Deep Well Services & CNX Partner to Launch Flowback Services Co.
Two of our favorite companies in the Marcellus/Utica, one a driller (CNX Resources) and the other an oilfield services company (Deep Well Services), have partnered in a joint venture, creating a new company called AutoSep Technologies. The new JV uses groundbreaking new technology developed in CNX’s New Technologies unit that targets flowback, the “junk” that comes out of the borehole for the initial month or two after a well is drilled and fracked. Flowback includes methane and other hydrocarbons, sand, water, and fracking chemicals. All of the junk needs to be cleared so the well can start producing clean gas or oil. CNX has found a way to clean the junk that captures the methane (doesn’t escape into the air), is cheaper than current methods, and (most importantly) is safer. The process is being patented.
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In 2018, Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), proposed to extend MVP (when it’s done) by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The 75-mile extension is called MVP Southgate. Last year, Equitrans asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend Southgate’s project timeline an extra three years. FERC agreed in December (see 
Yesterday, we brought you the great news that Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the 303-mile, 2.0 Bcf/d pipeline from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, is essentially done (see 
We never thought this day would arrive! We hoped. We prayed. But finally, it’s (almost) here. The 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is almost ready to begin operation. On Monday, Equitrans Midstream filed a letter (below) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting a May 23 startup date for the pipeline. MVP (Equitrans) says the pipeline will be in the ground, buried, and ready to begin on May 22 (called “mechanically complete”). Get the champagne on ice and ready…
Evolution Well Services, headquartered in Houston with a regional office in Pittsburgh, specializes in “electric” fracking — using natural gas from the well pad (instead of diesel fuel) to power turbines to create electricity that drives fracking pumps. Evolution announced yesterday it had successfully deployed two new electric fleets in March, one in Appalachia and one in South Texas, bringing the company total to 12 fully operational crews.
PJM is the largest electric grid operator in the U.S. It serves 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM recently issued a press release to tout a radical reduction in emissions of all types. From 2005 to 2023, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rates fell 43% across PJM’s footprint. Emission rates for nitrogen oxides (NOx) declined 90%, and the rates for sulfur dioxide (SO2) dropped 96%. It is, says PJM, a new all-time low for electric power emissions across the PJM region. Why the drastic drop? Because (says the Marcellus Shale Coalition), a number of coal-fired power plants have been replaced by natural gas-fired plants.
Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a post to announce that U.S. natural gas consumption set annual and monthly records during 2023. In 2023, some 89.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas was consumed in the United States, the most on record. Since 2018, U.S. natural gas consumption has increased by an average of 4% annually. Why the significant increase in gas usage? It wasn’t due to residential, commercial, or industrial usage — all of which stayed even or decreased last year. It was (as you may have guessed) a huge increase in the use of natural gas to feed gas-fired power plants.
As we outline today in another post, the PJM electric grid, which covers 13 states including Pennsylvania, reports emissions of all the nasty things (carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide) have decreased radically thanks to the change from coal-fired power to natural gas-fired power (see Marcellus Fracked Gas Leads to Record Low Emissions in PJM Grid). We also report today that in 2023, the country as a whole increased its usage of natural gas specifically because the country (including the M-U) is adding more low-carbon gas-fired power plants (see NatGas Grew Its Share of Electric Power 7% in 2023, New Record High). So what does the “brilliant” Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, do? He signs up PA government agencies (sentences them) to use unreliable solar energy.
West Virginia natural gas drillers are excited at the prospect of the soon-opening Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which will carry WV gas 303 miles from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA. During a recent meeting of the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Energy and Manufacturing, the CFO of Pillar Energy said it’s only a month or two until MVP will be online and flowing. Hallelujah! We [the O&G industry] were finally able to get this one done.
A new bill proposed by two Republican state lawmakers in Ohio would make it easier to site and build natural gas pipelines to areas of the state where pipelines currently don’t exist. If our reading of the bill language is correct, it is aimed at stimulating new jobs by running pipelines to industrial parks and businesses that currently are not serviced by natgas. The aim is to stimulate new jobs and opportunities in the Buckeye State. Smart.
CNX Resources has partnered with NuBlu Energy, an EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) company, to introduce two exciting new solutions that use Marcellus/Utica gas — one solution for CNG (compressed natural gas) and the other for LNG (liquefied natural gas). The solutions are called ZeroHP CNG and Clean mLNG. Zero Horsepower (ZeroHP) CNG creates a decentralized CNG production market to meet better the growing demand for clean, affordable CNG energy. ZeroHP CNG eliminates the need for compressors to compress the CNG. How cool is that? As for LNG, a new low horsepower solution called Clean mLNG™ advances cost-effective and lower emissions production of small-scale LNG. We’re talking micro-scale LNG, making LNG available for just about anyone to use.
Isn’t it interesting how the devil continues to use the same tactics he has used since the very beginning of time? Lucifer (the Center for Climate Integrity, or CCI) is whispering lies to Eve (the Allegheny County Council) located in the Garden of Eden (Pittsburgh region, the unofficial headquarters of the Marcellus/Utica shale), enticing Eve to bite the fruit (launch a lawsuit against Big Oil & Gas companies), promising she’ll have more money than God if she sues and wins. Lucifer always leads with a lie. The end result is always the same — death. In this case, the death of Pittsburgh as the headquarters of the Marcellus/Utica. Will Eve do it this time? Or resist?
A team led by Penn State researchers has developed a new tool that can estimate the emissions potential of shale wells after they are no longer active. The researchers claim drillers can analyze their own drill cuttings (samples of shale rock) to determine how much potential there is for methane leakage after a well is abandoned. Which is interesting and perhaps even useful information for Marcellus/Utica drillers. However, a tangential factoid in the news story is what caught our interest and got our mental wheels churning. The factoid is this…