Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Montgomery County | Pipelines | Regulation | Virginia
MVP Gets FERC Permission to Drill 24/7 Under Interstate 81 in Va.
More progress to report on finishing the 94% completed (now likely closer to 97% completed) Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. MVP needs to cross under Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, VA, and it’s no small challenge to drill under the highway because it’s solid rock. On Oct. 13, MVP (being built by Equitrans Midstream) filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to drill 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on the I-81 crossing. Last Tuesday, FERC approved it, although the approval comes with a few strings attached, like using special lights and monitoring noise levels.
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An interesting dichotomy we sometimes (but don’t often) see: The NYMEX Henry Hub futures price is down (below $3/MMBtu) and heading lower, while spot prices (physical trading) of natural gas at various trading hubs around the country are going higher, especially in the Northeast. In both cases — the futures price and the spot price — the primary reason for moving down or up is the weather, which may seem contradictory. We will explain…
We spotted an article appearing on the PBS-backed Allegheny Front website supposedly reporting a story about Pennsylvania lawmakers looking for “best practices” to adopt in regulating the soon-coming hydrogen hub projects the state will see. PA will see some investment in hydrogen from two different hydrogen hub projects led by neighboring states (West Virginia and Delaware). The article wants you to think that PA lawmakers are reviewing and considering various regulations they might use to protect the public in this uncharted new territory of hydrogen energy. The real thrust of the article, however, is to push a leftist narrative that the hydrogen hubs should avoid using natural gas as the feedstock to produce hydrogen.
On November 16, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed to Dominion Energy subsidiary Virginia Electric and Power Company’s petition requesting that FERC declare Dominion’s planned LNG production, storage, and regasification facility in Greensville County, VA, would be exempt from FERC jurisdiction under section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA). The project includes a 25-million-gallon LNG storage tank, 15 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of liquefaction capacity, 500 MMcf/d regasification capacity, pretreatment facilities, and associated station yard piping.
Once a month, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. Last month, the report predicted new all-time highs for natural gas production in 2023 (see 
A pair of analysts (authors/economists) have an article on the OilPrice.com website asking this question: Does the Natural Gas Industry Have a Future? They use data to paint a picture of a commodity (natural gas) that is, at best, in trouble. Why? The sales volume of natgas has gone up, but ever-so-slowly. The usage of natural gas by consumers to heat and cook is going down, especially in places that are banning it for those uses (like New York State). The picture painted by the authors appears to be pretty bleak. As usual, we have a different perspective.
Before heading out the door last Wednesday for the extended Thanksgiving holiday weekend, MDN checked to see if the various state environmental agencies had posted updates for new permits issued to drill shale wells. We found only a single permit issued, in Pennsylvania, for new shale wells among all three Marcellus/Utica states (nothing for Ohio or West Virginia). We figured maybe the worker bees had not yet entered the data, so we held back the report for the week of Nov. 13 – 19 new permits. We checked again yesterday morning, and then again this morning. And it’s still only that single PA permit, which is the lowest number of new permits issued in a single week in our extensive memory of tracking these things. We hope the dearth of permits is because of the holiday and is a fluke and not a new trend.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: A ‘none-of-the-above’ approach to energy is a bad idea; NATIONAL: EVs and hybrids grow to a record-high 18% of U.S. light-duty vehicle sales; New NARUC group to focus on natgas-electric harmonization; Kamala Harris slammed for Thanksgiving post featuring gas stove; Federal energy data paint ugly winter picture; INTERNATIONAL: Saudi Arabia seeks OPEC+ oil quota cuts while some members resist.