PA’s Biggest NatGas Power Plant to Buy Gas Based on Electric Price
Earlier this month MDN brought you the exciting news that Cabot Oil & Gas, which only drills in the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA, will provide the low-cost natural gas that will power Pennsylvania’s largest natgas-fired electric generating plant, to be built in neighboring Lackawanna County by Invenergy (see Cabot Cuts Deal to Supply PA’s Largest NatGas-Fired Electric Plant). No specifics were mentioned in the announcement for how much money the natgas plant will pay Cabot for the gas. Perhaps we now know why. What Invenergy will pay will be (mostly) based on the price it receives for the electricity it produces…
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A study funded entirely by the National Science Foundation (no Big Green money involved, no oil and gas money involved) has found that fracking operations in Colorado have not led to an increase in methane migration into groundwater supplies. The study, titled “Groundwater methane in relation to oil and gas development and shallow coal seams in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado” (full copy below) was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and is significant. The research examined methane levels going back 25 years, long before any horizontal fracking took place in the state. It focuses on an area of Colorado where there has been a great deal of drilling and fracking over the past 16 years. In looking at levels of dissolved methane in groundwater both before and after fracking began, the researchers found, “The rate [of groundwater methane] did not change after the introduction of horizontal drilling combined with high-volume hydraulic fracturing in 2010.” We predict you’ll hear crickets in mainstream media–with no coverage of this very important finding…
The news is now months old that Halliburton and Baker Hughes ended their attempt to merge. The reason they called it off was because of opposition from the Obama Department of Justice (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Cleveland Fed says Utica, Marcellus shale producing wells at historic highs; Binghamton radio station protects fractivist; rig count steady in OH; Jim Cramer says pipeline companies making a comeback; major energy group endorses Trump; Kinder Morgan CEO says wind, solar potential overstated; Brexit boosting UK’s shale gas; and more!
One of the opponents of new pipelines to New England has been LNG importers in the region–specifically GDF Suez importing gas at the Everett, MA LNG import terminal, near Boston (see 
In November 2015 MDN brought you a list of 36 North America drillers that had, as of that time, declared bankruptcy (see 
We can not be more crystal clear on this: a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to end the use of fossil fuels, and a vote to plunge our great nation into economic depression. Over the weekend the Democrat Party hashed out its official party platform–the tenants by which the party, if it should be so lucky as to hold on to power, will live by for the coming four years. The Dems are composed of radical idiots of all stripes, but some are more radical than others. The official platform calls for a tax on carbon (the stuff you breathe out with every breath) to tackle so-called (and non-existent) “climate change.” The platform also calls for a “phase down” of drilling on public lands. What the platform does not call for, however, is a total ban on all fracking. And that lack of a total ban in the official platform has set off some of the craziest of the crazies in the party. A group of them, spurred on by the odious and misnamed Food and Watch Watch, are making the rounds in Philadelphia. Near the convention center are several dozen donkey statutes, placed there in honor of the upcoming Dem convention in two weeks. So what are the FWW crazies doing? Placing piles of papier-mâché poop under the business end of the donkeys and spray painting “No ban on fracking, the Dem platform is crap.” Hilarious! We’re finally seeing the Dem party crack up and self-implode, thanks to anti-frackers…
Last week MDN reported that a previously trumpeted so-called research study of air quality near fracking sites in Ohio had been retracted (see 
In July 2012 MDN told you about a one-year study of air quality in and around Chartiers Township in Washington County, PA being conducted by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (see 
We’ve previously reported on a number of LNG (liquefied natural gas) export projects planned for the eastern shore of Canada. There are four to five such projects, depending on how you count them. However, one of those projects–Bear Head LNG in Nova Scotia–seems to have the most momentum. Such projects needs loads of permits and approvals before the first shovel ever hits the dirt. It seems like Bear Head has most of its ducks in row, ready to begin. Importantly, both the U.S. (because the gas will come from the U.S.) and Canadian regulators have signed off on the project. But there are, as we are learning, still more permits and approvals needed. Bear Head just scored another important approval. The government of Nova Scotia has just granted Bear Head its approval of their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management Plan. Silly, we know. Adults with brains have to pretend that leaking CO2 or methane into the atmosphere is somehow endangering Mother Earth. But these are the games that people play in order to get business done. The Bear Head LNG project is important for the Marcellus/Utica because our gas will feed it via the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, making it an important new market for northeast natgas…
Each month MDN reports on the rig count for oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy. Why? Because Patterson-UTI has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica and we use their rig count as a proxy for predicting the pickup or slowdown of drilling in the northeast. Last week we reported the exciting news that Patterson’s rig count had, after more than a year, reversed and went up (see 
PA’s very liberal Governor, Tom Wolf, has been obstinate in demanding onerous new drilling rules for the conventional, as well as unconventional (shale) drilling industry since he took office. Reworked drilling rules were done and ready to go under previous Governor, Tom Corbett. Then Corbett lost to Wolf, and Wolf demanded to change common sense rules everyone had already agreed to (see 