Energy Transfer: Mariner East Volumes Up in 2Q, Project Done in 4Q
Remember Winter Storm Uri, the big storm that knocked out power and halted the distribution of natural gas in Texas in February? It led to the highest prices for natural gas ever seen–in some cases over $1,000/MMBtu (see Cash NatGas Price in Oklahoma Hits $999/MMBtu; M-U Thru Roof Too). The storm was a disaster for many people, but not for pipeline giant Energy Transfer (ET). During ET’s second quarter update, company officials said Uri netted the company an extra $2.4 billion in revenue. But it’s not Uri nor frankly other regions of the country we’re concerned with when it comes to ET. The main thing we want to know about is the status of finishing up ET’s Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline project.
Read More “Energy Transfer: Mariner East Volumes Up in 2Q, Project Done in 4Q”
Last December MDN told you that a REV LNG small-scale LNG facility near Towanda (in Wyalusing, Bradford County, PA), had successfully supplied LNG to support the bunkering of a marine vessel at the Port of Hamilton in Ontario (see 
Northeast Pennsylvania high schoolers are getting a look at what a career in the shale energy field looks like. The Susquehanna County Career and Technology Center in Dimock, in cooperation with Cabot Oil & Gas, is hosting its annual week-long Energy and Oilfield Career Experience summer camp. Susquehanna County, the only county where Cabot drills, is the #1 producer of natural gas in PA. Has been for years.
The CO2 Coalition, a nonprofit established in 2015 for the purpose of educating thought leaders, policymakers, and the general public about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our lives and the economy, has just published a detailed analysis of Pennsylvania’s plan to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI (full copy below). In the report, more than 70 top scientists conclude that PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s justifications for the RGGI carbon tax “are invalid and its claims of environmental and economic benefits are fiction.”
Privately-owned Penn Production Group, LLC, which concentrates on exploration and production for oil and gas in western Pennsylvania, closed on the purchase of certain assets owned by Greylock Energy in Clearfield County, PA on July 30. The assets include 20 miles of pipeline (called Mid Stream) that feeds the gas-fired Shawville GenOn Generating Station and the Dominion pipeline.
The radicals at the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) are not just content to block any future use of royalties from drilling on state land to fund only Big Green priorities, as they recently won the right to do (see 
Last week both Pennsylvania and West Virginia received permits to drill new shale wells. Ohio was left out of the permit game for a second week in a row. PA received 19 new permits, with 9 going to Range Resources, 4 going to Seneca Resources, and a smattering of others. WV received 9 new permits, all of them in Tyler County and all but 2 given to Antero Resources.
Cabot Oil & Gas announced on Friday as part of its second quarter 2021 update the company will *increase* production during the second half of this year. Cabot CEO Dan Dinges said because the Williams Leidy South Expansion Project will be fully online in 4Q and because the gas price outlook this winter is strong, the company plans to increase production by 4% in 3Q, and by a full 10% in 4Q. Finally! Somebody willing to drill more and produce more and make a profit doing it.
The anti-fossil fuelers of Nicetown, PA (near Philadelphia) aren’t so nice. Even though a Marcellus gas-fired power plant in Nicetown has already been built by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and is currently in operation (has been since last November) providing cheap electricity for railroads and heat for a local bus depot, antis want it all shut down. They claim it’s racist to have the facility located in the community where it’s located. The Joe Biden EPA is investigating Nicetown with an eye to shutting it all down. What a tragedy on so many levels. Once again energy has been politicized by the left in this country.
Seneca Resources, the drilling arm of utility giant National Fuel Gas Company, is conducting its first experiment with electric fracking. We’re aware of at least three other Marcellus/Utica drillers that currently use electric fracking: Range Resources, CNX Resources, and Olympus Energy (former Huntley & Huntley). Seneca, like Range, will use U.S. Well Services to provide e-fracking. Seneca is conducting a field trial for a 6-well pad in Lycoming County, PA.
Yesterday PA Gov. Tom Wolf grabbed some headlines by having his Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) announce they will “soon” begin to require *all* landfills in the state to test leachate (water with nasty stuff in it that comes from landfills) for radioactivity. The Wolf DEP press release takes great pains to point out the new testing includes landfills “that accept unconventional oil and gas waste.” Which is the purpose of the announcement. To plant the seed that maybe, just maybe, drill cuttings are causing folks to glow in the dark. Radiation poisoning. Yet buried in the press release is this statement about a previous study of leachate from PA landfills with and without drill cuttings…
A Pennsylvania Democrat lawmaker from Beaver County (southwestern PA) who professes to support the Marcellus industry, Rep. Rob Matzie, has written a letter to Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Pat McDonnell (a fellow Dem) asking him to deny a request by PennEnergy Resources to withdraw as much as 3 million gallons of water a day from Big Sewickley Creek and one of its tributaries for shale fracking. Matzie says that’s just too much water to withdraw from the creek.