First 5 Elba Island LNG Mini-Plants Now Online Exporting Marc Gas
Last December the very first load of Marcellus molecules liquefied at the Elba Island, Georgia LNG export facility was loaded onto a ship and headed to Pakistan (see Elba Island Finally Exported First Marcellus LNG Cargo on Friday). Elba Island is a series of 10 small liquefaction units, and December’s cargo was from one (maybe two) of those units. Since that time the first four of Elba’s “mini-trains” have come online (see KM’s Elba Island LNG Makes Rapid Progress, Units 1-4 Now Online). You can now add a fifth train to that number.
Read More “First 5 Elba Island LNG Mini-Plants Now Online Exporting Marc Gas”
Is history repeating itself? Ohio House Bill 55 would require certain pieces of information to be included on royalty statements landowners receive from Ohio drillers. Ohio State Rep. Jack Cera (Democrat from Bellaire) introduced HB 55 last year–for the third time since 2011. Like the two previous times, the bill is now mired in committee and doesn’t appear to be making any headway toward a vote. Let’s look at what information landowners receive now under existing law, and what details they would receive under this bill if passed.
In 2015 Kelsy Warren and his Energy Transfer Equity (now just Energy Transfer) company pursued Williams, wanting to merge Williams into its own operation. Williams initially fought ET tooth and nail, but in the end, cut a deal (see 
A kerfuffle between Gulfport Energy and Tug Hill Operating has been settled by a Texas judge. Gulfport and Tug Hill cut a deal in November 2018 for Tug Hill to purchase certain Marcellus shale assets in Ohio from Gulfport for $26 million. According to Gulfport, Tug Hill never sealed the deal and should be forced to complete it now. Tug Hill said Gulfport didn’t come through with necessary releases from third parties related to the deal, and therefore the deal is null and void. The judge agreed with Tug Hill.
Water is the lifeblood of shale drilling. Water must get to the pad for use in drilling and fracking. But then, after the drilling is done and the well is connected, produced water continues to flow from the borehole for years to come. All that water must be managed. In the early days of Marcellus/Utica drilling every spare gallon of produced water got recycled for reuse drilling the next well. With a slowdown in new M-U drilling, produced water is piling up. What can be done to manage it? The 
Columbia Gas of Massachusetts (NiSource) never quite recovered (reputationally) from a series of explosions in September 2018 that occurred with its local delivery pipelines north of Boston (see 
IHS Markit employs more than 5,000 analysts, data scientists, financial experts and industry specialists. Their global information expertise spans numerous industries, including finance, energy, and transportation. Yesterday IHS Markit issued a bulletin to say its analysts expect when the tabulating is all done that world oil demand, due to fear over the COVID-19 coronavirus, fell by some 3.8 million barrels per day over the same quarter from 2019. That would be a new all-time, world record quarterly drop in oil demand. The previous record happened during the worldwide recession of 2009 when demand dropped 3.6 million bpd. Should we be worried that we are about to experience another worldwide recession?
NATIONAL: Less petroleum and other liquids consumed in the U.S. is coming from refineries; Danly’s FERC nomination moves to full Senate over Democrats’ objections; US natural gas infrastructure investment increasingly risky; INTERNATIONAL: With oil prices down 20%, OPEC pushes for stability; PetroChina suspends some gas contracts as coronavirus hits demand.