Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Dec 23, 2024
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA PUC Chairman Stephen DeFrank appointed Chair of NARUC Committee on Gas; NATIONAL: 2025 natural gas forecast; Trump threatens to try to regain control of Panama Canal; U.S. shale nears limits of productivity gains; EPA head Regan, who championed environmental justice, to leave office Dec. 31; INTERNATIONAL: EU still relies on Russia for a fifth of its gas needs; OECD fails to agree ban on foreign fossil fuel financing; Oil slips amid Fed signals and Trump tariff threats; Oil on track to average $80 in 2024, JP Morgan highlights; Gas traders count down to New Year’s; India, not China, set to lead in oil consumption growth. Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Dec 23, 2024”
For the week of Dec 9 – 15, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica remained healthy. There were 22 new permits issued last week, down just a bit from the 28 issued the week before. The Keystone State (PA) issued 17 new permits, with the bulk of them, 11, going to a single driller, PennEnergy Resources, for a single pad in Beaver County. Seneca Resources scored three new permits in Tioga County. One permit each was issued to Pennsylvania General Energy (Lycoming County), Coterra Energy (Susquehanna County), and CNX Resources (Westmoreland County). 
In November, MDN told you that Diversified Energy and EQT Corporation had settled a class action lawsuit originally brought by several West Virginia landowners (see 
Penneco Environmental Solutions wants to build a second wastewater injection well in Plum Borough (Allegheny County), PA, next to an existing injection well. Penneco’s first wastewater injection well in Plum finally opened for business in mid-2021, overcoming all sorts of smears, slanders, and lawsuits by the enviro-left (see 
Just yesterday, we noted the recent run-up in the NYMEX futures price for natural gas (see 
We have news of a brand new greenfield pipeline project (a rarity these days) that has the potential to flow Marcellus/Utica molecules to the Southeastern U.S. Yesterday, Kinder Morgan’s mighty Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) subsidiary announced a final investment decision (FID) to build the Mississippi Crossing Project (MSX Project) after securing long-term, binding transportation agreements with customers for all the capacity. The $1.4 billion project involves the construction of nearly 206 miles of 42-inch and 36-inch pipeline and two new compressor stations aimed at flowing 1.5 Bcf/d of natural gas. MSX will compete with another recently announced project, the Kosciusko Junction Pipeline Project from Boardwalk (see 
Just as the pandemic began to unfold in early 2020, Shell pulled out of a 50/50 joint venture partnership with Energy Transfer (ET) to build a new LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana (see 
One week ago, MDN told you that Ohio House Bill (HB) 308 had passed votes by both the full House and Senate and was heading to the desk of RINO Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature (see 
The price of natural gas, both the Henry Hub NYMEX futures price and the spot price, essentially drives more (or less) drilling for natural gas. Hence our frequent coverage of the price, at least when that price is over $3 per million British Thermal Units (MMBtus). The “front month” NYMEX contract closed higher again yesterday at $3.374/MMBtu. Over the past two days, the price has gone up a cumulative total of $0.16, or roughly 5%. The price has gone up four of the past six trading days and is now at the fourth-highest closing price for all of 2024. The question is, why? 
Two days ago, MDN brought you analysis from RBN Energy that said U.S. LNG feedgas demand in 2024 would average “just under” the average from 2023, the first time since we began exporting LNG in 2016 that we have not grown our exports year over year (see 
You’ve always known that there’s corruption in the federal government, right? With that much money sloshing around, people with sticky fingers show up and grab some of it for themselves. Today’s story of government corruption will blow your mind. Thanks to the Biden Infrastructure Law and the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, some $385 billion was earmarked to be given out as “loans” to so-called “green” projects (kickbacks to political donors). The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) was delegated the responsibility to get the money distributed. So the LPO hired a bunch of independent contractors to help distribute the money, and the contractors (in some cases) are double-dealing—they are serving both the LPO *and* they are representing and serving the borrowers of that money. The DOE’s own Inspector General office is sounding the alarm and telling the LPO it should cease and desist from distributing another dime until safeguards are put in place and contractors with a conflict of interest are removed. 
Yesterday, MDN brought you the news that the Biden Department of Energy (DOE) and its grossly incompetent leader, Jennifer Granholm, released a fake “study” that recommends not approving any more LNG export facilities, claiming we already have enough in the pipeline to last us forevermore (see 
An op-ed appearing on The Center Square website says Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Energy, Chris Wright, will lead an American energy u-turn upon taking office. The first sentence begins this way: “The United States is about to witness a complete energy reversal.” Amen to that! We have just lived through four years of an energy nightmare under the gross incompetence of both Joe Biden and Jennifer Granholm. 
According to Dan Eberhart, CEO of Canary, LLC (the sixth-largest wellhead services company in the U.S.), the world is bracing for another energy crisis this winter, with natural gas markets “teetering” on the brink of volatility. It would not take much to push the world into another run on natural gas supplies, which would push prices to “multi-year highs.” The “looming crisis” underscores the urgent need for robust and consistent American energy policies—something the Biden administration’s recent pause on new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export approvals has failed to deliver. The antidote, the fix for this fragile market, is the incoming Trump-Vance administration.