Energy Services | Ethane | Hydrogen | Industrywide Issues | Monroe County | Mountaineer NGL Storage | NGLs | Ohio
OH Issues Permits to Build Salt Caverns for Mountaineer NGL/H2 Storage
On August 30, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued permits to Powhatan Salt Company/Mountaineer NGL Storage for three planned solution mining wells in Monroe County. The three salt caverns will store NGLs (natural gas liquids, mainly ethane) to potentially be used by ethane crackers including the Shell cracker near Pittsburgh and potentially a second ethane cracker proposed by PTT Global Chemical in Belmont County. The salt caverns can also be used to store hydrogen (H2).
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Hold on–it’s a wild ride! Natural gas reaches a record high two days ago, only to be followed by an 11% drop the very next day. Comments by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin sent the U.S. NYMEX natural gas price down 11% in one day. Yeah, just a stray comment by old Vlad had massive power over *our* natural gas market. How? Putin publicly stated he’s going to open up the taps and flow more gas to Europe. What a guy–Europe’s savior.
Prices for natural gas along the U.S. Gulf Coast may not, on the surface, have much to do with the Marcellus/Utica–but they do. The price gas is selling for along the Gulf Coast is important because M-U molecules flow to that region to feed petrochemical plants and (more importantly) LNG export facilities. S&P is reporting even though there’s been a big storage build along the Gulf Coast for natural gas, prices remain extremely high in the region. Why? LNG exports…
Sand is big business. Just ask U.S. Silica, the largest proppant/sand provider for the oil and gas industry. Sand, as you may know, is used in fracking new shale wells. LOTs of sand is used. Sand (and alternatives like synthetic beads) is called “proppant” because it’s mixed with water, blasted into cracks in shale rock, and when the water returns to the surface the sand remains behind in the cracks and “props open” the tiny cracks to allow oil and gas to escape. The biggest such sand company in the country, U.S. Silica, announced yesterday that it is exploring separating the company’s non-oil & gas division into a separate company and selling it.
The prospect that the federal government may soon lavish trillions of dollars on the states (the Dems’ way of buying votes with the unfortunate result of causing hyperinflation) has states, especially those with Democrat governors, salivating. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is positively giddy at the prospect. Tommy has talked to his good buddy Patty (McDonnell, Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection) about all the gajillions of dollars that will flow to the Keystone State when Biden and the Dems finally (someday) pass their budget-busting bills. McDonnell has some plans for some of that money. He is beginning to recruit companies to help plug old abandoned oil and gas wells across the state.
Even the Joe Biden-controlled U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which remains our favorite government agency although it’s now tainted with Bidenistas, can’t cover up the truth. The truth is this: By 2050 the world’s energy supplies will still mostly come from fossil fuels. The latest annual International Energy Outlook for 2021 issued by the EIA yesterday shows by 2050 so-called renewables (solar, wind, hydro) will provide around 27% of the world’s energy, nuclear another 3%, and the rest–coal, oil, and natural gas–will provide 70% of the world’s energy. Can we once and for all drop this idiotic meme that “renewables” are about to replace fossil fuels “in the next few years”?
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Hull Street Energy buys Connecticut natural gas-fired plant; NATIONAL: USA shale cos to see minimal expansion despite rally; DOE invests $45M to decarbonize natgas power and industrial sectors; Henry Hub physical flows hit 13-year highs amid rising LNG exports; Solar and wind alone can’t meet growing power demand; INTERNATIONAL: Aramco fights Apple for most valuable company prize.