Report: Natural Gas is the #1 Choice for Electric Grid Stability
Since 2014, the share of U.S. electricity generation from natural gas in the summer has increased every year, increasing from 29% in 2014 to 45% in 2024 (see U.S. NatGas-Fired Electricity Hit New Record High in Summer ’24). According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 43% of U.S. electricity was generated with natural gas in 2023. The second-highest source was nuclear, with 18%, followed by coal, at 16%. Unreliable wind produced 10% of all electricity for the U.S. in 2023, and solar around 4%. A new report from Enverus says natural gas has emerged as the “premier choice for grid stability” amid rising demand and coal retirements. Unreliable renewables are not up to the task. Read More “Report: Natural Gas is the #1 Choice for Electric Grid Stability”
Almost overnight, the conversation concerning power use in the U.S. changed. For years and years, electric power demand has been fairly static. Then, seemingly from nowhere, came the rise of AI and data centers, which are power-hungry. A year ago, we weren’t talking about data centers. Now, hardly a day goes by without a story on MDN (in mainstream news!) about powergen and data centers/AI. We have another story on this topic, which illustrates the dramatic growth of data centers in the PJM region. 
NATIONAL: Oil futures benefit from stronger than expected U.S. fuel demand; Share of natgas production in U.S. tight oil plays increased over last decade; Will AI drive a nuclear renaissance, or a natural gas boom?; Ford to pause production of F-150 Lightning; SEC climate rule unlikely to survive a Trump victory; INTERNATIONAL: Oil jumps as Iran plans retaliation; New survey shows grim outlook for oil markets; UK goes no further in raising oil and gas taxes after outcry. 
EQT Corporation delivered its third quarter 2024 update yesterday. The big focus for EQT during 3Q was closing on the purchase and beginning the reintegration of its long-lost midstream division, called Equitrans Midstream (owner of the Mountain Valley Pipeline). CEO Toby Rice said, “All cylinders are firing,” and that 60% of the tasks needed for the integration have already been done. The company produced 581 Bcfe in 3Q, which is an average of 6.3 Bcfe per day—about a half Bcf less than the new Expand Energy. EQT is now in second place on the list of top natgas producers in the U.S. It wouldn’t take much for EQT to regain the top spot if it wanted to. 
Yesterday, two European companies announced separate deals for Coterra Energy to provide Marcellus natural gas to an unidentified LNG export facility that will liquefy and sell it to them. One company was commodities trader Vitol (based in Switzerland) and the other utility giant Centrica (based in the U.K.). Both deals were for 100 MMcf/d (or 100,000 MMBtus) each. The Vitol deal is for 11 years, and the Centrica deal is for 10 years. Combined, it represents 1.4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of northeast Pennsylvania Marcellus natural gas heading to other European and Asian countries. 
The Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Enbridge) transports up to 3.09 Bcf/d of natural gas through 1,131 miles of pipeline. Algonquin connects to Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO), Millennium Pipeline, and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline and supplies New England with critically needed natural gas supplies for power generation and consumer use. We told you in September 2023 that Enbridge conducted an open season to gauge interest in expanding Algonquin’s capacity to flow more gas into New England — mainly from the Marcellus/Utica — called Project Maple (see 
Epsilon Energy, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing (financing) Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past couple of years, the company has expanded into other plays and owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas), the Permian (Texas and New Mexico), and now in western Canada. Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Expand Energy (in the Marcellus), and the other company typically does the drilling. Last week, Epsilon announced the closing of two joint ventures in western Canada. 
Two different subsidiaries of National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), Seneca Resources (shale driller) and National Fuel Gas Midstream Company (gathering pipelines), were certified by two different certification authorities, MiQ and Equitable Origin, respectively. Yesterday, NFG announced both companies have been recertified by their respective authorities. Everyone is still responsible. 🙂 
Economics, in its purest form, is unforgiving. Economics is science, like the laws of gravity. In a market (in this case, the world market) where there is too much supply for existing demand, the seller/supplier will end up lowering the price charged for the good or service. Others in the market are willing to drop prices to attract scarce customers, which turns into a race to the bottom. Such is what’s happening right now with LNG cargo carriers. A flood of new carriers has recently been added to the world’s supply. Because of the Biden-Harris “pause” on new LNG export approvals (and other factors), LNG exports have not expanded at the same rate as available cargo vessels. The result is that the bottom has dropped out of how much it costs to rent an LNG carrier. The rates are down 87% in the Atlantic and 78% in the Pacific from year-ago levels and are the weakest since at least 2019. 
As part of its third quarter update, EQT Corporation, now the second-largest natural gas producer in the U.S., dropped the bombshell that it has completely divested from the remaining non-operated wells it owns in northeastern Pennsylvania, selling the assets to Norwegian company Equinor (formerly known as Statoil) for $1.25 billion. You may recall in April, EQT did a deal with Equinor to swap land in Pennsylvania and Ohio, plus receiving $500 million from Equinor to sweeten the pot (see 
Last Friday, Reuters reported that sources “familiar with the matter” whispered to its reporters that private equity firm Blackstone is “in advanced talks” to acquire minority stakes in the interstate natural gas pipelines now owned by EQT Corp. (following its purchase of Equitrans Midstream) for a whopping $3.5 billion. The deal would help EQT reduce the debt it accumulated from buying Equitrans. 
Dominion Energy plans to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, near Richmond (see 
Here is an interesting story about the Biden-Harris Department of Energy (DOE) “pause” in approving new LNG export projects. You may recall that in January, the Biden-Harris DOE announced it would “pause” any approvals for new LNG export plants (currently 15 requests in the pipeline) for at least one year while D.C. swampies fart around pretending to figure out how to measure global warming as a new consideration for whether or not to approve such projects (see