Expand Energy Giving Double the Love to Haynesville Over M-U
The country’s new #1 natural gas producer, Expand Energy (formed from the merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy), disclosed its third quarter update yesterday. While Expand has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica, it also has major operations in Haynesville. Right now, the company is giving double the love to the Haynesville as it is to our region. Expand currently operates 12 rigs, with eight in Haynesville and four in the M-U. It also operates six completion crews, evenly divided with three in Haynesville and three in the M-U. Expand plans to ax two rigs in the first quarter of next year if prices don’t improve. Read More “Expand Energy Giving Double the Love to Haynesville Over M-U”
EQT Corporation delivered its third quarter 2024 update yesterday. The big focus for EQT during 3Q was closing on the purchase and beginning the reintegration of its long-lost midstream division, called Equitrans Midstream (owner of the Mountain Valley Pipeline). CEO Toby Rice said, “All cylinders are firing,” and that 60% of the tasks needed for the integration have already been done. The company produced 581 Bcfe in 3Q, which is an average of 6.3 Bcfe per day—about a half Bcf less than the new Expand Energy. EQT is now in second place on the list of top natgas producers in the U.S. It wouldn’t take much for EQT to regain the top spot if it wanted to. 
Yesterday, two European companies announced separate deals for Coterra Energy to provide Marcellus natural gas to an unidentified LNG export facility that will liquefy and sell it to them. One company was commodities trader Vitol (based in Switzerland) and the other utility giant Centrica (based in the U.K.). Both deals were for 100 MMcf/d (or 100,000 MMBtus) each. The Vitol deal is for 11 years, and the Centrica deal is for 10 years. Combined, it represents 1.4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of northeast Pennsylvania Marcellus natural gas heading to other European and Asian countries. 
The Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Enbridge) transports up to 3.09 Bcf/d of natural gas through 1,131 miles of pipeline. Algonquin connects to Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO), Millennium Pipeline, and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline and supplies New England with critically needed natural gas supplies for power generation and consumer use. We told you in September 2023 that Enbridge conducted an open season to gauge interest in expanding Algonquin’s capacity to flow more gas into New England — mainly from the Marcellus/Utica — called Project Maple (see 
Epsilon Energy, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing (financing) Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past couple of years, the company has expanded into other plays and owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas), the Permian (Texas and New Mexico), and now in western Canada. Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Expand Energy (in the Marcellus), and the other company typically does the drilling. Last week, Epsilon announced the closing of two joint ventures in western Canada. 
Two different subsidiaries of National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), Seneca Resources (shale driller) and National Fuel Gas Midstream Company (gathering pipelines), were certified by two different certification authorities, MiQ and Equitable Origin, respectively. Yesterday, NFG announced both companies have been recertified by their respective authorities. Everyone is still responsible. 🙂 
Economics, in its purest form, is unforgiving. Economics is science, like the laws of gravity. In a market (in this case, the world market) where there is too much supply for existing demand, the seller/supplier will end up lowering the price charged for the good or service. Others in the market are willing to drop prices to attract scarce customers, which turns into a race to the bottom. Such is what’s happening right now with LNG cargo carriers. A flood of new carriers has recently been added to the world’s supply. Because of the Biden-Harris “pause” on new LNG export approvals (and other factors), LNG exports have not expanded at the same rate as available cargo vessels. The result is that the bottom has dropped out of how much it costs to rent an LNG carrier. The rates are down 87% in the Atlantic and 78% in the Pacific from year-ago levels and are the weakest since at least 2019. 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Shapiro admin launches “discover the government nipple” website; Biden-Harris send more “free” taxpayer $$ to PA ahead of election; NATIONAL: EPA due for a total makeover if Trump wins; Unlocking the benefits of natural gas conversion for coal-fired power plants; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices rebound; BP shelves 18 early-stage hydrogen projects as part of $2B cost cutting program; The LNG market will remain tight until 2027; European natural gas arbitrage to Henry Hub blasts to $11.40/MMbtu; U.S. tightens grip on Russia’s LNG exports.