New England May Experience Electricity Shortage – This Summer
New England, with its opposition to new natural gas pipelines, is shooting itself in the head when it comes to electricity supplies. A recent announcement from ISO New England, charged with maintaining electric reliability for New England’s power grid, says everything should be fine this summer when it comes to electric generation–BUT “forecasts show possibility of occasional tight system conditions.” Rolling blackouts anyone? Some 700 megawatts (MW) of expected new resources “are delayed and may not be available this summer.” Natgas-fired electric generators in New England have been begging and pleading for pipelines to bring more natural gas to the region–to feed their plants. Yet the dopes in New England, like Sen. Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy, keep shutting them out…
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Bret Stephens, until recently, was a writer for the Wall Street Journal. He’s your typical liberal–Democrat and big believer in man-made global warming hysteria. Stephens recently left the WSJ and joined the New York Times. His very first column in the Times, published at the end of April, tackles the issue of “the science is settled” when it comes to “climate change.” Stephens does not say he’s flipped sides and not does not believe in man-made global warming–he simply wants to acknowledge that algorithms and suppositions change, and it’s better to be honest about it now, rather than have some of your theories proven wrong later–leading to the belief that the entire meme is wrong. Stephens is the kind of intellectual lefty lib that, quite frankly, we respect. He’s willing to deal honestly with facts–not ignore them and pretend they don’t exist. And for that, his own posse turned around and viciously attacked him. Stephens, a “never Trumper” was used to being attacked by the right, but the attacks he’s now getting from the left are “perhaps worse” than those he ever received from the right…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Can Southeast infrastructure handle Southeast demand growth?; why more coal, oil and natgas investments are needed; coal and nuke plants think Trump just saved their bacon; energy revolutions hidden in plain sight; Senate GOP defections sink effort to repeal BLM venting, flaring rule; US shale spending dwarf competition; Sabine Pass exports rise; UK to become third world country?…considers nationalizing energy companies & frack ban; and more! 
You can’t see we didn’t warn Rover Pipeline. In our story yesterday about the Ohio EPA’s frustration with Rover over regular spills of drilling mud (and other violations), we pointed out that the OEPA’s language is “Not good news for Rover, when one of the main state regulators (that can stop the project) is leveling criticisms like that” (see 
Does Williams have an “ace in the hole” with respect to the Constitution Pipeline? The Constitution, a ~$900 million, 124-mile pipeline planned to run from Susquehanna County, PA into Upstate New York, was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in December 2014 (see 
In April, Rex Energy, a driller focused mainly on the Marcellus/Utica (headquartered in State College, PA), issued an operational update (see 
Gulfport Energy turned in their first quarter 2017 update earlier this week–a very impressive report. Gulfport reports producing an average 849.6 million cubic feet equivalent (MMcfe) per day in 1Q17–8% higher than 4Q16 and 23% higher than 1Q16. They scored an average price of $2.68 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for the gas they sold. Perhaps most impressively, the company went from losing $242 million in 1Q16 to making a profit of $154 million in 1Q17–a swing of $396 million. Gulfport is a big Utica Shale driller. During 1Q17, the company spud (began to drill) 26 new Utica wells. The average length of each well was 8,145 feet. They hooked up 5 Utica wells to pipelines. On an earnings call, Gulfport CEO Michael Moore said 38% of their Utica well completions during 1Q17 included fracture treatment designs of “greater than 2,500 pounds [of sand] per foot.” That’s a lot of sand! Marcellus and Utica drillers typically find more sand = better production–and that’s what Gulfport is finding. Gulfport works with Mammoth Energy and Evolution Well Services–which operates rigs run by natural gas instead of diesel fuel. Below is the full 1Q17 update, along with comments from Moore delivered during the quarterly earnings call… 
Moody’s Investors Service issued a report earlier this week saying an abundance of cheap, clean-burning Marcellus Shale gas threatens to “wreak havoc” in the electric generation market in the PJM area, which covers all or parts of DE, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, NJ, NC, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, and Washington, DC. According to Moody’s researchers, a large influx of natural gas power plants entering PJM Interconnection, due to cheap gas supplies from the Marcellus Shale, will pose “severe challenges for generators operating in the region” in the next few years. Because of the Marcellus “glut,” new plants coming online will drive down power prices, which “could lead” to widespread closures of coal power plants, and pressure operating margins for all generators, including other gas-fired plants. The prediction is that a low-price Armageddon will result in widespread corporate casualties. What can be done to avoid this hideous future? Nothing. The only thing power plant operators can do is cut their debt load, which they are doing. In other words, good old American competition (coming from Marcellus Shale gas) is making the PJM electric industry get leaner and more efficient. Imagine that… 
We’ve kept an eye on several LNG export projects along the Eastern shore of Canada (most of them in Nova Scotia) for some time. Why? Because they’re a huge potential market for Marcellus and Utica Shale gas. One of those projects, in Nova Scotia, is the Goldboro LNG project from Pieridae Energy. The U.S. Dept. of Energy approved the plant for exporting to non-free trade agreement counties in February 2016 (see 
Hold that decline curve! Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have done “extensive data mining” and analysis of 20,000 shale gas wells. In a paper published in the journal Applied Energy titled “The shale gas revolution: Barriers, sustainability, and emerging opportunities” (full copy below), Los Alamos researchers say that refracking existing wells with new technology can transform those wells from “diminished producers” (so/so wells) into “high-performers” long after the wells had supposedly hit peak production. “We hypothesize that manipulating tail production could re-revolutionize shale gas extraction,” said lead author of the study, Richard Middleton. Refracking eliminates the cost of drilling a new bore hole, and provides a smaller environmental footprint. What’s not to love! Let’s get refracking… 
As of yesterday, midstream and utility giant Dominion and all of its various subsidiaries has changed its name–adding “Energy” to the end. No longer is the website dom.com (a catchy URL that’s easy to remember). As of today, the URL is dominionenergy.com (we need to talk to someone in their branding department–all those extra keystrokes are nuts!). Dominion Resources, Inc., has become Dominion Energy, Inc., complete with a new logo. At least they still have the same stock ticker, a plain “D”. A whole list of subsidiary companies controlled by Dominion have also changed their names. Dominion East Ohio has become Dominion Energy Ohio. Dominion Hope has become Dominion Energy West Virginia. Questar Gas, bought by Dominion last year (see 
Finally! President Trump has proffered two candidates to fill the (soon to be) four empty slots as commissioners for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The FERC board is supposed to have five commissioners. It currently has two, and soon to be one. Three commissioners are needed to fulfill a quorum, allowing votes to be taken on important infrastructure (i.e. pipeline) projects. A number of vital Marcellus/Utica projects are on hold due to lack of quorum. The not-so-secret rumor running around Washington since March was that Trump would nominate Kevin McIntyre, Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson (see 
The West Virginia legislature only meets for 60 calendar days each year and move quickly when the do meet. Unless the governor calls for a special session. Which has happened–to consider and pass a budget for the state. During the regular session earlier this year, newly-minted Gov. Jim Justice wanted and got a bill, Senate Bill (SB) 415 (full copy below) that tiers the severance tax on natural gas and oil. Justice would keep the existing 5% severance tax on oil and gas as the bottom tier–to be assessed if the “annualized gross value of natural gas per MCF” is $3 or lower. When the annualized value goes to $3.01, the tax goes to 5.5%. At $3.51, it goes to 6%. And so on to $9/Mcf when the tax would be 10%. It’s a crazy idea and frankly, we’re surprised a Republican governor that supports the shale industry wants it. Other o&g states are looking at lowering their severance taxes, not raising them. At any rate, the Independent Oil & Gas Association of West Virginia (IOGAWV) is strongly opposed to the plan. From what we can tell, as of a few days ago, the tiered severance tax for natural gas/oil plan has been withdrawn. Which is good news for both drillers and landowners…