PTT Postpones Ohio Cracker Final Investment Decision Indefinitely
Last Friday PTT Global Chemical, the huge Thailand-based petrochemical company looking to build a world-class ethane cracker plant in Belmont County, OH, issued an update for the project. In February PTT’s CEO signaled that a final investment decision (FID) on whether (or not) to build the project would happen by “mid-year 2020” (see PTT CEO Sends Loud & Clear Signal of Positive FID on OH Cracker). That is no longer the case, according to the latest company update.
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Last week as Chesapeake Energy’s stock plunged toward $0 in value, it seemed as if it was a matter of when (not if) the company would either declare bankruptcy or get bought out/taken over. The board of directors, sensing the takeover sharks were swirling, adopted a “shareholder rights plan” (aka poison pill) last Thursday to try and prevent another company or person or group from swooping in and buying up the company’s assets. And then a funny thing happened. On Friday Chessy’s stock price zoomed up 45%.
When will the practice of THE Delaware Riverkeeper (radial leftist “environmental” group) of filing frivolous lawsuits stop? Using money from the William Penn Foundation and the Heinz Endowments (both of which should be investigated by the IRS for violations of their 501(c)3 status by engaging in political activities via proxies like Riverkeeper), THE Delaware Riverkeeper has launched yet another attack on the New Fortress Energy proposed loading dock on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River, where Marcellus Shale LNG is due to be loaded onto ships bound for other countries.
In the end, physics and not government intervention is forcing the end of large amounts of shale oil production across the U.S. With a forced shutdown of the world’s economy (including the U.S. economy) due to the coronavirus pandemic, some 30 million barrels per day of oil the world would have used (out of a previous 100 million bpd) has disappeared. Demand has dried up. Yes, the oil apocalypse is here. Welcome to Hades. Some of our favorite oil superheroes will not make it out alive.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: DEP receives Good Samaritan Act proposals to plug 2 abandoned wells in Wyoming, Venango counties; Appalachian E&Ps’ shares soar on forecasted associated gas decline; Letter to the editor: Conor Lamb, Joe Biden & fracking; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: State regulators taking action as E&Ps fight to survive amid oil demand collapse; Energy Transfer weighs crude storage in idle pipelines; NATIONAL: Withdrawals from natural gas storage this winter were lowest since 2015–16; Oil executive and Trump ally Hamm seeks US probe of oil price crash; U.S. oil and natural gas fighting COVID-19; INTERNATIONAL: Plunge in oil prices could shake up Middle East, Russia; Coronavirus havoc is drowning out China’s failure to buy U.S. crude, LNG, coal; How oil prices could go to $100.