Energy Companies | Energy Services | EQT Corp | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Tallgrass Energy
More on EQT’s Deal to Sell Capacity on MVP, Increase REX
Last week MDN told you the news that EQT Corporation has sold part of its reserve capacity along the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to “an undisclosed investment-grade entity for six years” (see Divorce: EQT Sells 1/2 Bcf/d of Capacity on Mountain Valley Pipe). EQT also announced an increase in its capacity along the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to carry more of its gas to Midwestern markets. The news about MVP is not quite as simple as it seems. EQT did NOT give up sending 1/2 a Bcf of its gas along MVP as it may first appear. We need to go deeper…
Read More “More on EQT’s Deal to Sell Capacity on MVP, Increase REX”
In a normal world where freedom rings throughout the land and free enterprise and capitalism rule, if the price of a commodity like natural gas soars, new drilling would happen and new pipelines (midstream infrastructure) would get built. In a warped world where wokey leftists demand divestment from “fossil fuels” those things don’t happen. Right now we desperately need more pipelines and more drilling. Neither is happening. RBN Energy explains how lack of new pipeline capacity is holding back new drilling–and why it’s happening, particularly in the Marcellus/Utica…
Although three major Marcellus/Utica drillers provided third quarter updates yesterday, we only cover EQT’s update in today’s lineup of stories. Come back Monday for details from both Antero Resources and CNX Resources. S&P Global Platts reviewed all three updates from yesterday and noticed a difference in how each of the three companies is approaching hedging, or preselling production for a specific price up to a year or more in advance. According to S&P, regaining investment-grade ratings for company stock was a stated goal by executives at all three companies during their 3Q earnings calls. They all aim to maximize free cash flows and paying down debt. Hedging programs were touted as the pathway to accomplish these balance-sheet goals.
Once again the virulent anti-fossil fuel nuts that compose the federal Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) are targeting the shale industry. Earlier this year the lefties that run the DRBC voted to permanently ban fracking (and therefore all oil and gas drilling) anywhere in the DRBC’s jurisdiction (see 
Earlier this month MDN exclusively broke the news that earlier this year (slipping under the radar) the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued permits to Powhatan Salt Company/Mountaineer NGL Storage for three planned solution mining wells in Monroe County (see 
MDN friend, someone we highly respect, is Tom Shepstone, author and compiler over at the 
It’s splitsville for EQT and Equitrans Midstream, the midstream company that was once part of EQT. In releasing details about third quarter performance, EQT announced yesterday it has sold nearly half of its contracted capacity with Equitrans for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). MVP, when it goes online next year, will ship gas south. It seems EQT is looking West. In the same announcement yesterday, EQT said it has signed a new contract with the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to ship even more of its gas to markets in the Midwest.
A few weeks ago MDN tackled the question of why natural gas producers, in general, are not drilling more given the high price of natural gas right now (see 
Our new governor in New York is just as corrupt as the old one. Some things never change. The New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), instead of being an independent, science-based organization, is nothing more than a political tool for whoever sits in the Governor’s Mansion. Current Gov. Kathy Hochul instructed the DEC to reject issuing air permits for two badly-needed natural gas-fired power plants, one in Queens and one in Newburgh. The reason for rejecting the permits? The state’s recently passed “the sky is falling because of man-made global warming” law, misnamed the Climate Community Protection Act (CCPA).
Complete confusion continues with respect to West Virginia’s House Bill (HB) 2581, a new law passed on the last day of the annual WV legislative session in April. HB 2581 changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see 
A short 19-mile pipeline project called the Del-Mar Energy Pathway project, crossing both Delaware and Maryland, began its final phase of construction earlier this year after receiving approval from Maryland for traversing a wetland area (see 
Are labor unions so in-the-tank for *any* Democrat candidate that they can be lied to, to their faces, again and again, year after year, and still vote for the Democrat? Apparently yes. Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, the very corrupt Josh Shapiro, someone who has demonstrated a hatred for the Marcellus Shale industry (he’s prosecuting multiple Marcellus companies for “crimes” that are in fact accidents), is using the same tired playbook politicians always use–an outright lie-to-the-face. This time the lie is about his position on whether or not he supports Tom Wolf’s efforts to force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon dioxide that’s meant to force coal and gas-fired power plants out of business.
Equitrans Midstream, owner of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and a related gathering pipeline called Hammerhead designed to feed 1.6 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of Marcellus/Utica gas into MVP, says an arbitration panel ruled in its favor in a dispute with EQT Corp. over the delayed startup of Hammerhead. According to an 8-K filing, Equitrans said the three-member arbitration panel ruled that the in-service delay beyond October 1, 2020, for Hammerhead was caused by a force majeure, so EQT has no early termination right under the Hammerhead gathering agreement or related right to purchase the Hammerhead project.
Last week MDN told you about a clever play by Republicans in the Pennsylvania House and Senate to box in Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is running for governor next year, on the issue of whether or not it is legal for current Dem Gov. Tom Wolf to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an obscene carbon tax meant to kill coal and gas-fired power plants in the state (see