LNG Tanker Docks at Cove Point Terminal – To Offload Nigerian LNG?
We have to confess, the LNG (liquefied natural gas) world is sometimes confusing for us. The overall theory is pretty simple. Huge plants super-cool natural gas into a liquid state (called liquefaction) and load it onto tankers. The tankers (typically ships, sometimes rail) convey the LNG to a distant port somewhere and it’s unloaded. At the receiving end, the gas is then reheated back into a gaseous state (called regasification). However, the technology that both cools and reheats the gas is complex. Dominion began working on the Cove Point LNG export plant in October 2014 (see Dominion Breaks Ground on Cove Point, MD LNG Export Facility). Cove Point will liquefy 1.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Marcellus/Utica shale gas and load it onto ships bound for India and Japan. It took something like $4 billion and just over three years, but earlier this month the facility began to accept an initial quantity of gas as part of the “commissioning” process–which we take to mean the shakedown process, make sure everything is working OK (see Dominion Cove Point LNG Export – Dress Rehearsal Begins). Now comes word that a tanker has docked at the Cove Point facility. The tanker is already filled with LNG–from Nigeria. Apparently the Nigerian LNG will get offloaded at Cove Point, which is a bit mysterious for us. Experts say this is a “cool down” cargo, used as part of the commissioning process. We assume, like it’s name, this cargo will “cool down” the equipment that needs to be cooled down in order to begin operations. Like we said, the LNG world is sometimes confusing for us…
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Another bought-and-paid-for junk science report has been released and is now grabbing headlines from lazy (or biased) mainstream news organizations. A study by researchers from the University of Chicago and Princeton University, funded by the uber-liberal (and anti-drilling) MacArthur Foundation. The MacArthur Foundation funds some of the worst of the worst Big Green groups, including Earthworks, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club, among others. The “study” looked at health records from Pennsylvania and purports to find that in those locations with fracked shale wells, babies are born with lower birth weights than in areas without fracking. And there’s the headline everyone is grabbing. Here’s how it works: Big donors like the MacArthur Foundation go shopping for scientists at highly respected, reputable universities they can buy off with a research grant. They then tell the researchers what the outcome of the study will be. The researchers then conduct their research and magically come to the predetermined conclusion and get it published in a “peer reviewed” (and obscure) scientific journal. It has just happened again, with a study titled “Hydraulic fracturing and infant health: New evidence from Pennsylvania” (full copy below). How do we know this is actually junk science? Even the left-leaning Science magazine says this about the study: “…there is no smoking gun that proves how fracking impairs infant health.” When the left says that about a study, it’s junk…
The GECF (Gas Exporting Countries Forum) has just released its latest annual report, titled “2017 Global Gas Outlook” (full copy below). The report is remarkable for its prediction that by 2040 demand for natural gas across the globe will increase 53% from what it is today. Staggering! What’s even more remarkable is that the GECF is largely made up of oil producing/exporting countries–including Algeria, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. For oil countries to say gas is on fire and going through the roof–now that’s news! Even though these countries secretly hate the U.S. and its abundant shale reserves, they put on a good public face. GECF’s secretary general, Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli, said this about American shale gas: “The growth of shale is good because more gas will contribute to the penetration of gas worldwide.” Er, right. Whatever you say, Seyed. Here’s an overview of the report, followed by a copy of the full report…
A single vote saved the day on Tuesday, preventing the horrible Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 1401 from potentially coming up for a full vote. We’ve covered this insane bill repeatedly because it is an existential threat to the Marcellus Shale industry in the Keystone State (
In March of this year, a variety of anti-fossil fuel Big Green groups filed a rehearing request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), asking the agency to reconsider its decision to approve the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project (see 
Pennsylvania landowners may think Christmas came early this year. Perhaps you’re a landowner and just received a surprise royalty check in the mail for a long-dormant well on your property. That well hasn’t produced in what seems like forever. Last time you got a royalty check was what…maybe 10 years ago? And look at this! Santa just visited! After all that time the driller decided to pump some more from that old well. But before you run to the bank and cash the check, thinking you can pay for more Christmas presents, better think twice. Or three times. You may about to be taken for ride. In July the Pennsylvania Senate passed an awful budget bill that includes a variety of new taxes, including a new severance tax on the Marcellus industry. The Senate also slipped in Section 1610 into the budget bill, which changes established lease law with respect to oil and gas wells that no longer produce anything (see 
Yesterday EQT released details about their plans for 2018 (see our lead story today, EQT Drills Longest Marcellus Well Ever, Reveals 2018 Plans). Plenty of news sources covered that news. However, EQT Midstream, the pipeline subsidiary of EQT, also released an announcement, which received almost no media coverage. And yet there is, for us, some big news in the EQT Midstream announcement. As you know by now, EQT recently bought and merged in Rice Energy, creating the largest onshore natural gas producing company in the United States (see 
Somebody needs to sue the New York University (NYU) School of Law and 10 state Attorneys General to stop a grievous practice–a bastardization of our justice system. We are floored to learn that NYU is paying to hire attorneys to work inside the offices of the Attorneys General in 10 different states–Pennsylvania being the latest. The aim of hiring these new assistants to work alongside AGs is to launch lawsuits to “protect” the environment–i.e. sue fossil fuel companies. It is a gross perversion of our legal system meant to challenge policies the very liberal NYU doesn’t like. Our legal system is now, apparently, for sale–at least it is in PA and nine other blue Democrat-controlled states. THIS MUST STOP. NOW. Since when does private money get to buy state workers? Since when does private money with VERY long strings attached get to determine how and what state workers will work on? This is wrong in so many ways. And probably illegal, which the NYU School of Law should know. If it’s not illegal (big if), at a minimum it’s grossly unethical. Paging U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions: You need to stop this–now!…
A township supervisor in East Goshen (Chester County), PA doesn’t like a pipeline coming through a portion of his township. So he’s asking PA Gov. Tom Wolf and state legislators to overturn 200+ years of law in the United States to empower him to either prohibit the pipeline from coming through his town, or drastically alter its course (making it unfeasible). Apparently Supervisor Marty Shane missed an important civics lesson in his elementary school social studies class. (Maybe he was taught in a Philadelphia school–that would explain it.) Mr. Shane wants municipal ordinances to supersede state and national regulations when it comes to pipelines. That is, he wants to reverse the way the law has worked for over 200 years–which is federal on top, then state, then local. Apparently Mr. Shane wants to grant his local fiefdom the same powers as (in this case) the state government. What Shane advocates, perhaps without realizing it, is a path to anarchy–where mobs of people determine what happens. The ultimate end of that is Lord of the Flies (read it sometime). Our founders, who (ironically) met in Philadelphia, crafted a system that created the single greatest country on earth. We the people elect representatives to represent us (called a republic, NOT a straight up democracy). Mobs do not make good decisions and our founders knew it. Under the U.S. Constitution, the federal government reigns over all. Then the state. And finally, local governments. The federal government reserves the right, under laws and statutes, to regulate interstate pipelines–precisely to prevent small-minded people from blocking them. After the feds come the states, who regulate oil and gas activity, and any pipelines not regulated by the feds (which covers the pipeline going through East Goshen). Local governments can and do pass ordinances on land use–but not ordinances that supersede the power of the state or the feds to site and regulate pipelines. Shane wants to reverse the order…
In September, MDN told you that the obsequious members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) had slavishly obeyed their radical environmental masters by voting to move forward with a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin (see 
Invasion of the body snatchers has become reality in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The Westmoreland Board of Supervisors passed amendments Monday night “to strictly limit gas and oil drilling.” However, that’s just a stopgap measure. The real aim is a full-out, flat-out ban on any kind of oil and gas drilling. Right after taking the vote, the illustrious body-snatched supervisors asked the county attorney to begin researching a moratorium they can enact without landing them in jail. Good luck with that. Virginia doesn’t have the Marcellus/Utica under it–at least not very much. But Virginia does have another shale layer–the Taylorsville. We commented back in 2014 that the state is inching closer to allowing fracking in the Taylorsville and other potential basins (see 
Fairmount Santrol, an Ohio-based sand producer that sells sand as a proppant for use in Utica and Marcellus Shale drilling, announced yesterday it has accepted an offer to sell itself to another sand company–Unimin, a subsidiary of Belgium-based SCR-Sibelco. Fairmount Santrol shareholders will get a $170 million payment and 35% ownership in the newly combined company. The new company will have revenues approaching $2 billion per year. Fairmount Santrol’s CEO, Jenniffer Deckard, is expected to become the CEO of the new company (the name of the new company has not yet been decided). However, make no mistake–Fairmount is selling itself. The board of directors for the new company will have 6 members picked by Unimim parent SCR-Sibelco and 4 members picked by Fairmount Santrol. The location of the headquarters is still up in the air. A lot of unknowns at this point. However, one thing that IS known is that this is a done deal…
The West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) issued a press release yesterday (that MDN didn’t receive) to tout the fact that property tax revenue on WV oil and natural gas production will provide “just over $96 million” to fund local school systems and vital community services. That is certainly cool and worth calling attention to. However, the WVONGA press release failed to point out that property tax revenue for local schools from o&g property taxes is going down by $38 million in 2017–because of the formula used to calculate those taxes. In Wetzel County, for example, Wetzel County Schools project a loss of $8.6 million in property tax revenue from oil and natural gas production for the 2017 tax year as compared to 2016. WV uses a formula based on production and pricing from the period two years prior to the current year. So property taxes from o&g are calculated on how much production, and the price received, during 2015–right at the bottom of the market. Which is why when production and prices are up now, tax revenues are down. Still, $96 million is nothing to sneeze at. Here’s the WVONGA press release, along with the rest of the story…
An important research report has just been released that shows no connection between Marcellus Shale drilling and death (i.e. mortality) rates in Pennsylvania. Since the dawn of shale fracking, antis have made wild claims about fracking leading to low birth weights, asthma, and early death for those who live near active shale drilling operations. This study (full copy below) refutes that junk science–by using real data and real facts. Energy in Depth (an industry group) sponsored the research, but they hired an independent researcher to do the work. Hey, if we don’t pay for real research, it won’t get done! The independent researcher analyzed Pennsylvania Department of Health data for the state as a whole and the counties of Bradford, Greene, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, and Washington from 2000 to 2014. The data shows mortality rates in those six PA counties (which happen to be the counties with the most Marcellus Shale development) have declined or remained stable since shale production began in the region. In fact, the top Marcellus counties experienced declines in mortality rates in most of the indices. This is yet more proof that natural gas is not only good for the environment, it’s good for humans too…