Belmont County | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants | PTT Global
Why Didn’t Ohio PTT Cracker Get Built? Is There Still Hope?
Last August, PTT Global Chemical finally came clean and admitted there will be no final investment decision (FID) to build a $10 billion ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH, until they secure a partner to help finance the project (see PTT Finally Admits Truth – Ohio Cracker Project on Indefinite Hold). Early in the modern shale era, numbers were thrown around about the Marcellus/Utica attracting four or five ethane cracker projects. The Shell cracker in Beaver County is almost ready, but so far, it’s the only one. Will the PTT cracker ever actually get built? Will there be others built?
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The Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, chaired by State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (Republican from Butler County) is scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday, March 28 to consider two proposed bills. One is a bill that would give the legislature authority to participate in any decision about adopting the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. The other bill is a resolution that would be sent to the leftist governors of New York and New Jersey asking them to allow new pipelines to be built into and through their states, to flow more fracked PA gas.
Bitcoin “mining” is a rapidly expanding new customer for natural gas across the country, including in Pennsylvania. Gigantic computer server farms run complex mathematical computations and the result of those computations is a blockchain. When a blockchain is formed, the server farm doing the computations gets compensated with bitcoins, a form of digital money. Bitcoin (the generic term is cryptocurrency) mining uses huge amounts of electricity to run all of those computers. That’s where natural gas comes in. In PA the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has applied different standards to different requests from bitcoin miners to set up shop. A new bill aims to fix the problem of inconsistent treatment of these requests.
We’re still snickering. It wasn’t all that long ago that European leaders turned their arrogant noses up at “fracked” American natural gas, preferring to buy Vlad Putin’s natural gas instead, even though Russia’s natural gas drilling is FAR more polluting to the environment than U.S. drilling with our strict environmental controls. Europe now can’t get enough of our natural gas. While the volume of U.S. LNG exports has remained pretty constant, the destination of those exports has changed dramatically. Two months ago some 30% of the LNG exported from the U.S. went to European countries. Roughly 70% of our LNG exports now head to Europe. All in just the past two months.
Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas) remains one of our favorite Marcellus/Utica drillers. We personally know some of the great people who work there. We’ll never forget having a private tour of a drill site in Susquehanna County, PA by Coterra’s chief Marcellus driller, Buddy Wylie. During the tour, Buddy waxed eloquent on mud logging, showing us rock chips under a microscope. Seeing a drilling operation up close, understanding how wells are planned a year or more in advance, coordinating all of the logistics (when the sand needs to arrive, pipe inventory, trucks to move equipment, backhoes to get the pad ready, etc.) it dawned on us, this stuff really is rocket science! The smart folks at Coterra have done it again–more rocket science. This time they’ve developed a new method for predicting natural gas and oil reservoirs.
If an upstream (drilling) company with a long-term pipeline contract files for bankruptcy, does that give the company the right to break its pipeline contract? A major shipper on the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline, Ultra Resources, filed for bankruptcy with the express plan to skip out on its obligations to REX (see 
In October 2020 Nick DeIuliis, President and CEO of CNX Resources Corporation, announced the forthcoming publication of a new book he authored (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Berkshire Gas sees natural gas as part of its plan to meet state climate goals; NATIONAL: Which way will USA oil go?; Why U.S. E&Ps have been slow to ramp up crude oil production; Chesapeake Energy eyes greater role in LNG market; Atlantic piece mocked for warning of nuclear war’s effects on climate change; INTERNATIONAL: USA in talks with EU to help LNG, hydrogen supply; With the Ukraine war, the green chickens have come home to roost.