Quantum CEO Won’t be Joining EQT Board Following Tug Hill Purchase
In September, EQT Corporation announced it is buying Tug Hill Operating’s West Virginia shale assets for $5.2 billion (see Confirmed: EQT Buys Tug Hill’s THQ Appalachia for $5.2 Billion). The deal adds 90,000 acres and 800 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of production to EQT’s existing, massive, portfolio. Tug Hill and private equity firm Quantum Energy Partners jointly own THQ Appalachia I, LLC (THQA), which is Tug Hill’s subsidiary focused on drilling in the Marcellus, Utica, and Upper Devonian plays in WV. Quantum’s founder and CEO, Wil VanLoh, was supposed to join the EQT board of directors post-closing. That will not now happen.
Read More “Quantum CEO Won’t be Joining EQT Board Following Tug Hill Purchase”
Yesterday Equitrans Midstream, the builder and majority owner of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, issued its third quarter 2022 update. The big news (for us) was that Thomas F. Karam, CEO of Equitrans, said that if the 95% complete MVP is going to get finished, it’s probably going to take an act of Congress to do it. The same three clown judges (our words) of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals are signaling they will continue to block MVP, says Karam. In contrast to the clouds over MVP, yesterday’s update shared a bit of good news for a second Equitrans project.
Unfortunately, EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., has succumbed to the siren song of seeking approval from the United Nations (U.N.), an organization dedicated to destroying fossil energy on the planet in the name of saving the planet. Yesterday EQT announced it has received the UN’s Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0) “Gold Standard” rating, the highest reporting level under the initiative. Support for OGMP 2.0 is growing in the natgas marketplace in the U.S. We previously told you that Cheniere Energy’s LNG export plants are seeking certification under OGMP 2.0 (see 
Fortuitously, following our rant on EQT joining the United Nations Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (see EQT Receives United Nations “Gold Standard” Stamp of Approval), we happened across a summary of a newly published report by O&G consulting giant Wood Mackenzie on so-called Scope 3 emissions and how oil and gas companies are struggling to plan for tracking (and to reduce) Scope 3. This report confirms exactly what we are saying: Programs like the U.N.’s OGMP 2.0 will eventually (sooner rather than later) begin to put the squeeze on oil and gas to track and reduce Scope 3. The obvious conclusion is that our O&G companies will be forced to exit the oil and gas business altogether to remain compliant.
National Grid is desperately trying not to run out of natural gas for its customers in Brooklyn and Queens (on Long Island). For several years the company has fought a battle to run a tiny pipeline to its Greenpoint, Brooklyn facility to provide extra natural gas. That project is being investigated by the Biden administration on charges of racism (see 
The Freeport LNG export facility experienced an explosion and fire in early June (see 
In June, MDN told you about this year’s distribution of last year’s (2021) Pennsylvania impact fee revenue (PA’s version of a severance tax) to local municipalities and to the black hole of Harrisburg politicians (see 
Politics is fascinating for us (in case you couldn’t tell when reading MDN). This site often features articles about the intersection of politics and energy. Living in New York State, editor Jim Willis has long advocated for shale drilling. Fracking in NY was the reason Jim started this blog/news site! MDN began in 2009 when shale drilling in NY seemed about to take off. And then, a series of unfortunate events led to the profoundly corrupt Andrew Cuomo becoming governor, seizing power in the Empire State. Cuomo not only temporarily blocked fracking in NY, he ultimately signed a bill into law permanently banning it (see 
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says natural gas consumption in all sectors in the United States was effectively flat between 2020 and 2021, down by only 0.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). The pandemic was to blame. Natgas usage hit a record high in 2019, just prior to the pandemic, but has decreased since that time. In 2021, natural gas used in the electric power sector (which is the largest U.S. natural gas-consuming sector) decreased by 3%. However, and this is the good news, the EIA predicts natural gas-fired generation will increase by 5% this year.
You know what kneecapping is, right? It happens when a gangster or thug uses a handgun (or baseball bat) to shoot someone in the knee, inflicting permanent, lifetime damage. It’s a very cruel form of punishment inflicted on one’s enemy. It’s also an apt metaphor for what is coming under the so-called Biden Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the renamed version of what had been called Build Back Better, made possible by a single vote from U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (see 
Late last week, both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) held a conference call with Freeport LNG to discuss progress being made in restoring the 2.1 Bcf/d LNG export facility back to full working order. Freeport experienced an explosion and fire in early June (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has, for a second time, served a notice of violation (NOV) of the PA Clean Streams Law to Pennsylvania General Energy (PGE) for causing sediment pollution in the Loyalsock Creek north of Montoursville (Lycoming County). PGE is constructing a natural gas pipeline, a freshwater pipeline, and it withdraws fresh water for Marcellus Shale-related activities at the site.
We’ve been warning about it for years because various government and private companies have been warning about it–that Boston and New England were just one extended cold snap away from rolling blackouts. More than half of all electricity generated and provided to New England comes from natural gas-fired power plants. During cold periods when there is high demand for home heating, power plants are threatened with shortages. Somehow New England has dodged a bullet and has not had to resort to rolling blackouts. Until (likely) this year. Eversource, the region’s largest utility company, sent a letter last Thursday to President Biden urging him to assemble a panel and figure out how to ensure natgas flows to New England (via LNG) this winter–because if it doesn’t, this IS the year rolling blackouts become reality.