Bradford County | Electrical Generation | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New Fortress Energy | Pennsylvania | Regulation
Wyalusing LNG Plant is Dead; Gas-Fired Power for Data Ctr Replaces
We had heard rumors that the LNG liquefaction plant planned by New Fortress Energy (NFE) for Wyalusing in Bradford County, PA, was being dropped in favor of an alternative. Namely, a gas-fired power plant project. We can now confirm that the rumors are true. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published notice in the July 12 PA Bulletin inviting comments on an air permit for the proposed 248 megawatt (MW) Wyalusing Energy Center, a natural gas-fired power plant in Wyalusing Township, to be used to power a data center. The power plant permit is for the exact location where the LNG liquefaction plant was planned. Read More “Wyalusing LNG Plant is Dead; Gas-Fired Power for Data Ctr Replaces”
Well, you knew this was coming. Radicalized green groups are gearing up to challenge two recently resurrected Williams pipeline projects: The Constitution Pipeline, a 124-mile, 660 MMcf/d greenfield (brand new) pipeline from the gas fields of northeastern Pennsylvania (in Susquehanna County) into and through New York to Schoharie County; and the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, designed to increase Transco pipeline capacity and flows of Marcellus gas heading into New York City and other northeastern markets. 
We still marvel, to this day, at how Tallgrass Energy Partners turned what looked like a financial disaster into an economic bonanza. Tallgrass built the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline, which stretches from Colorado and Wyoming to Ohio, just in time for the shale revolution to take hold. Whoops! Talk about bad timing! A significant portion of REX, its Zone 3 pipeline from Missouri to Ohio, was in danger of drying up in 2012 due to the increase in Marcellus/Utica gas production (see 
Yesterday, MDN informed you that CNX Resources is still considering (but not yet 100% committed) to a plan to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) using coalbed methane (see 
It took eight years and untold legal fees (on both sides) before a tiny 3.4-mile, 8-inch natural gas pipeline under the Potomac River was finally built and went online. In April 2017, MDN brought you the news that Columbia Pipeline (owned by TransCanada) had applied with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build a pipeline under the Potomac to connect natural gas from Pennsylvania to the Mountaineer Gas system in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia (see 
Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, not to be confused with the former Chesapeake Energy Corporation (which is now Expand Energy), announced that its Ohio subsidiary, Aspire Energy Express, LLC, has entered into an agreement with American Electric Power (AEP) to construct and operate an intrastate natural gas pipeline in central Ohio to feed Marcellus/Utica gas to a new fuel-cell facility, which will provide on-site electric power to a data center. The pipeline is expected to cost approximately $10 million to construct. 
In what appears to be an innocuous, brief press release, DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, which owns significant assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions, including the Haynesville, delivered what we consider big news. DTM has achieved an investment-grade rating with all three major credit rating agencies: Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Ratings, and S&P Global Ratings. While this announcement may seem minor, we can assure you, it’s a big deal. 
The lawfare battle brought by radical green groups in New Jersey, including Food and Water Watch, the NJ Highlands Coalition, and the Sierra Club, aimed at overturning the decision to permit and build an electric compressor station and a pipeline that connects to it, is over. Done. Finished. Can we please stick a fork in it? We’re talking about the battle to block a compressor project in West Milford, NJ, part of Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) East 300 expansion project, an upgrade of TGP to deliver an extra 115 MMcf/d of natural gas to Consolidated Edison and its customers in New York City and surrounding suburbs. The radicals just flamed out in a NJ appeals court and have no options left to challenge it. 
MDN recently brought you the news that the Trump administration was blocking cargoes of ethane to China (see 
Quick! Somebody grab a tourniquet and tie it to the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count. The count has been hemorrhaging large numbers of rigs for 10 consecutive weeks. Last week (an early week with the count issued on Thursday), the U.S. rig count declined by another eight rigs to its lowest level since October 2021, ending the week at 539 active rigs. You have to go back to the dark days of the pandemic, July 2020, for the previous 10+ consecutive weeks of decline in the rig count. The Marcellus/Utica was clipped by one rig (in Pennsylvania), falling from a combined 36 to 35. 
We hate to see internal fighting and bickering within the oil and gas industry. We (as an industry) have a hard enough time battling the crazies of the environmental left. Yet infighting has erupted over a plan to run a pipeline to a proposed gas-fired power plant in South Carolina. In February 2024, the South Carolina Public Service Commission approved a proposed project to build a 1,020-megawatt (MW) gas-fired power plant in the state’s Lowcountry, in Colleton County (see 
We’ve pointed out (for years) the relative success the anti-drilling left has had in blocking new pipeline projects to carry Marcellus/Utica molecules to other regions, stifling new drilling in our area as a result. Although it has been and will continue to be a challenge to build new pipeline projects, the Trump administration is making it easier. Trump’s policies encourage new pipelines and more access to natural gas. We spotted an article from Reuters that provides an overview of eight pipeline projects that are actively being pursued to carry M-U molecules to other regions. We’ve covered all of these projects in previous posts. The Reuters article compiles the most likely candidates for new pipeline projects into a single, convenient article. 
It’s bloody. It’s brutal. Last week, for the ninth consecutive week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count declined (by seven rigs) to its lowest level since October 2021, ending the week at 547 active rigs. The national rig count continues in a free fall. For the fifth week in a row, the Marcellus/Utica count remained the same, at a combined 36 active rigs. The Pennsylvania Marcellus operated 18 rigs. The Ohio Utica operated 11 rigs. And West Virginia operated seven rigs. So, at least there’s some good news with respect to the M-U. 
Following President Trump’s quid pro quo deal with New York Governor Kathy Hochul in which Trump is allowing a $5 billion offshore wind project to proceed in return for Hochul allowing two Williams gas pipeline projects, Williams wasted no time in restarting one of the two projects, the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project (see