MVP Announces New Application for Permits – In-Service Date of 2H23
With all due respect, Equitrans Midstream, builder of the 94% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), is making a big mistake, in our humble opinion. Equitrans issued its first quarter 2022 update this morning. The big announcement from the update is that the company plans to file for new permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to allow MVP to build through 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest. The radically left U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit) has ruled against MVP and those same permits twice before. Equitrans CEO Thomas F. Karam says he thinks the third time will be the charm. We say, don’t hold your breath.
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JobsOhio, a private nonprofit largely funded by the profits from state liquor sales, is dedicated to attracting new jobs and investments to the state. JobsOhio has been a big part of the plan to get an ethane cracker built in the state, a project currently on hold. JobsOhio still believes there will be an ethane cracker plant built on a site prepared for that purpose in Belmont County, Ohio. PTT Global Chemical is supposed to be the one building the plant. However, a stray comment by the President and CEO of JobsOhio, JP Nauseef, confirms what we’ve thought for a long time…
Pipeline giant Energy Transfer (builder of the Rover and Mariner East pipelines here in the M-U) is planning a large-scale LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana located on the Calcasieu ship channel. The project will convert Energy Transfer’s existing Lake Charles LNG import and regasification terminal to become an LNG export facility. In March, ET announced it had signed a pair of 20-year deals with ENN, a Chinese company, to deliver a total of 2.7 million tonnes (MT) per year to the Chinese Communists (see 
As a way of avoiding the pain of worldwide sanctions against his country over the invasion of Ukraine, murdering thug dictator Vladimir Putin has demanded that countries he sells natural gas to (namely in Europe) pay him in roubles. Most countries have refused his demand, so last week Putin began cutting off natgas shipments–so far to Poland and Bulgaria. However, more European countries are in Putin’s crosshairs to cut off supplies. If that happens, you can expect the price of natural gas worldwide to skyrocket, says an analyst with Rystad Energy.
An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette highlights and focuses on the financial performance for four of the Marcellus/Utica’s largest publicly-traded companies, including EQT Corp., Antero Resources, Range Resources, and CNX Resources, during first quarter 2022. Even though the price natural gas is fetching is higher than it’s been in 14 years, M-U drillers are losing money. Why? Hedges and derivatives–bad bets on where the price of gas would go and locking in prices much lower than what the market currently supports.
Reuters has noticed that the rate of growth in the production of natural gas has slowed nationally, even though the price for natural gas is at a 14-year high and even though other countries, particularly Europe, are begging for our gas. Why? Lack of pipelines. We have the ability to produce far more natural gas than we do now, but Big Green (funded in part by foreign countries and bad actors) successfully defeats new pipeline projects with a barrage of lawsuits.
A group of 16 delusional anti-Americans who serve in Congress, including Alexandria “Occasional-Cortex” Ocasio-Cortez and Adam “Shifty” Schiff, sent a letter to more than a dozen large insurance companies in an attempt to stop the companies from underwriting any new fossil energy projects. All in the name of mythical global warming.
Anything that aids or assists fossil energy in becoming “cleaner” and “better” for the environment is now a target of the irrational left in this country. It’s quite comical to behold. If there’s a new technology that makes fossil fuel emissions cleaner (healthier for the climate and humans), the left is against it. They demand their way–total renewables and NOTHING ELSE–or they viciously attack and oppose it–no matter how worthy and beneficial. We previously told you how the left is turning against hydrogen energy (see 
Last week Philadelphia released a so-called “Greenhouse Gas Inventory” report (full copy below) comparing emissions from 2019, the most recent pre-pandemic data, to a baseline in 2006. The report shows citywide emissions have dropped 20% since 2006. In reporting done by the lefties at PBS about this news, you have to read down to the fifth paragraph before you locate the reason for the 20% drop in Philly’s emissions: using Marcellus Shale gas to generate electricity.
In March Joe Biden announced a deal with Europe to deliver more LNG to the Continent, starting this year (see 
Yesterday EQT Corporation released its first quarter 2022 update and held a conference call with analysts. The big news came from CEO Toby Rice, who said in his opening remarks, “We are currently in discussions with LNG end-users across various geographies and are contemplating equity investment opportunities in LNG export facilities.” Later in the call, in response to a question, Rice added, “Our ultimate prize that we’re looking for here at EQT is to get exposure to international markets…One of the ways that we get more flexibility towards accessing those contracts is to take an investment in the LNG facility itself.”
Antero Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica (with major assets in West Virginia) issued its first quarter 2022 update yesterday. We’ve often marveled at Antero’s ability to make money on its natural gas and NGLs with hedging–preselling gas and NGLs at prices that beat whatever the current market price is at the time (see