WV PSC Approves Massive 2,060 MW Gas-Fired Plant for Doddridge Co.
In September 2022, Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) announced that it had selected West Virginia for a 1,800-megawatt (later upgraded to 2,060 MW), combined-cycle natural gas power station that also uses carbon capture and storage (see CPV Announces Plans for Massive $3 Billion, 1,800 MW Gas-Fired Plant in WV). At that time, CPV was not prepared to announce where the massive new power plant would be built — but later confirmed that the project, called the Shay Energy Center, would be located in Doddridge County (see CPV Confirms Doddridge County, WV Location for Gas-Fired Plant). In January of this year, we questioned why there has been no word on the status of this important project (see WV Still Waiting to Build State’s First Big Gas-Fired Power Plant). We are delighted to report the WV Public Service Commission (PSC) approved the Shay Energy Center on Monday. Let the bulldozers start!
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Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count lost six rigs, down to 613, the lowest the count has been since February of 2022. Since last October, the national count had gone as low as 616 and as high as 629, and that was it. No higher and no lower. That is, until last week when we crashed through the floor and went lower, down to 613. The Marcellus/Utica lost one rig last week and now runs 40 rigs. Pennsylvania lost one rig and now runs 21 rigs; Ohio (which lost one rig two weeks ago) remained static with 11 active rigs; and West Virginia remained the same with 8 rigs.
Two weeks ago, during the week of April 8 -14, 17 new permits were issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica (see 17 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Apr 8 – 14). Last week, for the week of April 15 – 21, 16 new permits were issued. However, the composition of where the permits were issued changed significantly from the typical pattern. Only two of the permits were issued in Pennsylvania last week, both for EQT (one in Fayette County, the other in Greene County). Ohio received six new permits divided evenly, with three going to INR and the other three to EOG Resources. INR’s permits were all issued in Guernsey County and EOG’s in Harrison County. West Virginia, which typically receives the fewest new permits, took the lion’s share with eight new permits. Jaybee Oil & Gas received three permits in Tyler County. Southwestern Energy also received three permits but in Wetzel County. Tribune Resources received one new permit (Tyler County), and EQT received one permit (Marion County).
We never thought this day would arrive! We hoped. We prayed. But finally, it’s (almost) here. The 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is almost ready to begin operation. On Monday, Equitrans Midstream filed a letter (below) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting a May 23 startup date for the pipeline. MVP (Equitrans) says the pipeline will be in the ground, buried, and ready to begin on May 22 (called “mechanically complete”). Get the champagne on ice and ready…
West Virginia natural gas drillers are excited at the prospect of the soon-opening Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which will carry WV gas 303 miles from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA. During a recent meeting of the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Energy and Manufacturing, the CFO of Pillar Energy said it’s only a month or two until MVP will be online and flowing. Hallelujah! We [the O&G industry] were finally able to get this one done.
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count regained a couple of rigs; for the first time in five weeks, the count has gone up instead of down. The count went from 617 active rigs two weeks ago up to 619 last week. Since last October, the national count has gone as low as 616 and as high as 629. And that’s it. No higher and no lower. The Marcellus/Utica lost one rig last week and now runs 41 rigs. Pennsylvania remained constant with 22 rigs; Ohio lost a rig and now operates 11 rigs; and West Virginia remained the same with 8 rigs.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting recently sat down with Charlie Burd, president of the West Virginia Gas and Oil Association (GO-WV), to ask him about the Mountain State’s role in supplying natural gas to the global market. The discussion covered a number of topics, including who are the biggest gas producers in WV, pipelines, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), and why WV still has not added any new natural gas-fired power plants to its electric generating fleet.
In February, West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore sent notices to six financial institutions warning them of potential inclusion on the state’s Restricted Financial Institution List (can’t do business with the state) after his office made an initial determination that the institutions appear to be engaged in boycotts of fossil fuel companies as defined under state law (see 
Hopefully, we’re now at the conclusion of an effort to overturn a bill passed in early 2022 by the West Virginia legislature, Senate Bill (SB) 694, which finally brought forced pooling for shale wells to the Mountain State after eight years of trying (see 
According to the data geeks at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. natural gas production grew by 4% in 2023, which was similar to the growth in 2022. U.S. gas production in 2023 averaged a whopping 125.0 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day). In 2023, more natural gas was produced in the Appalachia (Marcellus/Utica) region of the Northeast than in any other U.S. region, accounting for 29%, or 37.7 Bcf/d, of gross natural gas production. However, production growth in Appalachia slowed because our region doesn’t have enough pipeline takeaway capacity to transport more natural gas out of the region to the markets that would buy it.
Finally, a little legal action to push back against Joe Biden’s “pause” on approving new LNG export applications. In January, Joementia announced he would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 17 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while his people fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve projects (see