Maryland Co. Innovative Solution Monitors Orphaned Wells 24/7
A Maryland company called Machfu has developed “a powerful, yet affordable continuous methane monitoring system” for orphaned oil and gas wells. According to the CEO of Machfu, his company’s solution is simple and reliable and provides 24/7 monitoring. The alternative is to use drones or airplanes, which are far more expensive and don’t work 24/7 but for a limited (brief) period of time.
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We have to confess this news came suddenly out of left field. And we’re still struggling with what to make of it. Yesterday, CNX Resources CEO Nick DeIuliis, author of
The next few weeks will tell the story of whether or not the final nail has been driven into the coffin of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax in Pennsylvania. Yesterday, we brought you the really big news that PA’s Commonwealth Court voted 4-1 to block the state from joining RGGI (see 
Pipeline giant Williams issued its third quarter update yesterday. Among the news of interest for the Marcellus/Utica was a statement by Williams CEO Alan Armstrong that the company completed the first half of Transco’s Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project well ahead of schedule (on Oct. 21). The company is working with FERC to get the completed portion of the project online and flowing asap. REAE is a plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland. The initial portion (now complete) will flow about half that amount (see
Clean Fuel Services LLC, a subsidiary of Hog Lick Aggregates LLC, is one of fourteen partner companies from West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania providing hydrogen production, offtake, and connective infrastructure for the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) project. Clean Fuel’s role is to develop a hydrogen fuel depot in Fairmont (Marion County), WV, as part of ARCH2. The depot will provide a “one-stop-shop” for customers transitioning heavy-duty and medium-duty trucks, construction equipment, delivery vehicles, and bus fleets from diesel to hydrogen.
In the end, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court was not fooled by the Democrat left’s attempt to rename a tax as a fee to circumvent the necessary approval needed by the state legislature in approving taxes as provided for by the state constitution. We’re referring to the illegal attempt by former PA Gov. Tom Wolf in 2019 to force the state into a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which would slap a new (very high) tax (i.e., “fee”) on electricity produced by coal- and gas-fired power plants, forcing them out of business in favor of unreliable “renewable” energy sources (see
The Pennsylvania State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) should prepare to cough up some of the money it receives from the steep charges it assesses for Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation and Chapter 105 Water Obstructions and Encroachments permits. For YEARS, we’ve told you about these permits sometimes taking two, three, even six to eight months for approval — instead of the law-mandated 14 days. It got so bad that in the fall of 2019, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw introduced a bill to allow third-party reviews of these permits (see
DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions (like the Haynesville). DTM issued its third quarter 2023 update yesterday. Items related to the M-U of note is that construction of the Ohio Utica System, a new greenfield gathering system in the Ohio Utica for EOG Resources, is progressing ahead of schedule with an expected in-service date of 1Q24. DTM also announced the NEXUS Pipeline added approximately 50 MMcf/d of additional leased capacity in 3Q.
A problem plaguing the entire country is old conventional oil and gas wells that were never adequately plugged and capped, called orphaned wells, because (supposedly) nobody knows who owns them. In the fall of 2021, President Biden signed into law the so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, some $1.2 trillion in pork barrel spending, passed with the help of turncoat Republicans (see 
Equitrans Midstream issued its third quarter update yesterday. As you might expect, there was much talk about completing the nearly-done Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Near the top of Equitrans’ 3Q official update is this comment from CEO Thomas Karam: “Once in-service, there is little doubt MVP will be one of the most valuable pipelines in the U.S., directly connecting our country’s largest and lowest-cost natural gas resource and the rapidly growing demand of the mid-Atlantic and southeast markets.” MVP remains on track to be completed and online in 1Q24. We learned a few new details about MVP from the update. However, MVP wasn’t the only hot topic during yesterday’s update. We have new info about the Rager Mountain Natural Gas Storage Field incident, Ohio Valley Connector Expansion Project, and MVP Southgate.
In 2018, a man in Clarksville (Green County), PA, turned on his gas stove, and it exploded, catching fire and leveling the entire house (see
Have you noticed the nice rise in the price of gas? Yesterday, the NYMEX Henry Hub price rose $0.22 to close at $3.58/MMBtu (up 6.24% in a single day). Cool! Better yet, the spot price of natural gas in the Marcellus/Utica region is on the march, too. According to Argus Media, spot natural gas prices across the northeastern U.S. surged to the highest levels in months. Why? Weather. Specifically, cold weather. Example: The Columbia Gas Appalachia index, a “key indicator” for the price of gas from the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania and surrounding states, more than doubled to $2.37/mmBtu on Monday, the highest since March 2nd. How high will it go?