Budweiser Beer Warns of Dire Consequences if Spire STL Pipe Closes
You can add a shortage of Budweiser Beer to the list of dire consequences if the Spire STL pipeline in the St. Louis region shuts down permanently one month from now due to a lawsuit brought by the uber-left radicals of the Environmental Defense Fund. Spire STL is a 65-mile pipeline that connects to and flows Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to residents and businesses in the St. Louis, MO area. Parent company Spire has been warning (for months) of extreme consequences, including no heat and potential death for some residents, if natgas supplies on the pipeline are forced to stop. Now businesses in the region, including Anheuser-Busch, are adding their very loud voice to Spire’s voice.
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We suppose it takes a lot to surprise the CEO of one of the world’s biggest pipeline companies. Yet yesterday Williams CEO Alan Armstrong expressed his surprise that even with the dramatic increase in the price of natural gas during the third quarter, demand for natural gas was “inelastic” and remained high. Translation: Williams had all it could do to keep up with flowing natural gas through it’s extensive pipeline system, even with super-high prices. Much of the demand to flow gas came from the Marcellus/Utica.
Equitrans Midstream, formerly known as EQT Midstream, issued its third quarter update yesterday. The main focus (for us) of the update is new or updated information related to the company’s all-important Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project and those projects connected to MVP–including Hammerhead and Southgate. Yesterday we learned Equitrans still believes MVP, a 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia, is on track to start up in “summer 2022.” The company plans to begin construction of a related extension of MVP, called Southgate (from Virginia into North Carolina) in 2022 and bring it online in early 2023.
American Petroleum Institute (API) president and CEO, Mike Sommers, recently testified before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform to discuss the natural gas and oil industry’s priorities and API’s ludicrous support for so-called pricing carbon (i.e. a huge carbon tax), support for regulating methane (into oblivion), all while still trying to reliably produce American energy. Those priorities are irreconcilably impossible, but, whatever. The thing that really irked us was that Sommers obsequiously genuflected to the global warming gods during the hearing.
It was a pretty paltry week for new shale drilling permits in the Marcellus/Utica. Two weeks ago Pennsylvania issued 21 permits to drill new shale wells. They must have shot their wad because last week PA issued just two new permits–the lowest number in PA we’ve seen in…we can’t remember how long. Ohio issued no new permits for Utica drilling last week…zero…goose egg. Only West Virginia held out some promise, issuing seven new permits for shale drilling last week.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EQT donates $220,000 to local first responders; NATIONAL: U.S. consumption and production of natural gas decreased while exports grew in 2020; Top-of-the-line U.S. drilling equipment ‘essentially sold out,’ says Patterson-UTI; Sorry, President Biden, this is not OPEC’s fault; Top U.S. oil firms crank up shale output after cashing gains; INTERNATIONAL: BlackRock draws $673M to fund climate infrastructure projects; Russia says it’s not weaponizing its gas exports. Really?; China binges on U.S. gas to manage energy shortage, carbon footprint.