Sempra Sells 42% of $13B Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 to KKR
Earlier this year, Sempra Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Sempra, announced it had reached a positive final investment decision (FID) for the development, construction, and operation of the Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 project in Jefferson County, Texas (see Port Arthur LNG Pulls Trigger on FID, Tells Builder to Start Work). Sempra worked out all of the remaining financial aspects of the deal, including the sale of a non-controlling piece of the project to investment firm KKR and forming a joint venture with ConocoPhillips. Yesterday, Sempra announced it had closed on the deal with KKR.
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Another great American university has fallen to the forces of radical left Communism–New York University (NYU). Rich kids with no purpose in life other than to navel gaze and worry about the latest Taylor Swift video have found a new purpose: try to get the old farts in the board rooms at their school to divest from fossil fuel stocks. Not because it actually makes sense or would improve anything–but just to see if they can do it. Fortunately, 99% of colleges and universities have decided against divestment. Back in 2016, NYU and Cambridge University told the brainwashed kids to buzz off (see 
Aggressive “protesters” and the nonprofits that organize and send them out are finally getting some of their own medicine. Big Green funds frivolous lawsuits, and when those lawsuits are finally exhausted (and have failed), Big Green pays protesters to engage in illegal stunts aimed at shutting down the construction of projects like the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Protesters are aggressively attempting to delay the final 6% of MVP construction, even though the completion of MVP is guaranteed by an Act of Congress (see 
The Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) is nothing more than a front group, another name for the ultra-left, biased, and virulent anti-fossil fuel Heinz Endowments. ORVI pokes its head up periodically to issue “reports” (i.e., propaganda) bashing fossil energy, like a recently updated report claiming the shale industry didn’t create any jobs or economic benefit in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
According to multiple sources, feedgas (natural gas) flows to Freeport LNG (south of Houston, located on Quintana Island, Texas), the second-largest U.S. LNG exporter, dropped sharply over the weekend and remained down for the third day in a row on Monday. Freeport has the capacity to accept 2 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of feedgas. As of yesterday, the plant accepted 622 MMcf for the day, about 31% of maximum capacity. What’s going on?
WhiteHawk Energy, headquartered in Philadelphia, with ownership of mineral and royalty interests for 850,000 gross unit acres and over 2,500 producing horizontal shale wells between the Marcellus and the Haynesville, proposed marriage to PHX Minerals, based in Fort Worth, Texas, owner of 75,000 leased mineral acres principally located in the SCOOP and Haynesville plays. PHX rebuffed the proposal (see 
ExxonMobil recently published “The Global Outlook,” the company’s latest view of energy demand and supply through 2050. The document forms the basis for Exxon’s business planning and is “underpinned by a deep understanding of long-term market fundamentals.” Exxon is making short-term decisions based on this long-term document. And what does this document say? It says, contrary to the fantasies of leftists, that fossil energy (petroleum, natural gas, and coal) will still make up 68% of the world’s energy sources in 2050, some 30 years from now. That’s down from 82% today. Oil and gas by themselves will provide 54% of the world’s energy in 2050. O&G is still the one.
For the first time since June, the national active U.S. rig count added rigs–a single rig–last week. The new active U.S. rig count is 632, up from 631 the previous week. Unfortunately, the Marcellus/Utica lost yet another rig, sinking to 39 active rigs. Once again, West Virginia was the unlucky state that lost a rig, now running just 8 shale rigs. The rig counts for both Pennsylvania and Ohio stayed the same last week.
On February 14, 2022, Energy Transfer Marketing & Terminals, L.P. (ETMT) applied to expand the company’s ethane chilling capacity at the Marcus Hook Terminal (MHT) from approximately 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) to approximately 85,000 bpd. Because the facility is located in a so-called Environmental Justice (EJ) area, the DEP is conducting an even more painful anal exam (than usual) before issuing a permit for the expansion. Part of that examination will be a public hearing on Sept. 19, 2023, in Boothwyn, PA, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Every single week, we read stories in mainstream media (and in the fringe environmental media) that declare so-called renewables, namely solar and wind, are taking the world by storm. They’re replacing fossil fuels. The fat lady is just about ready to sing and bring down the curtain on fossil energy because wind and solar are taking over, baby. Except it’s all a lie! The editor of the Times Observer (in Warren, PA), The Post-Journal (in Jamestown, NY), and the OBSERVER (in Dunkirk, NY) penned a sobering column that points out wind and solar contribute roughly 2% of the electricity flowing to the grid in New York State, and not much more for the grid in Pennsylvania.
Driftwood LNG, a 27.6 million tonnes of LNG per year facility that will cost on the order of $14.5 billion to build has not made an official final investment decision (FID) to proceed with the FERC-approved project, yet. However, construction began on the project in March 2022 (see 
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) released its latest quarterly Natural Gas Production Report for April through June 2023 (full copy below). There were 94 new horizontal wells spud (drilled) in 2Q23, a huge decrease of 39 wells (-29%) compared to 2Q22. Data for July and August 2023 show that new wells spud declined 48% (!) from the same period in 2022. Ouch. However, natural gas production volume was 1,859 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 2Q23, up 7 Bcf (+0.3%) from 2Q22. It is the first quarter without a year-over-year production decline since 2Q22. Let’s celebrate the small victories, right?
Equitrans Midstream Corporation, the builder and (soon to be) operator of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, announced the company’s CEO, Thomas Karam, will retire at the end of the year just as MVP is coming online. Diana Charletta, currently president and chief operating officer of Equitrans, will succeed Karam as Equitrans’ newly appointed CEO. There’s no surprise or mystery there–Charletta has been the heir apparent for some time. However, what the official press release doesn’t tell you is that the Equitrans board is showering Karam with a $7.5 million bonus as his reward for dragging MVP across the finish line.
The old Energy Harbor coal-fired power plant in Pleasants County, WV, which had been offline since June 1 and was scheduled to be demolished, recently roared back to life under new ownership (see 
Last November, one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania) began to leak. The well leaked roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see