Boston Mystic Gas-Fired Power Shuttered, but LNG Imports Continue
On May 31, Constellation Energy shut down and permanently retired the natural gas-fired Mystic Generating Station it owned and operated in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on the north side of Boston. Mystic was one of the oldest U.S. electric power plants still in operation. The plant was fed by natural gas from another facility owned by Constellation, the nearby Everett LNG import terminal. At one time, Everett was also in danger of closing when Mystic closed. However, Everett was given a six-year reprieve due to a contract to supply natural gas to several utility companies.
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Last Friday, Morningstar DBRS published a commentary titled, “Record-High Temperatures Boost Power Demand but Ample Gas Inventories Prevent a Bigger Jump in Prices” (full copy below). Since early March, U.S. and European natural gas prices have climbed steadily in the anticipation — and eventual onset — of much warmer than normal early summer temperatures even as producers curbed supply to contend with the glut built up during the past mild winter. Although U.S. and European gas storage inventories have been drawn down from early 2024, they remain high for this time of year. Large inventories are preventing prices from moving higher, says Morningstar analysts. It’s classic economics — more supply with the same demand equals lower prices.
The radicals at the tax-exempt (extremely partisan) PennFuture organization have arrogantly proffered a report with policy recommendations for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), lecturing DCED on how it should “reshape the Commonwealth’s strategic collaborations” with public and private partners. And what does this reshaping look like? Defund any efforts that benefit the oil and gas industry in the state (responsible for billions in revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs) and instead invest in “clean energy” (unreliable wind and solar) and “energy efficiency” (tell PA citizens to turn the thermostat up in the summer, down in the winter, while trying to convince them they love it).
Last Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that applications are open for $850 million in federal funding “for projects that will help monitor, measure, quantify and reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sectors as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.” The funding, to be taken from the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), aims to force small operators to significantly reduce methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations. Essentially, it is a massive bribe to vote for Biden in November. Companies that get in on the gravy train will vote for (and donate to) the Democrat Party. That’s how it works in the disgusting swamp called D.C.
They lost, and we won for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. “They” means the radical environmental left (nutters who irrationally hate all fossil energy, including natural gas), and “us” means those who support the common sense use of fossil energy and projects like MVP. According to the left, the next battleground is to block the construction of an extension of MVP called Southgate. The left will always tell you what they are planning. You only have to listen and have the courage to believe them.
The future is much brighter for natural gas producers in West Virginia because of the completion and operation of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which stretches from Wetzel County, WV, in northern West Virginia, to Pittsylvania County, VA, in southern Virginia. In a recent appearance on the MetroNews Talkline radio program in WV, Marcellus Shale Coalition president Dave Callahan said completing and now using MVP “checks a lot of boxes” for the M-U industry. He explains which boxes in his talk…
Precise Boring of Ohio, founded 25 years ago, specializes in Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) — drilling sideways underground and installing pipelines through the holes it drills. Specifically, Precise (headquartered in Fairfield County, OH) works on installing shale and other types of pipelines, including water and sewer pipes. Precise is actively working for the Marcellus/Utica industry in Ohio. This morning, CST Utilities, an Ohio-based infrastructure service company providing a range of excavation, underground, and maintenance services to public utilities (electric, natural gas, water), telecom providers, and other businesses, announced it has bought Precise and will operate it as a standalone subsidiary.
The Sabine Pass LNG terminal, owned and operated by Cheniere Energy, is spread over an 853-acre site in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. The facility is the largest LNG terminal in the world, with a total send-out capacity of 4.1 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) and a storage capacity of 16.8 Bcf. The facility’s “nameplate” capacity, with six trains operating, is roughly 30 mtpa (million tons per annum). Around 330 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of M-U molecules flow to the Sabine Pass facility, getting there by various interstate pipelines. Last Friday, flows to the facility dropped to 3.4 Bcf/d.
Last week, we told you about a modern-day Paul Revere, a Republican Senator from Massachusetts who single-handedly blocked a horrible bill that empowers state regulators to “terminate [natural gas] service to consumers so long as they have access to ‘safe, reliable, and affordable alternatives’” (see 
The U.S. national oil and gas rig count has been in a pattern of free-falling for the past three weeks. The national combined Baker Hughes oil and gas rig count dropped by another two to 588, the lowest it has been since January 2022. The Marcellus/Utica, after losing two rigs three weeks ago, maintained the same count last week — a combined 36. Pennsylvania continued to operate 21 rigs. Ohio remained steady with ten active rigs. And West Virginia kept five active rigs. At this time last year, WV operated 12 active rigs. The M-U fell down three weeks ago and (so far) hasn’t gotten back up.
In 2019, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) began formulating new regulations for intrastate pipelines transporting gasoline, petroleum, crude oil, and natural gas liquids like ethane. In July 2021, the PUC finally published a draft of new regulations (see 