Surprise! Freeport LNG Exports 1st Cargo Since June 2022 Explosion
In a complete and total surprise, S&P Global Commodity Insights is reporting the very first post-explosion cargo of LNG exports has left the Freeport LNG facility along the Texas Gulf Coast and is en route to Port Said (Egypt). The BP-chartered Kmarin Diamond departed Freeport yesterday morning around 7:30 am. But (and here’s the big but)…don’t get your hopes up that this restarts a steady stream of ships departing from the Freeport facility. S&P says Freeport used supplies that were already in its storage tanks when the explosion and fire forced the terminal offline in June 2022. So this load was from LNG that’s been sitting around for eight months. When will more ships load up newly liquefied LNG at the facility?
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Residents living in the vicinity of Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline cryogenic plant in Bulger (Washington County), PA, got a surprise “present” on Christmas morning. Around 7:30 am, residents report hearing an explosion, followed by a fire, at the plant used to separate NGLs (natural gas liquids, including ethane, propane, and butane) from the raw gas stream that flows through the Revolution gathering pipeline (see 
ECA Marcellus Trust I, the royalty interest holder in some of the wells drilled and maintained by Greylock Energy in Greene County, PA, announced it would issue a payout (the equivalent of a dividend) to unitholders of 12.4 cents for 4Q22. That is down from the previous quarter when the Trust paid out 18 cents per unit. The company continues to hold back some profits ($135,000 in 4Q22) in order to build a cash reserve.
We just have to say right up front, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia is either a lying sleazebag, or he’s really, really stupid. And neither option is very inspiring. Last year Manchin was lured into voting in favor of a massive government spending bill that previously was called the New Green Deal. It got renamed (misnamed) to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), to make it an easier sell to voters (see 
There are a (very) few Democrats in Washington, D.C., who still support natural gas. It seems most national Democrat leaders (in Congress and beyond) have been coopted by the radical left of the party and now endorse the national suicide of dumping fossil energy. But not all Dems. A group of so-called moderate Democrats who aligned themselves with Bill Clinton formed a think tank in 1989 called the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). The PPI recently published an issue brief (report) called “The Climate Case for Expanding U.S. Natural Gas Export.” The report says expanding U.S. LNG exports can lower global greenhouse gas emissions significantly, especially if fugitive emissions of methane are deeply reduced. The report even supports the construction of more pipelines here in the U.S. Imagine that! A group of Dems who support natgas and LNG exports. It’s like spotting a unicorn in the wild.
Please sit down, buckle up, and keep your hands inside the ride at all times. No, these are not instructions before boarding a roller coaster at your favorite theme park. These are instructions for those who buy and sell natural gas in 2023. While the price of natgas has been bumping along at the mid-$2 range since late December, don’t be lulled into the siren song of “lower for longer.” According to the Wall Street Journal, the “buffers that keep America’s natural-gas price fluctuations at bay are eroding,” and you can expect wild gyrations in price to happen in 2023.
We’re going to say it right up front to everyone who voted for John Fetterman for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania: We told you so. We warned MDN readers Fetterman is not up to the job. He had a stroke, he should have pulled out of the race, but he didn’t. And now the left (including the Democrat cheerleaders of the New York Times) feel comfortable enough to admit the truth that some of us were speaking last fall–that Fetterman is not fit to be a U.S. Senator. Fetterman defeated the odious Republican Dr. Oz, so he’s served his purpose. Now it’s time to dump him and replace him with someone else. That appears to be the plan by the left.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: West Virginia House OKs $105M for battery plant after debate; NATIONAL: RBN’s five-year natural gas market outlook; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC urges countries to invest significantly more in oil; Baltic nations go LNG hunting; IEA calls special meeting as gas crisis ‘not over’.