Freeport LNG Train 3 Down Again; Caused 11-Hour “Emissions Event”
On Friday, we told you that a bankruptcy judge had tossed out a lawsuit brought by Freeport LNG against the companies that built the facility, claiming it was their shoddy work that has led to a steady string of problems and outages (see Bankruptcy Judge Tosses Freeport LNG Lawsuit Against 3 Contractors). We said this: “According to a Reuters story, Freeport experienced “roughly a dozen incidents” by early June. Since that time, things have thankfully improved.” We spoke too soon. Read More “Freeport LNG Train 3 Down Again; Caused 11-Hour “Emissions Event””
We still continue to say “pinch us!” that Donald Trump won the election. And what about the picks he’s made for his cabinet and other key positions…Wow! Now comes word from leakers that “within days” of his inauguration, the Trump team will roll out approvals for LNG export requests that have been stalled for a year under Joementia. Word also leaked that Trump plans to approve new on-shore and off-shore drilling on federal lands. It’s such a breath of fresh air! (Pun intended.) 
NATIONAL: Natural gas prices were on fire last week – this is why; Don’t defund the International Energy Agency; Fall natural gas storage peaked at 8-year high; What Trump’s Treasury pick means for clean energy tax credits; INTERNATIONAL: Climate talks end with a bitter fight and a deal on money. 
For the week of Nov 11 – 17, permits issued in the Marcellus/Utica were strong, with 30 new permits issued, down just slightly from the 34 issued the prior week (but way up from the piddly numbers issued in prior weeks). The Keystone State (PA) issued 16 new permits, with seven going to Range Resources, all in Washington County. Six permits went to EQT in Lycoming County. Two permits were issued to Olympus Energy in Westmoreland County. A single permit was issued to Chesapeake Energy (now Expand Energy) in Susquehanna County. 
Yesterday, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) announced settlements with two Pennsylvania shale drillers claiming violations of the federal Clean Air Act and the Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Act. The Bidenistas alleged that XTO Energy and Hilcorp Energy violated emissions limits at oil and gas production facilities in Butler County, Lawrence County, and Mercer County. XTO is on the hook to pay a $4 million fine, while Hilcorp must pay $1.275 million. In addition, XTO will be made to pay another $1.4 million to plug orphaned wells the company had nothing to do with orphaning. That passes as “justice” with the Bidenistas. 
We spotted a press release that fascinates us but will take some explaining. Yesterday, Hanwha Power Systems Co. (headquartered in South Korea) announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with pipeline giant TC Energy to develop a sCO2 WHR (super-critical carbon dioxide waste heat recovery) project which will use the heat stream at a TC natural gas pipeline compressor station in West Virginia. 
We’ve been tracking the up down up down up down situation at Freeport LNG (where some Marcellus/Utica molecules flow) since it came online in 2019. Freeport was mostly offline for the first half of this year following an episode of cold temps in January (see 
In August, we told you that most of Venture Global’s contracted customers for LNG from the company’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility in southwestern Louisiana’s Cameron Parish had filed for arbitration over Venture Global’s refusal to sell them cargoes under contract (see 
As we’ve pointed out a number of times this year, the New York legislature (both chambers controlled by radical Democrats) passed a ban on “CO2 fracking” (uses carbon dioxide instead of water) back in March of this year (see 
In 2021, as he was running for Governor in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin pledged that if he won, he would remove the state from the onerous carbon tax on coal- and gas-fired power plants called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Youngkin kept his promise, although it took longer than he had hoped. Unfortunately, the left-leaning (very partisan) Association of Energy Conservation Professionals sued. The judge in the case just ruled the way Youngkin removed the state from RGGI was unlawful and that the state must (for now) remain in the high-tax, onerous organization. 
Range Resources, the very first company to drill a Marcellus well back in 2004, leases office space in the Southpointe II business park in Cecil Township (Washington County), PA. Yeah, that Cecil, the one that has banned all new drilling by Range or anyone else via a 2,500-foot setback regulation (see 
Living in New York State, as MDN editor Jim Willis does, is like watching a slow-motion train wreck. You can see it coming; you warn those nearby to get off the tracks and leave the area, but no one is listening. We’re talking about the coming brownouts and blackouts across the state (especially in New York City) due to the state’s climate policies blocking new natural gas-fired power plants. This past summer, Danskammer Energy, which operates a gas-fired peaker power plant along the Hudson River in Newburgh, NY, withdrew its request to expand the plant (see 
Reuters predicts a sharp increase in U.S. LNG exports to European destinations “in the coming weeks.” Why? Because “the price spread between domestic natural gas and Europe’s main gas pricing hub hit one-year highs.” What the heck does that mean? We will explain it below.