MVP Asks FERC for More Space at Several Locations as Work Continues
Anti-fossil fuelers and some residents with portions of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) traversing their land are flooding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with comments asking the agency to delay permission for MVP to be placed into service. The latest in-service date MVP outlined to FERC in a recent request for startup permission is “early June” (see MVP Delays Startup from June 1 to “Early June” – Testing 99% Done). However, even as MVP works to finish, it is still making requests to FERC, indicating “the project is still a work in progress with an expanding scope.” That is, perhaps MVP is not ready to start up just yet.
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Yeah, the bottom pretty much fell out of the rig count last week, both nationally and for the Marcellus/Utica region. We’re hitting new lows with both counts. For the M-U, Pennsylvania stayed the same with 21 active rigs, but Ohio lost one rig, and West Virginia lost two rigs last week, for a net loss of three — 37 active rigs across the region, the lowest in more than a year. The national rig count hit 600 last week, the lowest it has reached since January 2022. Ugh.
We suppose it was inevitable following a rupture in a segment of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) during pressurized water testing (see
In the fall of 2021, President Biden signed into law the so-called Infrastructure bill, some $1.2 trillion in pork barrel spending, passed with the help of turncoat Republicans (see
The Bidenistas at the EPA attacked coal and gas-fired power plants in April, threatening to destabilize the existing electric power grid with new regulations (see
Last week, the Baker Hughes U.S. rig count lost another two rigs, down to 603, the lowest the count has been since January of 2022. Since last October, the national count had gone as low as 616 and as high as 629, and that was it — a fairly narrow band. That is, until three weeks when it crashed through the floor and went lower, down to 613. Then, two weeks ago, it was down to 605. And now, it has gone even lower, down to 603. Will we see it go lower than 600?
Hope Gas, a large local utility company, provides gas service to more than 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-seven West Virginia counties. The company monitors and maintains over 7,000 miles of pipelines that safely deliver West Virginia natural gas to many homes and commercial and industrial sites. Hope employs over 450 employees, all working in WV. The company has been expanding like crazy, purchasing and integrating five companies over the past year. Yesterday, Hope announced a deal to buy a sixth company — Consumers Gas Utility Company — which will add another 8,500 customers to Hope’s growing natural gas customer base.
Antero Midstream, a separate company from Antero Resources (at least on paper, although it is managed by the same people), issued a press release yesterday to announce it had purchased a bolt-on acquisition of gathering and compression assets in the Marcellus Shale for $70 million from Summit Midstream Partners. The assets acquired include two compressor stations and 48 miles of high-pressure gas-gathering pipelines located in West Virginia.
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.
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.