Freeport LNG Asks FERC for Permission to Begin Restart Work
Credit where credit is due. Freeport LNG, which has been offline since an explosion and fire in June 2022, has changed the target date to restart operations at the facility multiple times over the past few months. (We care because Marcellus/Utica molecules flow to the facility.) Various experts have weighed in with estimates that Freeport won’t restart until February or possibly March (see Rystad Energy Predicts Freeport LNG Restart to be March Earliest). However, since early January, Freeport has maintained it would restart by the end of January (see Familiar Pattern: Freeport LNG Delays Restart Again, to End Jan.). It may not be restarted in the next week, but on Monday, Freeport filed an official request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin the restart process now, in January. It is the first step in a full restart (a process that will take months).
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On January 18, 2022, Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company (ESNG, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate a new natural gas-fired compressor unit and ancillary facilities at its existing Bridgeville Compressor Station in Sussex County, Delaware (called the Southern Expansion Project). Right away, the odious radicals of Food and Water Watch filed an official protest. It took nearly a year, but (as we’re just learning now) on Dec. 16, FERC issued full approval for the project. The new compressor unit will flow an extra 7.3 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of natural gas to new residential, commercial, and industrial customers along the Delmarva Peninsula.
Purely by happenstance, we stumbled across an interesting “working paper” published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper (we’d call it a study) is titled “Negotiations of Oil and Gas Auxiliary Lease Clauses: Evidence from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale” (full copy below), first published in December but subsequently updated in January. Researchers scanned and (using software) analyzed nearly 60,000 leases signed in the Marcellus Shale Play of Pennsylvania. They learned some interesting things about PA leases. One of the main conclusions (eye-opening for us) is that getting more money for your lease is not necessarily tied to whether or not nearby wells are good producers. At best, better lease terms have a “weak relationship” to the performance of other wells in a given geography. What is the secret to getting more favorable lease terms?
The Marcellus/Utica region is becoming a booming real estate market and manufacturing destination in the U.S., with manufacturing investment currently estimated at over $100 billion, according to Bryce Custer from NAI Spring Commercial Realty. What’s drawing manufacturers to the M-U region? Geopolitical instability, supply chain disruption, the reshoring trend, and abundant raw materials, including cheap (and clean) M-U natural gas.
Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc., long known for providing stone quarries and asphalt plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, also provides civil construction services for shale well sites. In August 2021, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced a plea deal with Hawbaker to pay back $20 million in alleged “stolen wages” from over 1,000 Hawbaker employees (see 
Here’s a question: What are the 15 biggest (by company revenue) natural gas-owning pipeline companies in the world? The U.S. has the biggest natural gas pipeline infrastructure in the world, covering a distance of 333,000 kilometers (206,917 miles). Even so, only one U.S.-based company is in the top 5 biggest pipeline companies. Can you guess which country takes the top 2 spots on the list?
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