Ohio EPA Extends Expiring Permit for Elusive PTT Ethane Cracker
How’s this for serendipity? We were just thinking about the latest violation of expectations by PTT Global Chemical. In February the company adamantly said a final investment decision (FID) to build the $10 billion ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH would happen by “middle of 2021” (see PTT Says Recent Reports of Ohio Cracker Decision Delay “Not True”). Right. About the same time we were pondering PTT’s non-forthcoming FID and latest broken promise, a sharp MDN reader emailed to ask if we had heard anything further, especially given the project has an air permit issued by the Ohio EPA (OEPA) that will expire at the end of June. Lo and behold, OEPA has just extended the expiring permit until February 2022.
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Yesterday the July NYMEX gas futures contract (the current contract) went up by 8.5 cents to settle at $3.42. The August NYMEX futures contract closed at $3.44, also up 8.5 cents on the day. The big question is why? The short answer is that less gas was put into storage than expected for this time of year. The slightly longer answer is that less gas went into storage because of the hot weather and all those air conditioners whirling using all that electricity and all that electricity gets generated in big part by burning natural gas. So the bottom line is this: Natural gas futures prices popped yesterday because of the weather.
We find it kind of amusing that anti-fossil fuelers dead set against a plan by Kinder Morgan to build a new compressor station in Passaic County, NJ, and dead set against upgrading an existing compressor station in neighboring Sussex County, NJ, were all worked up to attend a Sussex County Board of Commissioners meeting where a Tennessee Gas Pipeline representative was supposed to make a presentation, but the rep didn’t show. He had (ahem) “car trouble” and couldn’t make the meeting in person. Antis were all dressed up with nowhere to go.
The states that produce Marcellus and Utica Shale are ensuring no rogue local municipalities will get it into their heads to ban the use of natural gas like some municipalities in left-leaning states including California and New York. Both Pennsylvania and Ohio have bills that would “ban bans” of natural gas (see 
Here’s an interesting concept. What if you were to replace the natural gas flowing through a pipeline, say an old, unused pipeline, with compressed air instead? And what if you retooled an existing gas- or coal-fired power plant so the compressed air itself spins the turbines in the compressor to produce electricity? That’s the concept being floated by the appropriately named company called Breeze.
The Enverus U.S. rig count continues to break one-year records. For the week ending June 23, the rig count stood at 577–the highest number it has seen since April 2020, just as the pandemic was starting to take hold and shut everything down. The Marcellus play lost one rig, while the Utica remained even. Collectively the M-U is currently running 45 rigs.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: NC Gov. Cooper nominates former DEQ lobbyist Elizabeth Biser to lead agency; NATIONAL: U.S. ethane exports surge with additional export capacity and expanded tanker fleet; FERC establishes Office of Public Participation; INTERNATIONAL: China to use more natural gas in energy mix to 2035.