DOE Approves Increase in Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG Exports
Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass (CP) LNG export facility in Louisiana began operations in March 2022 (see Calcasieu Pass LNG Loads Inaugural Cargo; Sabine Pass LNG Expands). After liquefying and exporting over 400 cargoes of LNG from March 1, 2022, through April 2025, Venture Global said its CP LNG export facility in Louisiana was officially open for business, three years after it began shipping LNG (see Calcasieu Pass LNG Open for Business After Shipping 400+ Cargoes). CP LNG’s capacity is currently 12 MTPA (million tonnes per annum). The company filed for permission to increase the output to 12.4 MTPA. Yesterday, the Department of Energy (DOE) gave its stamp of approval. Read More “DOE Approves Increase in Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG Exports”
Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count continued its downward trend, losing another two rigs to end at 540 active rigs nationwide. The count has been down 13 of the last 14 weeks, with the only slight increase happening three weeks ago. The Marcellus/Utica count remained the same (after gaining one rig two weeks ago) at a combined 36 active rigs. PA is running 18 active rigs. OH is running 11 rigs. And WV is operating 7 rigs. 
Back in March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Shell is “exploring a potential sale of its chemicals assets in Europe and the U.S.,” which includes the recently completed Monaca (Beaver County, PA) ethane cracker complex (see 
Data centers are all the rage these days. It seems like a new data center is announced weekly somewhere in the Eastern U.S. Ohio has its fair share of them coming to the Buckeye State (
Glenfarne’s Texas LNG facility in Brownsville, Texas, will have the capacity to export 4 MTPA. EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the Marcellus/Utica, signed two agreements with Glenfarne to liquefy 2.0 million tons per annum (MTPA) of EQT-extracted shale gas at the facility when it’s built (see 
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it will delay the implementation of new limits on methane emissions from oil and gas development by an extra 18 months, until January 22, 2027. The Trump EPA is considering scrapping the onerous regs altogether. The regulations were cooked up during the terror reign of President Autopen. Big Green, which loved the Autopen years, filed a lawsuit challenging the delay. No surprise there. 
A group of 26 financial officers (state treasurers) from 21 states sent letters to 18 major financial institutions this week, including BlackRock, warning them to abandon environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices if they wish to continue doing business with their states. Notably, Pennsylvania’s Treasurer, Stacy Garrity, was one of the signatories on the letter. West Virginia’s Treasurer, Larry Pack, signed, too. Unfortunately, Ohio’s Treasurer, Robert Sprague (a Republican), was NOT one of the signatories. Curious. 
Freeport LNG has become something of a punchline with respect to the frequent outages experienced at the facility. Except, it’s no laughing matter. Outages at Freeport have happened so frequently that we’ve lost count. Wednesday, the facility was offline again, affecting gas flows to (and from) the facility on Wednesday and Thursday. This time, the reason for the outage was that power to the City of Freeport and surrounding communities, including the LNG plant, was out. Which raises the question, doesn’t Freeport LNG have a backup generator for times like that? Apparently not. When Freeport goes down, it affects natural gas prices here at home and around the world. Yes, this one facility has that kind of impact. 
NOTE: We owe Pin Oak an apology. We got this one wrong. In our original post, we implied that Pin Oak was guilty (or at least tardy) of not restoring multiple wells it had purchased from Geopetro. In fact, the exact opposite is true, as you will read below. MDN spoke to Pin Oak after publishing this post, and the company was kind enough to send us a clarification.
In January 2023, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see 
The Commonwealth Court in Pennsylvania is extremely important. It is one of two intermediate appellate courts (the other being Superior Court). The jurisdiction of the nine-judge Commonwealth Court is limited to appeals from final orders of certain state agencies (including the Department of Environmental Protection) and certain designated cases from the Courts of Common Pleas involving public sector legal questions, government regulation, and certain matters involving not-for-profit organizations. There is an open seat on Commonwealth Court. The Republican running, Matt Wolford, would be a great addition.