Dear MDN Subscriber:
I (MDN Editor Jim Willis) am having back surgery on Tuesday, Sept. 29, so this coming week (Sept. 28 – Oct. 2) will look a bit different from the usual reporting on the previous 24-hour news cycle. Here’s what you can expect to see this week… Read More “A Personal Note from MDN Editor Jim Willis”
The front-month October NYMEX natural gas futures contract settled Friday (Sept. 25) at $3.196 per MMBtu, up 28.4 cents, or 9.75%, for the week. That’s a nice week to be long gas. Most of the fireworks came on Thursday, when a leak on TC Energy’s Mountaineer XPress (MXP) pipeline in West Virginia knocked roughly 1.8 Bcf/d of Appalachian takeaway offline and sent futures up 9.06% in a single day, the biggest one-day gain since January (see WV Pipeline Leak Knocks 1.8 Bcf/d Offline, Gas Futures Jump 9.1%). Traders gave back 10.1 cents on Friday after Columbia Gas Transmission said it had found the leak and expected to fix it over the weekend. Even so, the contract ended the week at its highest Friday close since early July. Read More “NYMEX Gas Jumps 9.75% for Week on WV Pipeline Leak, Storage”
Back in April, we told you the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had once again extended the three “temporary” air permits for Shell’s ethane cracker plant in Monaca (Beaver County) while the agency slogs through Shell’s full Title V permit application (see PA Extends Temporary Shell Cracker Air Quality Permits Until Oct.). At the end of that post, we mentioned a separate permit pending before DEP, one covering flares, the wastewater treatment plant, and “as-built” pollution controls. The public comment period on it had just closed. On Sept. 22, DEP issued that permit, formally called Plan Approval No. 04-00740D. And yes, it raises Shell’s allowed emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and several other pollutants. Cue the outrage from the usual suspects. Read More “DEP Approves New Shell Cracker Air Permit, NOx Limit Goes Up”
Four weeks. Same number. The Marcellus/Utica held at 33 rigs again for the week ended September 25, while the national count added four more to reach 599—a new 52-week high for the second week in a row, and one rig shy of 600. Oil rigs up. Gas rigs up. Frac spreads jumped by eight. And the big news on the price board: natural gas futures climbed back above $3, trading around $3.20 per MMBtu. Once again, everything in this report moved except the Marcellus/Utica. But the permit list delivered a plot twist we’ve been waiting for. Read More “M-U Rigs Flat at 33 for 4th Week; Nat’l Climbs to New High of 599”
Chatham County, North Carolina’s Board of Commissioners last week unanimously passed a resolution opposing Enbridge Gas North Carolina’s proposed 28-mile natural gas pipeline from Siler City to Moncure. This isn’t a garden-variety “we don’t like it” resolution. It authorizes the county to actively fight the project by challenging environmental permits, teaming up with like-minded groups, working the media, organizing residents, and coaching landowners on how to resist condemnation. In other words, a county government just signed itself up as a Big Green activist group, with taxpayers picking up the tab. Read More “Chatham County, NC Commissioners Vote to Fight Enbridge Pipe”
EQT’s top drilling executive told the Shale Insight crowd in Erie last week that the company has about 30 years of Marcellus drilling left at its current pace. She said it will grow production only when buyers have signed on the dotted line, and it is now testing ways to squeeze more gas out of older wells. Sarah Fenton also said something landowners with older EQT wells should love: lowering the pressure in EQT’s pipelines is 20-25% more capital efficient than drilling a new well. Read More “Shale Insight: EQT Testing Ways to Pull More Gas from Older Wells”