Industrywide Issues

Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

FERC Republican Commissioner James Danly Stepping Down Dec. 31st
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

And then there were three…Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioners, that is. Currently, there are two Democrats and two Republican commissioners. Lately, the “Acting” Chairman of FERC, Willie Phillips (a Democrat), has voted more with the two Republicans than with Big Green sock puppet Democrat Allison Clements (a former attorney for the far-left National Resources Defense Council). However, it was good to have the option to block something (via deadlock) with two Republican votes if necessary. That opportunity will now be gone with the departure of Republican FERC Commissioner James Danly at the end of this year.
Read More “FERC Republican Commissioner James Danly Stepping Down Dec. 31st”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Charif Souki Exits Tellurian & Driftwood LNG with $8 Million Payout
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

Last week, Charif Souki, an Egyptian-born but naturalized U.S. citizen, was booted from the company he co-founded, Tellurian (see Tellurian Fires Charif Souki – Out as Chairman & Executive Officer). The board fired Souki but let him keep a board seat. Souki is now gone from the board, too. He worked out a deal to leave the company with a severance package worth roughly $8 million.
Read More “Charif Souki Exits Tellurian & Driftwood LNG with $8 Million Payout”
Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues | Research

Morningstar Natural Gas Price Outlook 2024: Recovery Coming
December 21, 2023January 24, 2024

DBRS Morningstar is a leading provider of independent rating services and opinions for corporate and sovereign entities, financial institutions, and structured finance instruments globally. Rating more than 4,000 issuers and 60,000 securities, DBRS Morningstar is the fourth-largest credit rating agency in the world and a market leader in Canada, the U.S. and Europe in multiple asset classes. The agency published a commentary on Monday that will be of interest to the MDN audience: “North American Natural Gas Market Outlook: Price Pressures Through Early 2024 Followed by a Recovery” (full copy below).
Read More “Morningstar Natural Gas Price Outlook 2024: Recovery Coming”
Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | North Carolina | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

FERC Approves MVP Southgate Request for 3-Yr Extension to Build
December 20, 2023January 24, 2024

In July of this year, the Democrat Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) asking the four commissioners to deny Mountain Valley Pipeline’s (MVP) request for a time extension to build the MVP Southgate expansion project into his state (see NC Leftist Gov. Cooper Asks FERC to Deny MVP Southgate More Time). A month later, 28 Democrats in the U.S. House did the same thing (see 28 U.S. House Democrats Ask FERC to Reject MVP Southgate Project). We’re happy to report FERC ignored them all and yesterday granted the Southgate project a three-year extension to build.
Read More “FERC Approves MVP Southgate Request for 3-Yr Extension to Build”
Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia

EIA Dec DPR: Another Big Production Drop Coming in M-U, Haynesville
December 20, 2023January 24, 2024

The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for December, issued Monday (below), shows EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for January will *decrease* production from the prior month of December. This is the sixth month in a row that EIA has predicted shale gas production will decrease for the combined seven plays. EIA says combined natgas production will slide by 200 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day). The Marcellus/Utica, called “Appalachia” in the report, is predicted to decrease by 135 MMcf/d in January compared with December, the biggest decrease in gas production for any of the seven plays.
Read More “EIA Dec DPR: Another Big Production Drop Coming in M-U, Haynesville”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Big Green Pressures NY Democrats to Reject CO2 Fracking in Upstate
December 20, 2023January 24, 2024

At the end of October, MDN told you about a company called Southern Tier CO2 to Clean Energy Solutions, based in Binghamton, NY, sending fliers to landowners in Broome, Tioga, and Chemung counties (along the border with Pennsylvania, where there is no doubt large amounts of Marcellus and Utica gas beneath the ground) inviting landowners to sign up for what appears to be an exciting opportunity to sell gas rights (see Company Seeks to Lease New York Mineral & Pore Rights for Flat $10). Last week, we told you about several local politicians (Democrats) and several Big Green groups now gearing up to oppose the plan to “frack” (which is a misnomer) with CO2 (see Big Green, Democrats Launch Effort to Block NY CO2 “Fracking”). It’s time for Food & Water Watch and other nutball green groups to fundraise before the end of the year, so they launched an all-out assault on the Southern Tier Solutions plan yesterday.
Read More “Big Green Pressures NY Democrats to Reject CO2 Fracking in Upstate”
Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania General Energy | Regulation | Repsol | Seneca Resources | Statewide PA

SRBC Approves Water Withdrawals for 7 PA Shale-Related Projects
December 20, 2023January 24, 2024

The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its completely dysfunctional and irresponsible cousin, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals for responsible and safe shale drilling. Last Thursday, the SRBC approved 19 new water withdrawal requests within the basin, six of them for water used in drilling and fracking shale wells in Pennsylvania (and one for a gas-fired power plant). The Marcellus/Utica shale drillers receiving a green light from SRBC included EQT, Pennsylvania General Energy, Repsol (two requests), and Seneca Resources (two requests).
Read More “SRBC Approves Water Withdrawals for 7 PA Shale-Related Projects”
Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Regulation

American Gas Assoc. Sues to Block Biden Reg Against Gas Furnaces
December 20, 2023January 24, 2024

At the end of September, the Biden Dept. of Energy (DOE) published a new rule that cracks down on gas furnaces in homes, essentially phasing out many existing models and requiring new ones to meet onerous new standards (see Bidenistas Attack Your Gas Furnace with New DOE Regulations). The DOE now requires a 95% annual fuel efficiency standard, up from the 80% that was on the books before the new rule was published. On Monday, the American Gas Association, several other trade groups, and a manufacturer filed a legal challenge to the rule.
Read More “American Gas Assoc. Sues to Block Biden Reg Against Gas Furnaces”
CNX Resources | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

CNX Delivers on Promise to Shapiro re Chemicals List, Air Results
December 19, 2023January 24, 2024

In early November, CNX Resources CEO Nick DeIuliis signed a voluntary deal with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to expand drilling setbacks and several other regulatory steps not mandated for shale drillers under PA law (see CNX Signs Deal with PA Gov. to Increase Setbacks, Other Changes). Gov. Shapiro’s office yesterday blew the trumpet to announce that CNX has begun to deliver by providing a list of the chemicals used in fracking and by posting air monitoring results in real-time for two of its well pads, with plans to expand the program across its operations statewide.
Read More “CNX Delivers on Promise to Shapiro re Chemicals List, Air Results”
Belmont County | Energy Services | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Processing Plants | PTT Global

PTT Working on Plan to Build Petchem Plant…in Thailand, Not Ohio
December 19, 2023January 24, 2024

This is your friendly (somewhat snarky) semi-annual reminder from MDN that the PTT ethane cracker project in Ohio is dead (see Facing Reality – PTT Ohio Cracker Plant Project is Dead). We periodically look for signs of life in the project, and it has been a flat line for YEARS. Nothing. Local and state leaders in Ohio sometimes pop their heads up to tell us to have hope; it will still happen. BUNKUM. Earlier today, PTT Global Chemical Public Company, the parent that would build an ethane cracker in Belmont County, OH, announced a deal with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries “to explore the utilization of hydrogen, ammonia and CCS technology to develop a large-scale petrochemical plant to achieve Net Zero.” However, the location of the plant will be in Thailand, PTT’s home country, and NOT in Ohio. We’ve pointed out for years that PTT has all sorts of money to work on big, multi-billion-dollar petrochemical plant projects elsewhere, but apparently there is not enough money for the Belmont ethane cracker. Why?
Read More “PTT Working on Plan to Build Petchem Plant…in Thailand, Not Ohio”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Regulation

U.S. Customs Decision re Jones Act Makes Exporting LNG Harder
December 19, 2023January 24, 2024

Bureaucratic incompetence? Or yet another attack by the Bidenistas against the American fossil energy industry? It’s hard to say. We’re speaking of a new policy decision by the Biden Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agency that prohibits LNG tankers from partially filling up at one U.S. export plant and moving up the coast to finish filling up at another U.S. plant. The CBP says doing so violates the 103-year-old Jones Act. We’ll explain.
Read More “U.S. Customs Decision re Jones Act Makes Exporting LNG Harder”
Commodity Price | Industrywide Issues

Gas Trader’s Prediction for Henry Hub NYMEX Price in 2024 – LFL
December 19, 2023January 24, 2024

It seems like everybody and his brother (and sister) are making predictions about where the price of natural gas will go in 2024. We’ve covered predictions from a number of sources, including the venerable U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). But what do the people who actually trade in natural gas say? What’s their take on the price in 2024? After all, they are the ones with the most “skin in the game.” We spotted a post on FXEmpire by the website’s chief analyst with his prediction for natgas prices next year…
Read More “Gas Trader’s Prediction for Henry Hub NYMEX Price in 2024 – LFL”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues

IEA Rushes to Change Absurd Peak Oil Prediction 24 Hrs After COP28
December 19, 2023January 24, 2024

How many times has MDN told you that the International Energy Agency (IEA) (and its executive director, Fatih Birol) is an anti-fossil fuel front organization for Big Green? Countless! The IEA and its so-called predictions of “peak oil” and “peak gas” (in either demand or supply) are nothing more than environmental propaganda. Why anyone believes a word coming from Birol and the IEA is beyond us. Mainstream media loves to report the IEA’s latest vomit, whatever it is. David Blackmon, a 40-year veteran of the oil and gas business, is out with a column on the Daily Caller that skewers Birol and the IEA. Blackmon points out the ink wasn’t even dry on the final communique from the COP28 climate confab before Birol was “adjusting” his previous preposterous predictions about peak oil.
Read More “IEA Rushes to Change Absurd Peak Oil Prediction 24 Hrs After COP28”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | ESG | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

Tennessee Sues BlackRock for Misleading Investors re Aggressive ESG
December 19, 2023January 24, 2024

BlackRock is the largest investment firm in the world, with around $9 trillion of investments under management. Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, has pushed the so-called ESG (environment, social, governance) agenda for years. What the left and people like Fink mean by ESG is don’t invest in or use fossil fuel energy (E), everything is racist (S), and the government is always right when Democrats are in charge (G). Fink said earlier this year he would stop using the ESG term, although he continues to push the ESG agenda of divesting from fossil fuel companies (see Unrepentant BlackRock Won’t Use ESG Term, Still Forces Divestment). A number of states and even Republicans in Congress have pushed back against BlackRock’s ESG agenda, causing it to lose money. Now the company has a new concern: The State of Tennessee is suing BlackRock for violating consumer protection laws.
Read More “Tennessee Sues BlackRock for Misleading Investors re Aggressive ESG”
Ammonia | CNX Resources | Energy Companies | Hydrogen | Industrywide Issues | Mingo County | Taxation | West Virginia

CNX Pulls Out of West Virginia Hydrogen Hub Ammonia Plant Project
December 18, 2023December 18, 2023

Friday afternoon, CNX Resources issued a press release to announce it is officially pulling out of the previously announced multi-billion-dollar clean ammonia manufacturing facility in southern West Virginia, part of the ARCH2 (Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub) project. Adams Fork Energy, Haldor Topsoe, and CNX announced the project in April with much fanfare (see CNX to Provide NatGas for WV Hydrogen Hub Clean Ammonia Plant). CNX was supposed to provide natural gas to the plant, tentatively scheduled to begin construction in 2024 in Mingo County, WV. CNX said it was pulling out for two reasons…
Read More “CNX Pulls Out of West Virginia Hydrogen Hub Ammonia Plant Project”
Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide PA

Negotiating Better O&G Contracts: Tips from 60K PA Shale Leases
December 18, 2023December 18, 2023

This is one of those little gems we delight in unearthing for MDN readers — especially for our landowner/rights owner readers. Researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of Pittsburgh assembled a dataset of lease deals used in the Pennsylvania Marcellus (some 60,000 of them!) and analyzed the leases for compensation and clauses that may protect landowner health and the enjoyment of their properties. The researchers used the data to produce three main findings…
Read More “Negotiating Better O&G Contracts: Tips from 60K PA Shale Leases”