Half of India’s Contracted US LNG Won’t End Up in India
MDN brought you the great news earlier this week that late Sunday night the very first shipment of Marcellus LNG had left the dock at Cove Point, Maryland (see First-Ever Shipment of Marcellus LNG Leaves Cove Point, Maryland). We still don’t know where the first shipment will end up. In the world of Big Energy and LNG, sometimes the destination isn’t known until the ship is under way! The first shipment is owned by Japan. Between Japan and India, all of the Marcellus LNG produced at Cove Point is spoken for (i.e. contracted) for the next 20 years. However, that does not mean all of that LNG will end up in Japan or India. Far from it. Both countries are wheeler dealers, swapping LNG cargoes from around the world. Japan decided it could get LNG from a closer-to-home source and so has swapped/sold the first Marcellus Cove Point shipment to someone else (we’ll tell you who when we find out). It’s likely going to be the same for the first shipment owned by India. We recently spotted the following article from India which says HALF of India’s U.S. contracted LNG–from both Cheniere Energy along the Louisiana Gulf Coast, and from Dominion’s Cove Point facility–will NOT end up going to India but instead has already been swapped or sold, at least for the first year…
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Approximately 640 pounds of dynamite and 400 blasting caps were stolen from a locked trailer at a construction site for the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline in Marietta (Lancaster County), PA this past weekend. Because the theft involved explosives, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been called in to investigate. The ATF is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction. We sincerely hope the perp(s) are caught and go to jail–for a long time. If you know anything, call the ATF hotline at 888-ATF-BOMB (888-283-2662). Not sure who thought up that phone number for the ATF, but it’s certainly memorable! Here’s the details…
Earlier this year the West Virginia legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 360, which Gov. Jim Justice subsequently signed into law (see 
In February Sunoco Logistics Partners agreed to pay a massive (historically high) $12.6 million fine to the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for “permit violations related to the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project” (see 
Yesterday the seventh Marcellus and Manufacturing Development Conference was held in Morgantown, WV. The event keynote speaker was Steve Winberg, the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy. He talked about the relationship between manufacturing and shale production. Fortunately for us, Winberg (part of the Trump Administration) said the DOE’s attitude is to not interfere with the shale miracle. Other speakers included Brian Anderson, director of the WVU Energy Institute. However, it was a brief comment made by WV Secretary of Commerce, Woody Thrasher, that really caught our attention. Last November Thrasher signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese government, an agreement in which the Chinese pledged to spend $83.7 billion over the next 20 years in WV’s shale and petrochemical sectors (see 
Duke Energy needs to replace an aging pipeline, built in the 1950s, near Cincinnati, OH–or some people in Cincy will have to go without natural gas. Duke has proposed a 13-mile, 20-inch pipeline along two potential routes. The project is called the Duke Central Corridor Extension Gas Pipeline. Both of the proposed routes are opposed by antis, including a group calling themselves NOPE–Neighbors Opposing Pipeline Extension. We call them DOPEs–Dummies Opposing Pipeline Extensions. Will the DOPEs volunteer to shut off the natural gas to their homes and businesses if the pipeline doesn’t get built? Not on your life! With just weeks before a final approval by the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB), Duke asked the state to push the pause button last August (see 
In February our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, issued its Annual Energy Outlook 2018 report (full copy below). This week the eager beavers at EIA culled through that report to highlight important information about U.S. natural gas production. In a Today in Energy post on Monday, the EIA made some startling observations. EIA predicts that U.S. natural gas production will grow 59% from 2017 to 2050, starting at 73.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in 2017 and reaching 118 Bcf/d in 2050. Massive! They also say that most of the projected production growth comes from the Marcellus/Utica region. However, as MDN has pointed out repeatedly in recent months, “associated natural gas” from the Permian region in Texas and New Mexico will also be a significant contributor to overall natgas production growth in the coming 30 years. Here are some intriguing insights into predictions made by some of the best number crunchers in the business…
Some big, breaking news to share with MDN readers: Deep Well Services, a Marcellus/Utica-born company that specializes in “snubbing” work (completing those super-long laterals you read about), has been sold. Deep Well announced today a deal to be bought out by Houston private equity firm White Deer Energy. No, Deep Well and the expert team of 220 who work there now are not going anywhere. The company, headquartered in Zelienpole, PA, will retain its western PA HQ–same workers, same management team. However, the official announcement says White Deer’s investment will now allow Deep Well to “enter new basins.” Hmmmm. Intriguing. We wonder which new basins they’re considering? MDN spoke to Deep Well CEO Mark Marmo this morning and got the inside skinny. According to Mark, the “big thing” about this deal is “the opportunity to have capital like we’ve never had before. Our growth has been limited to adding one new unit per year. We will now be able to add three new units a year.” Mark also said, “Today we have 220 people. In the next 18 months we’ll have 330 people.” Mark, who is born and raised in the Pittsburgh area, said his goal “is to put a lot of western Pennsylvanians to work making six figures, not $10.10 an hour.” The White Deer Energy deal will make that happen…
Southwestern Energy has just taken the next very important step in a process that frankly has us holding our breath. Two weeks ago MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Superior Court handed down a decision that has the power to greatly restrict, perhaps even stop, Marcellus drilling in PA (see 
Finally. Finally! Finally!!! The very first cargo of Marcellus Shale gas has been liquefied, loaded and as of Sunday night, set sail from Dominion’s Cove Point LNG plant–heading for we’re not sure where yet. We’ve waited YEARS for this day! Let’s pop the cork on a bottle of the bubbly and celebrate. Last week MDN told you that a ship called the Patris was due to dock at Cove Point and load the first shipment of Marcellus molecules (see 
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). The DPR is the EIA’s best guess, based on expert data crunchers, as to how much each of the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce for both oil and natural gas in the coming month. We sound like a broken record, but the numbers continue to be mind-blowing–hitting new all-time, breath-taking highs each month. This month is no exception. Example: EIA predicts that in the next 30 days natural gas output from the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will go up another 1+ billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d)! Let’s put that in perspective. Germany and France together use 10 Bcf/d of natural gas. In less than a year, the U.S. could completely meet the natural gas needs of both Germany and France–using only our increases in production! Just as mind-blowing: Last month production in the Marcellus/Utica (called Appalachia in the report) went up 359 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d)–more than 1/3 of a Bcf. This month? EIA says our production will grow ANOTHER 386 MMcf/d! It’s staggering the amount of natural gas our region produces. Not to be left out, the Permian Basin, long known as an oil play, is now actively competing with the Marcellus/Utica. Permian gas production is set to grow another 222 MMcf/d this month. Here’s the latest…
Underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) work done by Sunoco Logisitics Partners in Chester County to install the twin Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipelines has led to the development of three large sinkholes (see 
One of “our own” (from the Marcellus/Utica industry) is heading to Washington, D.C. to work for the Trump Administration, in the Dept. of Energy. Shawn Bennett, formerly Executive Vice President for the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, is heading to the swamp to become Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oil and Natural Gas. That is, Shawn will head up the office of oil and natural gas at the DOE. How cool is that?! We sincerely hope he doesn’t get infected with swamp fever and instead works hard to promote the many benefits of fossil fuels. We’re sure he’ll be a huge success! Here’s the official announcement…
Bet you didn’t know that if a pipeline company waits until antis leave the treetops where they’ve been perched because of concerns about high winds, and then the pipeline company nips in early in the morning and cuts down those vacated trees (legally), it’s considered a “predawn timbering raid.” That’s the hilarious headline given to yet another anti-pipeline, anti-drilling article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, covering news about cutting down three trees on a property in Huntingdon County, PA. For the past two years the Gerharts have used illegal protest tactics to stall tree cutting on their property. Out-of-state Big Green radicals, along with the Gearharts’ own daughter, have lived on-and-off in the tops of three white pine trees, building magic tree houses so they can lay around and do whatever. The tree occupation has prevented Sunoco Logistics Partners from cutting the trees, which are in the path of the Mariner East 2 pipeline project. At daybreak on Sunday, April 8th, after observing the greenie weenies had left the night before scared of impending high winds, Sunoco snuck in and cut down the trees, much to the consternation of the Gerharts who called it a “underhanded and cowardly attack.” We call it funny! And smart. So much for the dedication of antis. They scamper down trees when it gets a tad windy up there–something to keep in mind…
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) released the results of it’s industry-leading program to monitor oil and gas wells for methane (and oil and brine) migration–that is, for anything would impact groundwater. The Mechanical Integrity Assessment Program, as it’s called, is “the most rigorous routine well integrity assessment program to protect groundwater in the United States,” requiring quarterly inspections by operators of their wells. The DEP is in the process of releasing the results of those reports for the past four years–from 2014-2017. They’ve just released results for 2014 (full copy below). What did the DEP find? “[L]ess than 1 percent of operator observations indicated the types of integrity problems, such as gas outside surface casing, that could allow gas to move beyond the well footprint.” In other words, there is virtually no methane migration happening from shale (and conventional) natural gas wells because of good well casings and regular checks. It is hard to overstate how important these findings are. The DEP’s own evidence disproves wild claims that methane is migrating from shale wells everywhere, claims made by anti-fossil fuel radicals and a colluding media (