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Fed Court Backs FERC Approval of MVP Southgate Pipeline
Equitrans and its Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, attacked by Big Green groups including the Sierra Club (rumored to be backed by Russian money), finally got some good news yesterday. As soon as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a certificate approving the MVP Southgate project, the FERC certificate was challenged by the Clubbers in federal court. Yesterday the court turned back the challenge by the Clubbers and said Southgate has a right to life.
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More than half of the refining capacity in the U.S. is located on the Gulf Coast, where more gasoline and distillate fuel is produced than used. On the other hand, the U.S. East Coast has very little refining capacity but is often the location where the most gasoline is consumed. Consequently, the East Coast receives fuel from other regions, predominantly the Gulf Coast, and imports fuel from other countries. It seems to us that there is a big opportunity to build new refineries along the East Coast.
The Group of Seven (G-7) is an inter-governmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. G-7 countries are the world’s largest democratic (freely elected) economies, representing roughly half of the world’s wealth (but only 10% of the world’s population). President Biden and the leaders of the other G-7 countries had a confab yesterday in Germany and issued a joint communique (copy below) that says, in part, it’s OK to invest in natural gas and LNG infrastructure.
There’s no way for the Bidenistas to put lipstick on this pig–but they tried anyway. The Biden administration’s Dept. of Energy published its annual U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER) yesterday. The report shows HUGE fossil fuel industry job losses in 2021. The report finds the fuels technology sector experienced job losses totaling 29,271 jobs in 2021, down 3.1% from 2020, with the majority of losses coming from the fossil fuel industry.
U.S. Well Services (USWS), a company that specializes in fracking shale wells using gas-fired electric (as opposed to diesel) engines, has operations in the Marcellus/Utica, as well as other plays. Last week USWS announced it is selling itself to ProFrac Holding Corp. in an all-stock transaction analysts value at $225-$230 million. The deal will create the second-largest U.S. fracking company by total horsepower, and the largest electric fleet operator with 12 active e-fracking fleets.
President Biden began a five-day “swing” through Europe on Sunday. Yesterday he met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss energy security in light of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. European countries are in various stages of reducing the import of Russian natural gas and oil, which is leading to upheaval in the world market. Biden and von der Leyen issued a joint statement following their meeting (pre-written, of course). What does the statement say about energy and LNG in particular?
If we hear the phrase “energy transition to renewables” or that natural gas is a “bridge to renewable energy” one more time, we’ll throw up. We’ve written, a number of times, that fossil energy–natural gas in particular–is the destination, not a bridge to somewhere else. Here’s the truth of the matter: We need ALL forms of energy. We need solar and wind, we need nuclear, we need hydro, and yes, we need oil and natural gas. And we will continue to need all forms of energy for decades–likely a century or more. That’s the simple truth. We spotted an excellent column that says it perfectly: The changes we’re seeing in the energy sector are an energy expansion, not an energy transition. It’s simple, yet profound.
Hundreds of climate cultists marched on the New Jersey State Capitol last Thursday to demand Gov. Phil Murphy deny permits to any future project that involves the burning of fossil fuels. Here’s what we noticed about the picture of the protesters. Every one of them was wearing clothes made from plastics (fossil fuels), wearing sneakers and shoes made, in part, from plastics (fossil fuels), holding up signs made from plastic (fossil fuels), wearing hats made from plastic fibers (fossil fuels), and holding phones made, in part, from plastics (fossil fuels). Does the average citizen who is not brainwashed by the climate cult see the rank hypocrisy of these people? We sure hope so.
The clowns who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) have rejected a request by Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to appoint a new panel of three judges to hear cases involving the 94% completed pipeline (see 
According to James West, a senior managing director at Evercore ISI (investment bank), an era of heavy investment in “all of the above” energy from fossil fuels to renewables to carbon mitigation technologies is now unfolding. The world is short on hydrocarbons and electrons, and energy/power companies are responding. We are, says West, on the cusp of a new era of investing in oil, natural gas, and renewables. This new era of energy investment will be “on a scale never witnessed before.” We like the sound of that!
Coretrax describes itself as a global well integrity and production optimization expert. Last week the company announced it had completed a world record-breaking project in the Utica Basin. Coretrax successfully deployed its ReLineMNS system across three wells and expanded a total of more than 27,000 feet of tubulars (pipelines) across the campaign. With one of the expandable liners reaching 9,000 feet in its expansion, all installations smashed the previously held record of 7,243 feet by at least 1,000 feet.
Last Thursday U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm (not the brightest bulb in the pack) led an in-person meeting with CEOs and executives of seven major U.S. oil companies at the U.S. Dept. of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C. Granholm kicked off the meeting by spouting the same lie the rest of the Biden administration repeats ad naseum: Putin is to blame for high gasoline prices. That is a complete fabrication. While Putin’s actions have led to something of an increase in worldwide oil and gasoline prices, the main reason for high prices here at home is Granholm and other Bidenistas who have trashed talked fossil energy from DAY ONE. They are the ones to blame and at fault.
Each quarter the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas conducts an energy survey of exploration and production (E&P) and oilfield services (OFS) firms across the Federal Reserve’s three-state Eleventh District, including Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana. The latest survey, for 2Q22, included 85 E&P firms and 52 OFS companies. Respondents said they expect a Henry Hub natural gas price of $7.55/MMBtu and a West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price of $108/bbl by the end of 2022. The wisdom of this particular crowd is probably about as reliable a prediction as you can get with respect to O&G prices.