Freeport LNG Asks for Third Time Extension to Build Train 4
Freeport LNG, located near Galveston, Texas, currently exports roughly 15 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG from three trains—when it’s actually up and running. The Freeport facility has been plagued with outages, the most spectacular of which happened in June 2022, taking the facility offline for 10 months (see Freeport LNG Plant Back to Full Capacity Using 2.1 Bcf/d of NatGas). Freeport has (for years) planned to add a fourth train that would bump up the output to 20 MTPA. In October 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted Freeport an extra two years to build its fourth liquefaction train, until August 1, 2028. Freeport is now asking FERC for yet another time extension (the third extension)—an extra 40 months. Read More “Freeport LNG Asks for Third Time Extension to Build Train 4”
A Boston-based company, Gradiant, issued a press release to make a really big, really important announcement: The company’s lithium business, called alkaLi, will design, build, own, and operate a commercial lithium production facility in the Marcellus Shale Formation of Pennsylvania beginning in early 2026. The 
Infinity Natural Resources (INR), headquartered in Morgantown, WV, focuses 100% on the Marcellus/Utica. The company went public earlier this year with a $265 million ($20/share) initial public offering, giving INR a $1.18 billion market capitalization (see 
Ever so gradually, pipeline capacity to transport Marcellus/Utica molecules to other markets, particularly the Deep South, has been increasing. And it continues to grow, gradually. Two projects from Kinder Morgan aim to help that effort. The 2.1-Bcf/d Mississippi Crossing (MSX) and 1.3-Bcf/d South System Expansion 4 (SSE4) projects will move more Marcellus/Utica gas into Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. RBN Energy connects the dots. 
Environment-related permitting in Pennsylvania, overseen by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six months for approval, instead of the policy-mandated 14 days. According to a DEP press release from last November, the problem was fixed (see 
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) announced the distribution of $164,592,500 in natural gas impact fees collected from producers for the 2024 reporting year. The bad news is that the impact fee raised $15 million less than it did in 2023, the prior year. The good news is that the state Independent Fiscal Office predicts the impact fee for 2025 will soar by $70 million to roughly $235 million (see 
The West Virginia Supreme Court recently issued two 3-2 decisions reinforcing that oil and gas producers generally cannot deduct post-production costs from royalty payments to mineral owners unless lease agreements explicitly permit such deductions. We previously reported on both decisions. On June 6, the Supremes ruled in Kaess v. BB Land LLC on “in-kind” royalty leases (see 
Talk about shotgun weddings! WhiteHawk Energy has been smitten with PHX Minerals for two years. WhiteHawk repeatedly proposed marriage (M&A), yet PHX repeatedly gave WhiteHawk the cold shoulder (
Did you know that artificial intelligence (AI) services like ChatGPT “isn’t great for the planet”? That you should be using AI responsibly. And that you can choose an AI model that “harms the planet less.” This is the lunacy now coming from the left. Last week, on the same day, both the New York Times and the Washington Post (the epitome of leftist groupthink) published stories warning readers that using AI is killing the planet. Here we go again. Yeah, you should just remain dumb and give up your use of AI. That’s the solution! 
Last week, for the eighth week in a row, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count dropped, down by one rig to its lowest level since November 2021. This is the first time we’ve seen a slide in the count for eight weeks (or more) since September 2023. The national rig count continues in free fall, although perhaps the rate of descent is slowing. The Marcellus/Utica count remained the same last week, at a combined 36 active rigs. The Pennsylvania Marcellus operated 18 rigs. The Ohio Utica operated 11 rigs. And West Virginia operated seven rigs. 
This is an unfortunate part of mergers and acquisitions. The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a WARN notice (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) filed by Encino Energy indicates that 121 Encino workers will be laid off on or around August 17. No reason is given, however, EOG Resources is in the process of buying out and merging in Encino’s Ohio Utica assets (see 
The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) is out with an initial estimate for how much money will be raised and distributed from the 2025 impact fee assessment. The IFO projects that impact fee revenue will increase by $70 million in 2025 compared to the revenue collected in 2024. IFO predicts revenues will hit around $235 million. The impact fee is PA’s version of a severance tax. The impact fee generated $164.6 million in 2024 and $179.6 million in 2023.