EDF Radicals Ask Court to Shut Down M-U Pipeline to St. Louis
Radicalized leftists from environmental groups like the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) are no longer content to try and prevent the construction of new natural gas pipelines, they now seek to shut down already-built and flowing pipelines. Case in point: A year ago the Spire STL pipeline came online flowing Marcellus/Utica molecules to the St. Louis area (see Spire Pipeline Ready to Flow Marcellus/Utica Gas to St. Louis). EDF is now trying to convince a court to overturn the original FERC approval for the project, which would shut it all down.
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Back in March, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to enter the public consciousness, some 500 people from labor unions and industry met in Pittsburgh to launch an organization called Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT), dedicated to fighting back against those who want to end southwest PA industries including steel, natural gas, and petrochemicals (see 
Bloomberg is reporting insider sources say EQT, already the biggest natural gas producer in the country (and pureplay driller in the Marcellus/Utica), has sent a takeover proposal to CNX Resources, another major Marcellus/Utica driller. Friendly? Hostile? Who knows. In September inside sources told Reuters that EQT had made a bid on Chevron’s extensive M-U acreage (see 
Patterson-UTI Energy released its third-quarter 2020 update yesterday. The company operates a number of rigs in the Marcellus/Utica region. According to its website, Patterson has 12 active rigs in the M-U (which is more than one-third of all active M-U rigs). CEO Andy Hendricks said yesterday that fracking activity across a number of shale plays is coming back and will continue to grow in 2021.
The Enverus U.S. rig count rose by 11 to 347 over the past week, after having going up by 13 the week before (see 
Petulant anti-fossil fuel nutters in New Jersey have succeeded in bullying NJ Transit into dropping a plan to build a backup (to be used in emergencies only) gas-fired power plant in Kearny, NJ. Score another victory for green bullies.
What more can we say? For those who mistakenly (stubbornly) insist that Biden couldn’t “really ban fracking,” last night sleepy/creepy Uncle Joe pledged to end the use of oil and fossil fuels and “transition away from the oil industry,” calling oil a “significant” polluter. Yes, he’s off his rocker. WAKE UP! If you work for or depend on the oil and gas industry, a vote for Joe Biden is a vote to end your job. It really is that simple. He is telling us he is coming for oil and gas jobs. PLEASE believe him.
Anti-fossil fuelers are predictable and their motives transparent. A movement anti in Chester County (liberal, far-left Democrat) wanted to expose confidential safety information about the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline public. Specifically, he wanted to reveal “blast radius” information in hopes of inflaming opposition against the pipeline in his near-religious effort to get the pipeline permanently shut down. It’s a holy war for these people. Zealotry.
The price of natural gas trading at the Henry Hub terminal in southern Louisiana, the national benchmark price used for NYMEX futures contracts, has been on a rocket ship ride up over the past two days. Two days ago the price added $0.12 in a single day (see 
American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, is a small but diversified company. They have their fingers in a number of different oil and gas pies, including subsidies in drilling, remediation, water, valuation services, and education. AEPT announced a new deal yesterday to buy a producer with 230+ conventional natural gas wells in western Pennsylvania.
The mighty Mariner East pipeline system (ME1 and ME2) flows up to 345,000 barrels per day of NGLs, including propane and ethane, to the Philadelphia area where most of the ethane gets exported. Enterprise Products Partners’ 1,200-mile Appalachia-to-Texas (ATEX) ethane pipeline flows 145,000 barrels per day of ethane to the Gulf Coast. Even with all that ethane flowing out of our region to other markets, and even with some ethane sold and used in our region, most of the ethane produced in the M-U gets “rejected.”
Yesterday MDN told you of a new threat to LNG shipments from Louisiana with the grounding of a semi-submersible rig, blocking traffic coming from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export terminal (see 
Rystad Energy, headquartered in Norway, is an independent energy research and business intelligence company providing data, tools, analytics and consultancy services to the global energy industry. Rystad’s latest emailed newsletter contains a forecast for North American shale oil and gas production and capital investments, with the focus on the key contributing shale plays (including the Marcellus and the Utica). It is a fascinating forecast that shows a big increase coming in both shale oil and shale gas production between now and 2030.
Pennsylvania is so lucky to have a group of talented state legislators in both the House and Senate. Last week a group of House Republicans introduced a group of new bills they have dubbed “Commonwealth’s COVID Comeback.” The bills are aimed at bringing more jobs to the Keystone State in the manufacturing and energy sector. One of the bills is squarely aimed at getting the foot-draggers at the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to approve permits faster.
Methane (CH4) is one of the most abundant, naturally-occurring organic compounds on Planet Earth. And yet loony leftists claim it’s a pollutant and killing the planet. Go figure. We’ve always been fans of using methane as a fuel substitute for gasoline. But let’s face it, storing it in high-pressure tanks (CNG) or liquefying it and storing it at minus 260 degrees (LNG), is not an ideal way to use it in moving vehicles. It’s not handy or easy and takes special tanks. Researchers may just have found a solution for that problem.