Venture Global Approves $7.8B FID to Build Plaquemines LNG Phase 2
Venture Global Plaquemines LNG, LLC is developing an LNG export facility in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, approximately 20 miles south of New Orleans. The Phase One of the project is currently under construction, and the first shipment from the facility will happen in 2024. Earlier this week, Venture Global announced it had pulled the trigger on a decision to build Phase Two of the project and has directed the builder to move forward with construction of Phase Two. Both phases, when completely done and running, will export 20 million metric tonnes per year of LNG.
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This lunatic notion that companies must focus on so-called environmental climate change (the “E” in ESG) is at the core of why Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) went bankrupt. SVB’s collapse threatens to restart another worldwide economic collapse like the one we experienced in 2008. Everyone is still holding their breath that this situation does not spread to dozens of other banks and financial institutions. While SVB had its eye on efforts to “halve” its greenhouse gas emissions, its woke board of directors didn’t have their eye on actually making money. The bank’s managers and board failed to protect the bank and its depositors from rising interest rates (rates brought on by Biden and the Democrats’ wild spending spree). While bank managers were frittering around with greenhouse gas issues and educating employees on which pronouns to use, the bank became insolvent. Bidenomics at its best.
We have an update to a project we first told you about in June of last year called the Southside Reliability Enhancement Project (see 
Adelphia Gateway is a project converting an old oil pipeline into a natural gas pipeline. The project stretches from Northampton County, PA, through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook. The project converted 50 miles of an existing 84-mile pipeline from oil to natural gas. The northern 34 miles of the pipeline were previously converted to deliver natural gas in 1996. Portions of the final section began to flow Marcellus gas in April 2022 (see 
Last year natural gas consumption in the United States set new record highs in nine of 12 months. In fact, the U.S. used more natural gas in 2022 than it ever has–a new annual record. Natural gas consumption increased in all sectors last year, but the electric power sector consumed more natural gas than any other U.S. end-use sector, accounting for 38% of U.S. natural gas consumption. Which shows the critical importance of the powergen sector to the natural gas sector. The two are joined at the hip.
Last year demand for ethane in the U.S. increased by 9%, which equates to an increase of 200,000 barrels per day (bbl/d). U.S. ethane consumption averaged just under 2.0 million bbl/d in 2022, reaching a peak of almost 2.2 million bbl/d in July. Why the increase? Largely due to two new ethane cracker plants coming online, one in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. The PA Shell cracker and the TX Port Arthur cracker, together, can consume 156,000 bbl/d of ethane.
NOW we understand why antis have restarted their attacks on the various components of New Fortress Energy’s Wyalusing LNG liquefaction plant–a project that has been dead as a doornail for three years. Yesterday we told you we were somewhat mystified by the actions of antis in the Delaware River Basin in opposing LNG-by-rail transportation and a permit for the seemingly dead project in land-locked Bradford County, PA (see 
Yesterday at a Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board meeting, Kurt Klapkowski, Acting Deputy for Oil and Gas Management (part of the Dept. of Environmental Protection), told board members the DEP is about to file a letter of intent as early as this week to apply for “primacy” to regulate underground injection wells in the state. Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the primary regulator of PA injection wells–including oil and gas injection wells. In some states with the necessary structure in place, the EPA delegates its authority to oversee and regulate such wells. PA wants to be one of those states. Me before you.
The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP), which has long been a defender and educator working to get the truth out about oil and gas in the Buckeye State, is dropping oil and gas from its name. OOGEEP is rebranding itself as the Ohio Natural Energy Institute. We have to wonder, why are they dropping oil and gas from the name? What does natural energy actually mean?
We find this story kind of funny–and sad. The left and the Bidenistas are panicked over methane leaks. They claim methane leaks into the atmosphere are 70X more potent in causing man-made global warming than plain old carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It’s all a hoax, but, whatever. Let’s assume it’s a worthy thing to try and reduce the amount of methane leaks coming from oil and gas operations (ignoring, for the moment, the fact there are two other sources of methane leaks much larger than oil and gas–nature itself and agriculture). The Biden administration, which just released a $6.6 TRILLION budget (an incomprehensible number), is going to fund research on how best to detect and stop methane leaks for O&G. Guess how much the Bidenistas will spend on this critical work? (Please don’t laugh…) A grand total of $47 million.