Finding & Fixing Methane Leaks a Big Revenue-Generating Business
Finding and plugging old oil and natural gas wells as a way of preventing methane molecules from escaping into Mom Earth’s atmosphere isn’t the only fugitive methane emissions the left is fixated on. Equipment used for pipelines and on drill pads–mainly different kinds of valves–has the potential to release a few atoms of methane each time a valve is turned or twisted open and shut. Companies, both new and old, have sprung up to enter the business of helping oil and gas drillers and pipeline companies trap so-called fugitive methane emissions from leaky values and other equipment.
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In his first two days in office, Joe Biden declared war on the oil and gas industry. One of the first things he did was to revive an interagency working group on the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and directed the issuance of an “interim” cost (see 
Fighting back against the campaign by the left to defund fossil energy companies is winning. It is the divestors, companies like BlackRock, that now face the ash heap of history as states like Texas and West Virginia are pulling investments with banks and hedge funds that advocate divesting from fossil energy. Companies like BlackRock are trying to have it both ways, claiming they still invest in fossil energy. But their words (and actions) expose them as frauds. They don’t fool TX and WV and others who have decided to divest from the divestors. The result is that so-called ESG investing (investing in companies that pledge allegiance to the flag of ESG over profits) is beginning to crash and burn.
We are on the cusp of seeing the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price close above $9/MMBtu. Yesterday it closed at $8.97/MMBtu. Will today be the day it goes above $9? Probably. The price hit $9.40 during intraday trading yesterday but slid back down the hill just a bit before the closing bell. We are now at 14-year highs for the NYMEX price of gas. We’re still nowhere near the all-time high of close to $15.78 hit in December 2005. The scary thought is that we may well exceed the old record at some point in the next six months (see 
We have mixed emotions about Elliott Management, a so-called activist investment firm. On the one hand, Elliott assisted the Rice boys in their takeover of EQT in July 2019, which turned out to be a very positive thing (see 
The International Gas Union (IGU), Snam, and Rystad Energy partnered to produce and have just released the Global Gas Report 2022 (GGR). According to the authors, if the world wants to limit mythical global warming to 1.5C and fulfill so-called net-zero ambitions by 2050, greenhouse gas emissions will need to peak before 2025. (You know we don’t believe global warming bullcrapus, but bear with us here.) The GGR (full copy below) says the best, most realistic way to reduce GHG emissions and hit those targets involves–yep–natural gas. In fact, natgas will, says the report, play a “critical role” in decarbonization initiatives.
On Monday MDN brought you the news that Joe Biden is renominating Richard “Dick” Glick to serve yet another undistinguished term at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 
The radicals of the Clean Air Council (CAC) are claiming a (very small) victory in their campaign against processing NGLs at the Marcus Hook refinery located near Philadelphia. CAC is CACkling that they have forced Energy Transfer, builder of the mighty Mariner East (ME) pipeline system (a pipeline that CAC couldn’t stop), to back down on how permits are issued for the Marcus Hook facility–the place where NGLs from ME end up for processing and loading for export. The end result is…well…not much. Nothing will really change. The same volume of NGLs will still flow to Marcus Hook, and the same volume of NGLs will be loaded onto ships and exported to other countries. The only thing that changes is that ET spends more time and pays more money to obtain a single large permit instead of two separate, smaller permits. We’ll explain.
When a pipeline company considers whether or not to build a new pipeline, the company conducts an “open season”–a time when drillers (producers), traders, buyers, and others who want guaranteed capacity along that pipeline can sign long-term contracts. Such contracts guarantee pipeline companies will be able to make back the considerable amount of money they have to spend to build the pipeline. What happens when those 5-, 10-, and 20-year contracts expire?
In a post on EIA’s Today in Energy, the now-politicized EIA attempts to prop up the tattered reputation of the Biden administration with respect to natural gas using the headline, “FERC approves new natural gas pipeline projects to increase U.S. exports.” We excitedly read the post hoping to spot a project or two that had escaped our notice, something that would end up flowing more Marcellus/Utica molecules to other regions. It wasn’t until the very last sentence we discovered the truth that even EIA could not ignore: “In 2021, we estimate that the United States added 7.44 Bcf/d of new pipeline capacity, the lowest amount added to interstate transmission since 2016.” In other words, new pipeline additions haven’t been this low since the last days of the Lord Obama administration.
