DOE Publishes New LNG Export Study – Seeks Comments
How much American-extracted natural gas should get exported? That question is the focus of a newly published study, titled “Macroeconomic Outcomes of Market Determined Levels of U.S. LNG Exports” (full copy below). The study is the fifth in a series commissioned by the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). The study/research, performed by NERA Economic Consulting (NERA), looks at the impacts on the U.S. for various export scenarios. Export a lot? A little? Somewhere in between? There are 21 proposed LNG export facilities in the pipeline right now, requesting permission to export to “non-FTA” (non-Free Trade Agreement) countries. DOE wants to make the right decisions about how many of them to approve. This study and its numbers will help guide their decision-making. The study is now available for public review and comment, until July 27…
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Good news for the Marcellus industry, which is bad news for Big Green (Sierra Club, Earthworks, Food & Water Watch, NRDC, EDF, THE Delaware Riverkeeper, et al): A new independent study by Penn State University has just been published that shows groundwater is getting cleaner (!) in the most heavily drilled areas of the Marcellus. You read that right. “The most interesting thing we discovered was the groundwater chemistry in one of the areas most heavily developed for shale gas – an area with 1400 new gas wells – does not appear to be getting worse with time, and may even be getting better,” said one of the authors of “Big Groundwater Data Sets Reveal Possible Rare Contamination Amid Otherwise Improved Water Quality for Some Analytes in a Region of Marcellus Shale Development,” published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology. Talk about nuking the lies of Big Green when it comes to “water contamination”–one of the biggest and most-repeated lies they spin. A team of geoscientists and computer scientists used new data-mining techniques to study a huge dataset of 11,000 groundwater samples located near ~1,400 shale wells taken after drilling in Bradford County, PA. You may recall that the University of Cincinnati recently released a similar study focused on the Ohio Utica (see 
The single biggest factor in whether or not gas drillers are willing to roll the dice and drill another well is….the price of natural gas. When prices are low, say below $3 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf), drillers are less willing to ramp up the rigs and drill new holes in the ground. When the price goes significantly above $3/Mcf, they’re much more likely to drill. Everyone keeps a close eye on the price. We’ve just come through a hard winter that drew down stocks of natural gas in reserve. Less supply with the same or increasing demand equals higher prices. However, if drillers produce more, a lot more, then supply will meet, or even exceed increased demand and the price will stay about the same, or even decrease. So what about the price for natural gas this summer? The Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) has just hauled out its crystal ball to predict what may happen with the price of natgas this summer. As our headline indicates, NGSA believes the price will remain about where it is now. From the report (full copy below): “Our expectation for flat price pressure is based on a forecast for tremendous growth in demand that is matched by even more impressive growth in production”…
The United Nations–essentially America’s enemies–recently issued a false report (full copy below) that tells the countries of the world to forget about shale energy as a way to lower carbon emissions and increase the standard of living among its peoples. Why? Because natural gas is methane and methane, according to UN warmists, is “worse” for the precious climate than CO2. Far worse. And because “everyone knows” that the world needs to dump the use of all fossil fuels sooner rather than later. So just forget about shale. Don’t give it a second thought. That about sums up the idiotic conclusions of this totally false, totally misleading report by the UN. Why are we not surprised? According to the wizards of smart issuing the report, it’s far better for counties to invest in solar (even though the sun doesn’t always shine) and wind (even though the wind doesn’t always blow)–and, you know, just keep your impoverished people living in mud huts. All in an effort to keep Mom Earth from toasting to a cinder. Even though the earth hasn’t been warming for 20 years!! Frustrating. Hard, actual science plays no role. This is a political report, not a scientific report. Bear that in mind as you read it…
The trend is undeniable that coal powered electric generating plants are closing, and in their place, natural gas-fired plants are being built. In fact, natgas is also bumping off old nuclear plants, which presents a delicious dilemma for enviro freaks who have traditionally hated nukes for their waste that lasts a thousands years, yet because the electricity they produce is “carbon free” they now support nukes. Grid resiliency is the watchword. If the electric grid depends too much on a single source, can the entire grid become threatened should that source dramatically increase in price, or worse yet, dry up? What’s the likelihood of that happening? That’s what PJM, the largest regional transmission organization (RTO) in the U.S. (that oversees the electric grid in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest) will study in the coming months. In other words, if coal plants, and nuclear plants, continue to shut down as they have been, and we’re left with mainly natural gas-fired plants in their place (as well as renewables and other sources like hydro), is that a “threat” to the entire grid?…
Here are some numbers that are, frankly, hard for us to wrap our heads around. LNG Allies, a nonprofit trade group, recently issued a study they conducted showing that LNG exporters will add between $716 billion and $1.267 trillion in cumulative “direct, indirect, or induced value added” to the U.S. economy by 2050. Yes, trillion, with a “t”. During the same period of time, the study says value added to the economy from supplying the natural gas to those LNG plants (that is, all of the drilling and fracking), will be worth $948 billion to nearly (gasp) $2 trillion! No wonder President Trump is pushing hard to get more LNG export plants online. Here’s a quick overview, followed by a copy of the study/slide deck…
Perhaps our headline uses a poor choice of words, but that’s what immediately comes to mind in describing the enormous amount of gas (and oil) production coming from America’s shale plays–in particular the Marcellus/Utica (for gas) and the Permian (for oil). 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. Last month the EIA predicated natural gas output from the seven major shale plays would go up another 1+ billion cubic feet per day (see 
From January 2012 to February 2015, researchers from the University of Cincinnati collected 180 groundwater samples in Eastern Ohio, from water wells located close to Utica Shale drilling activity. In early 2016, the lead researcher shared some high level results from the study. The preliminary results showed that fracking in areas where there are water wells doesn’t affect those wells (see 
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week announced it has launched a study into the possibility of treating oil and gas wastewater and (gasp) releasing the cleaned-up wastewater into lakes and rivers, instead of injecting it back down holes in the ground. The EPA is seeking “input” from everyone–the industry and Big Green–to help guide their research efforts. The truth is wastewater from oil and gas wells is far less toxic than the stuff leaching out of landfills and the waste from chemical plants. But you never hear that said out loud by Big Green supporters. We’ve personally spoken with people at several companies that recycle and clean shale wastewater who say such cleanup is easy compared to cleaning up other types of wastewater. Why shouldn’t the EPA look to at least study it–and perhaps even encourage it?…
Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued a report saying it predicts 32 gigawatts (GW) of new electric generating capacity to come online this year, in 2018. Of that 32 GW, 21 GW (or 66%) will come from new natural gas-fired plants. And of that 21 GW of new gas-fired generation, Pennsylvania alone will generate 5.2 GW, and Maryland and Virginia will each generate 1.9 GW. Put another way, 9 GW out of 21 GW (or 43%) of all new demand for natural gas for power plants is happening right here in the Marcellus/Utica region. As we have observed on many occasions, power generation is a very important source of new demand for abundant and cheap Marcellus/Utica gas…
You might think people who are not leased and live close to shale drilling activity, that is, those with the most “impacts” from that activity, would be the ones most opposed to it. However, you would be wrong. That’s according to a new study just published by the ultra liberal Oregon State University. A study appearing in monthly peer reviewed academic journal Risk Analysis titled, “The Effect of Geographic Proximity to Unconventional Oil and Gas Development on Public Support for Hydraulic Fracturing,” finds that the closer you live to shale drilling, even those who are not leased, the more supportive of it they are. Why is that? Because they understand it–they’re more familiar with it. MDN has spoken to residents in Susquehanna County, PA who live close to drilling yet are not, themselves, drilled on/under. Their opinion? Sure they’d like it if they got money. After all, they incur the impacts (trucks, noise, lights, dust), but don’t directly benefit with money in their pockets. Yet, when asked if they had a choice and could wave a magic wand so there never would have been drilling, the answer is swift and universal: NO! They still prefer nearby drilling, because it benefits their neighbors and, to some degree, the community at large via tax revenue and charitable contributions. Here’s news of a study that proves the closer you are to drilling, the more you like it…
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, yesterday took a close look at natural gas production in Pennsylvania and how it has grown. A few interesting factoids: PA averaged a record high 15 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas production in 2017–3% higher than 2016. Most of PA’s natural gas production comes from the Marcellus Shale. PA production accounted for 19% of total U.S. marketed natural gas production in 2017. PA produces more natural gas than any other state except Texas. Several key pipelines have helped move some of PA’s enormous production to other markets. Here’s the insightful look at PA natgas production from expert number crunchers at EIA…