Hydrogen Still in its Infancy for Midstream Oil & Gas
Robert Rapier, a chemical engineer in the energy industry, often writes for both the Forbes.com and OilPrice.com websites. Excellent writer. Rapier recently concluded a four-article series examining Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) programs in the oil industry, with an emphasis on how some companies are using hydrogen to improve their metrics. The last article in the series (below) tackles the issue of how hydrogen could/might/maybe become a “game-changer” for midstreamers in the oil and gas space. Our takeaway from reading his article is this…
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Can you actually make a battery by using just rocks and water? As it turns out, the answer is yes! And you can do it thanks to the technology discovered and innovated by hydraulic fracturing. A clever company called Quidnet (based in Houston, TX) has figured out how to use the water pressure (and water) from fracked wells to spin a turbine and create electricity. Drill a hole, pump water down into it, cap it and wait, and then uncork the hole and the pressure pushes the water back out, spinning the turbine. Genius!
A new report from the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) shows Pennsylvania sent more than 79 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity to other states in 2020–by far the biggest electricity exporter in the country. And it’s mostly thanks to cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas. PA’s position as the number one electric exporter is now threatened by its recalcitrant Governor, Tom Wolf, who insists on forcing the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a $2.36 billion carbon tax over the next 10 years aimed at shutting down coal and gas-fired power plants. Is Wolf certifiably insane?
Nearly 20 years ago Indeck Energy floated a plan to build an electric generating plant (powered by natural gas) in Niles, Michigan, not far from Chicago. In 2016 those plans got serious (see 
A recently published book that attempts to show fracking in Lycoming County, PA area in the worst possible light, along with a section excerpted from the book running in the New York Times, once again reopens an old case that accuses Range Resources of ruining the water supply for several homes near a fracked well drilled by Range. In 2011 Range drilled and fracked the Harman Lewis Unit 1H well along Green Valley Road in Hughesville, PA. Following an investigation, the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) slapped Range with a record $8.9 million fine in June 2015, accusing the company of faulty casing in its well, leading to methane migration that had contaminated several area water wells (see 
We don’t often use material from the known fake news source called the New York Times, but here we are using a second article from the NYT in one day! The article (below) does its best to shred the reputation and credibility of Joe Manchin, senior U.S. Senator from West Virginia. We have to confess we’re a bit wary of Manchin given his tendency to cave under pressure and vote with the Democrat Party line. But Manchin is all that currently stands in the way of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party’s plan to eliminate natural gas (and coal), phasing both out as energy sources to produce electricity, part of the $3.5 trillion so-called budget reconciliation bill.
Natural gas pipeline operators have some work to do to protect their pipelines (and consequently the public) from nefarious hackers who seek to shut them down. That was the upshot from a panel discussion at last week’s LDC Gas Forums Midcontinent conference in Chicago. One simple way pipelines and the customers who use them leave themselves open to attack: They don’t encrypt gas nominations.
Here we go again. Although we understand self-interest and wanting to protect one’s profit margin, we continue to be distressed that some of the biggest chemical companies in the world (meaning in the U.S.) are actively trying to block LNG exports. Why? They want the natural gas they buy (in very large quantities) to be as cheap as possible. In April 2017, Big Chemical–companies like Dow Corning, BASF, Eastman Chemical and others–via their trade association Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), launched an effort to try and persuade Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the Trump Administration to create barriers to exports of natural gas (see 
It’s that time of year again–for annual maintenance at the Cove Point LNG export plant, located on the shoreline of Maryland. The plant, built by Dominion Energy, is now controlled and operated by Berkshire Hathaway following Warren Buffett’s purchase of Dominion’s extensive pipeline network last year (see 
Exactly one month ago MDN brought you the news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has provisionally approved a request by Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to change the method it uses to cross 136 streams and 47 wetlands (see 
Earlier this week MDN told you that a major national proxy advisor, Glass Lewis, is recommending shareholders from both Cimarex Energy (Permian oil driller) and Cabot Oil & Gas (Marcellus gas driller) approve a proposed merger on September 29 when they vote (see 
MDN editor Jim Willis has had several conversations this past week about the price of natural gas and how prices in the Marcellus/Utica are influenced by national and international events. “Is it possible,” one questioner asked, “to say that if the NYMEX price is X, then my local trading hub in the M-U will likely be X plus or minus Y?” Unfortunately, the answer is no. There is no one “price” of natural gas. The Henry Hub futures price (the NYMEX) is often quoted as “the” price, but in reality, there are hundreds/thousands of prices. Natgas is a commodity and traded at hundreds of points along major pipelines throughout the country. This post attempts to explain more about the complex landscape of what influences the price of natural gas where you are.
Lately we’ve seen multiple news articles about yet another city, or even state, that has launched a lawsuit against one or more Big Oil companies claiming their products are causing man-made global warming (an abject lie), and that those companies have known about this situation for years without doing anything about it, causing the earth to toast. Such lawsuits are not, frankly, about stopping global warming. They are about a government shakedown–politicians dipping their hands into the pockets of companies with money and stealing it. An excellent article appearing on the RealClearEnergy website describes what has been happening with these lawsuits, and why these lawsuits cannot be allowed to go forward.