Marcellus Drilling News

Chester County | CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Philadephia

U.S. East Coast’s 3rd LNG Export Plant Proposed Near Philadelphia
June 13, 2022June 14, 2022

Proposed site for Penn LNG, downriver from Philly (click for larger version)

Seemingly out of nowhere, a plan to build an LNG export facility on the banks of the Delaware River south of Philadelphia is being actively, seriously discussed. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Andrew Maykuth reports that Penn LNG, headed by a native of Philadelphia, has “quietly lined up support to build a $6.4 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal near Philly.” The favored site for the project is currently a functioning warehouse (once upon a time a Ford assembly plant) in Delaware County. However, the owner of the warehouse/site says it’s not for sale. That’s just one of the headwinds the project faces.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | ESG | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Threatens 6 Banks for Breaking State Anti-Fossil Fuel Law
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

In March West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed into law a new bill requiring the entire state government–all of the various state agencies and governmental departments–to stop doing business with any bank or investment firm that refuses to support coal, oil, and natural gas companies (see WV Bill Targeting Anti-Fossil Fuel Banks, Investors Becomes Law). Last week WV State Treasurer Riley Moore sent a letter to six big banks alerting them they will be added to the state’s “blacklist” for violating policies by not investing or doing business with fossil fuel companies. Let the fun begin!
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Clearfield County | Crime | Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | Greene County (PA) | Greylock Energy | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

PA AG Shapiro Charges ECA/Greylock with Environmental Crimes
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

In early 2018, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) collected a whopping $1.7 million fine from Energy Corporation of America (ECA) for violations at 17 well sites in Cumberland, Jefferson, and Whiteley Townships in Greene County, and Goshen Township in Clearfield County (see Energy Corp of America Fined $1.7M for Drilling Violations in PA). ECA’s violations? “Failure to properly contains fluids in onsite pits, unauthorized discharge of industrial waste into groundwater, unauthorized disposal of residual waste, failure to restore the pits and well sites, and operating solid waste storage, treatment, and transfer facilities without permits.” Now, more than four years later, PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro (running for governor with a need to keep his radical base stoked) has indicted ECA and Greylock Energy (which purchased ECA’s assets in 2017) with so-called environmental crimes for the same long-resolved issue. Greylock “strongly disputes” the way Shapiro is characterizing the company and its role in this matter.
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco | Williams

Williams to Expand Capacity on Transco Pipe by 423 MMcf/d in NC
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

Transco & laterals

Here’s one that slipped by under the radar. Last month pipeline giant Williams filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to beef up capacity along the mighty Transco pipeline by upgrading compressor stations and other infrastructure (no new pipeline) in order to flow an extra 423 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) to Piedmont Natural Gas and its customers located in eastern North Carolina. The Southside Reliability Enhancement Project, as it is called, is a partial replacement of volumes Piedmont had planned to purchase from Dominion Energy’s now-canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.
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CNX Resources | Energy Companies

CNX’s New Strategy Officer Sees an “Ocean of Possibilities”
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

CNX Resources recently announced a couple of shuffles among senior management. Don Rush, CNX’s Chief Financial Officer, has become the company’s first Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). Alan Shepard, Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, was promoted to the role of CFO. Both men have and will continue to work closely together. Rush is a CNX cheerleader and says there is “no reason” why CNX can’t be “leading the charge” in the coming energy transition. Rush says, “We’ve got an ocean of possibilities” in referring to the company’s future prospects with natural gas and hydrogen.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Shell

Antis Go Plastics Hunting Near Shell Cracker Outfitted in…Plastics
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

Captain Evan Clark, the Three Rivers Waterkeeper, takes a “nurdle patrol” crew out on the Ohio River, near Shell’s new ethane cracker plant. Photo: Julie Grant / The Allegheny Front

You really can’t make this stuff up. Anti-fossil fuelers aligned with Three Rivers Waterkeeper recently went on a boat trip on the Ohio River in Beaver County, PA, near where Shell is almost finished constructing a huge ethane cracker plant, to look for plastic “nurdles.” The small plastic pellets or beads are what the Shell cracker will make when it’s up and running. The antis want to establish a baseline for how many nurdles are found in the water now, before operations begin at the cracker plant, so they can visit later and test again to see if anything has spilled into the local waterway. We think it’s fair to say the antis are also anti-plastics, given their comments. So the pictures of the plastics hunters accompanying the article are quite hilarious. All of the plastics hunters are kitted out in jackets, hats, glasses, hip boots, etc. that are made from the very plastics they are hunting.
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Electrical Generation | Hydrogen | Industrywide Issues

Norway Claims World First Running Gas Turbine on 100% Hydrogen
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

From left: Professor Mohsen Assadi, engineer Bjarte Hetlelid and doctoral fellow Reyhaneh Banihabib, with the world’s first gas turbine running on pure hydrogen as a combustion fuel UiS

Researchers at the University of Stavinger in Norway say they are the first in the world to run a gas-fired turbine on 100% hydrogen. The micro gas power plant produces heat, electricity, and hot water for hydronic heating. MDN previously told you about another world first when the gas-fired power plant (currently powered by Utica Shale gas) along the banks of the Ohio River in Hannibal (Monroe County), OH, successfully added a 5% mixture of hydrogen to the natural gas it burns (see Utica Gas Power Plant on Ohio River Uses Hydrogen in World First). The Long Ridge Energy Terminal is the first large, commercial operation to mix in hydrogen with natural gas to produce electricity.
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Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Jun 13, 2022
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Equinor signs LNG deal with Cheniere; NATIONAL: Drilling vs returns. U.S. oil producers’ tradeoff as windfall tax threatens; Dan Yergin talks oil, gas, Putin, and living his book, ‘The New Map’; 119 publicly traded global oil and natural gas companies added proved reserves in 2021.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Jun 13, 2022”