, compressor stations and power generating plants–by declaring such projects racist by definition. That’s what will happen in New Jersey if a new bill, Senate Bill 232, becomes law.
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Jun 22, 2020

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: W.Va. natural gas industry works through pandemic; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Texas court criticizes climate “lawfare” against energy producers; NATIONAL: United States’ LNG exports slip in April; The green civil war; INTERNATIONAL: Higher Western Canada spot prices limit U.S. natural gas imports from Canada; ‘Fracking is over’ in UK, energy minister says; Shock finding? China is the world’s biggest energy producer.
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