MVP Protesters Block Construction in Jefferson National Forest

Radicalized protesters who have been brainwashed (and paid) by Big Green liars continue their campaign to prevent the construction of the final 5% or so of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). This past Saturday, a protester calling himself Mickey, from the group Appalachians Against Pipelines, locked his arms in a “sleeping dragon” device, blocking construction in that area for most of the day. On Monday, another paid protester from Appalachians Against Pipelines pulled the same stunt. This one called himself Ben. Apparently, Ben (as of this morning) is still locked and in place. The area being targeted by these wackadoodles is Giles County, Va., in the Jefferson National Forest.
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Marcellus/Utica natural gas producers and marketers are adapting to a new status quo. We live in a world where new pipeline takeaway capacity out of the Northeast is hard (almost impossible) to come by and is more or less capped permanently. That’s the reality. Without pipeline expansions, drillers no longer drill with abandon in hopes that the capacity will eventually get built. Reality has sunk in. Instead, drillers practice restraint by (1) slowing drilling activity, (2) delaying completions, and (3) choking back producing wells to manage their inventory during periods of lower demand and prices.

Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, wants to extend the pipeline by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The extension is called MVP Southgate. In typical fashion, Democrats oppose it (see
U.S. natural gas exports set a record high in the first half of 2023, largely thanks to LNG exports. However, don’t forget that nearly as much natural gas is exported to Mexico and Canada via pipelines as LNG is exported to other countries via cargo ships. For the first six months of 2023, the U.S. exported an average of 11.6 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of gas via LNG, and 8.8 Bcf/d via pipelines. Added together, the 20.4 Bcf/d of natgas we exported during 1H23 was the most ever exported for the first half of any year on record. Pop the cork!
The left thought it had won the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) battle with three colluding (corrupt) and sympathetic judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circuit). But then Congress, under the leadership of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, passed the “debt ceiling” bill that forces the completion of MVP (see
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The Enbridge Gas Dawn Parkway System is one of the most robust pipeline systems in North America and provides for the movement of natural gas from Enbridge Gas’s Dawn Hub located near Sarnia, Ontario, to the Greater Toronto Area, where it interconnects with other downstream pipelines serving eastern Canadian and northeast U.S. markets. Marcellus/Utica molecules help feed the Dawn Hub via the Rover and NEXUS pipelines. Enbridge Gas is holding a new capacity open season for an extra 300 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of natural gas along the Dawn Parkway System. Let’s move more M-U molecules!
In November 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed regulatory lawyer Willie Phillips to serve as a commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), replacing Neil Chatterjee (see
Hope Gas, a Local Distribution Company (LDC) or a utility company, provides gas service to approximately 112,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. Hope Gas recently received approval from the Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia to acquire nearly 900 miles of gathering pipelines in northern West Virginia from Equitrans Midstream and add the pipeline to the 2,000 miles of WV gathering pipes it already owns (see 

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