Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Exporting | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues | Regulation
Exxon Says Granholm is Crazy for Demanding Less Oil/Diesel Exports
In August, Jennifer Granholm, hands down the most incompetent Secretary of Energy ever to hold the office, sent a letter to seven major refinery companies threatening them that if they don’t scale back exports of gasoline, diesel, and other liquid petroleum products, Granholm will have old dementia Joe whip up an executive order slapping a ban on such exports (see Biden DOE Threatens Refineries: Export Less Gas & Diesel, or Else). She made ’em an offer they can’t refuse. Yet at least one of them, Exxon Mobil, has refused it–sending a letter back to Granholm telling her (our words, their sentiment) that she’s crazy.
Read More “Exxon Says Granholm is Crazy for Demanding Less Oil/Diesel Exports”
Chesapeake Energy is interested in new LNG export projects–but not just LNG exported along the Gulf Coast near its new Haynesville assets. Chessy is jazzed about the possibilities of exporting LNG along the East Coast. The company has its eye on a project announced for the Philadelphia area, on the Delaware River (see 
It was an interesting day yesterday for the final day of the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s Shale Insight event, being held in Erie, PA. Shell outlined its vision for a regional hydrogen hub with Shell itself at the center of the action (guess we can’t blame them for trying, although we wish they were working with a broader coalition). More interesting, for us, were the addresses of four key politicians. Republicans Dr. Mehmet Oz, running for U.S. Senate in PA, and Doug Mastriano, running for governor in PA, addressed the event in person. Their counterparts, Democrats John Fetterman (running for Senate) and Josh Shapiro (running for governor), aired recorded messages and didn’t bother to show up in person–a MAJOR insult to the shale industry.
Some 225 hypocritical nutters were whipped into a frenzy by Big Green and its so-called Beyond Plastics campaign during a Zoom call Tuesday night to “prepare” for the startup of Shell’s mighty ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA. It was really quite hilarious. There was talk of nurdle patrols, “sacrifice zones,” and celebrations over defeating Joe Manchin’s permitting reform bill. Why hypocritical? Because every single person on the call was using a computer or phone made out of (wait for it)….plastics. The clothes on their bodies and shoes on their feet are made largely from plastics. The cars and boats and paraphernalia they use to hunt down evidence of environmental plastics pollution from the cracker plant–all made from plastics. We wonder, Do they know how stupid they look?
Last week the three states with active Marcellus/Utica drilling, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, issued a collective 30 new drilling permits, up from the 21 permits issued the week before. It was a reversal of what we typically see. Last week PA only issued four new permits, while WV issued 17 permits and OH issued nine permits. Usually, PA issues the most permits.
In something of a shocker, EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the country with its headquarters (and most major drilling operations) in Pennsylvania, is throwing its weight and support behind a coalition in West Virginia to attract one of the so-called regional hydrogen hubs (worth $1 billion or more in taxpayer investment) to the Mountain State, not to the Keystone State. EQT is one of the main players in forming a new coalition called the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2). Other big energy companies supporting ARCH2 include Williams, Dominion Energy, CNX Resources, and New Fortress Energy (among many more).
In February 2020, EQT Corporation’s credit rating (for company-issued bonds) was designated at the “junk” (i.e. non-investment grade) level. In March of this year, two of the three top credit rating agencies–Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings–upgraded EQT’s credit rating, returning it to investment grade (see 
Each quarter NGI (
Earlier this month EQT Corporation announced it is buying Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets for $5.2 billion (see 
In early August, MDN reported that Marcellus driller Coterra Energy had made $1.2 billion in profit during the second quarter of 2022 (see 
A group of roughly 60 landowners located in Fayette County, PA, have received a $5.5 million settlement from what was Chief Exploration and Development (now called Cyprus Exploration and Development) to compensate the landowners for leases signed in 2008. The landowners filed a class action lawsuit in 2011, claiming bonus and rent payments were not made.
In June, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about Germany buying LNG from Canada (see