NATIONAL: Greenway Technologies announces gas to hydrogen system; US DOE offers additional $2 billion for grid expansion, upgrades; Biden’s climate splurge gives billions to nonprofit newbies; JPMorgan eyes physical LNG trading after Dimon hails boon; The market is pricing in another ‘warm winter’ for natural gas; The hierarchy of Democratic deceit. Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Oct 24, 2024”
This morning, Diversified Energy Company (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil) announced it had signed a deal to supply 40 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas over three years to a “major Gulf Coast LNG facility” for exporting. The contract begins in November (next month!), which means even though Diversified isn’t (yet) willing to identify the LNG export facility, it will sell to a facility already up and running and not fully supplied, limiting the pool of potentials to a handful. The announcement says more details about the deal will be released in the company’s forthcoming third quarter update. Read More “Diversified Energy Signs Deal to Supply NatGas for LNG Exports”
Yesterday, the radicalized Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project filed a rulemaking petition with the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) asking the EQB to increase minimum setback distances from fracked wells. Setbacks, also referred to as protective buffers and no-drill zones in the context of fracking, are mandatory distances that fracked wells must abide by to keep them away from homes, schools, hospitals, drinking water wells, and surface water. PA already has a safe and sufficient setback of 500 feet. The groups want that increased by 650% to 3,281 feet. It would ban approximately 95% of all new shale wells in the state. Read More “Leftist Enviro Groups Ask PA EQB to Ban Fracking via Bigger Setbacks”
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is currently all the rage. Carbon dioxide (CO2), the stuff you exhale with every breath you take, is supposedly a “pollutant,” according to the left. Too much CO2 in the atmosphere—which gets there by burning things like wood and gasoline and natural gas—supposedly causes a canopy effect trapping the sun’s rays and catastrophically heating the planet (i.e., global warming). Except nobody can actually prove (a) the planet is catastrophically heating, and (b) even if Mom Earth is heating a little bit, we don’t know what causes it. To question global warming (to demand real science) is a sin against the left and marks you as a “denier” in their twisted world. A solution proposed by some is to capture CO2 as it is burned, trap it, and then pump it down a well for permanent storage underground. The very first commercial well to do so, in Illinois, has sprung a couple of leaks. Read More “Nation’s First Carbon Capture Well in Illinois has Sprung 2 Leaks”
Alan Armstrong, CEO of Williams, had some interesting things to say during a recent webinar hosted by the Global Listed Infrastructure Organization (GLIO). Among Armstrong’s comments: “Across the board, I’ve never seen a time like this. I’ve been with Williams for 38 years and in the gas pipeline and gathering business for that length as well. And I’ve never seen a time like this where we’ve seen so much demand for services in so many areas.” Read More “Williams CEO has Never Seen Such High Demand for Natural Gas”
S&P Global Ratings analysts estimate that U.S. data centers’ increasing energy demands will lead to additional natural gas demand of between 3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) and 6 Bcf/d by 2030, from a starting point of almost none today. The analysts believe additional demand from data centers should contribute to “at least a decade” of supply growth, with pipeline companies located in gas fields near data center hotspots reaping the most rewards. S&P says short pipelines offer the best options for meeting a rapid scaleup in demand. Read More “Short Pipelines are the Fast, Easy, Cheap Solution for Data Centers”
With just two weeks left until official election day, the Biden-Harris administration has opened up the taps and is flowing billions of dollars to various states and companies in a naked attempt to buy votes for the election. It’s sickening. Even the otherwise nonpartisan Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has become partisan in awarding big money from the so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia and to states like Virginia and North Carolina that stand a good chance of flipping to Trump. Money is also going to some “red” states (just to make it look good). Read More “Biden PHMSA Unloads $196M to Replace Gas Pipes 2 Wks Before Election”
In a post published yesterday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the agency noted that construction costs rose slightly for solar and wind, but dropped for natural gas in 2022 (the most recent year with available stats). Average construction costs for solar generators increased by 1.7% in 2022. For wind turbines construction costs increased by 1.6%. Average costs for natural gas-fired power decreased 11%. However, the first chart at the top of the post shows something *not* highlighted by the EIA—that overall construction costs for natural gas are FAR lower than building new solar and wind. Read More “EIA: It Costs 2X More per Kilowatt to Build Solar & Wind vs. NatGas”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Michigan government agencies staffed & funded by climate activists; Greenpeace exploits Texas tragedy for its own gain; NATIONAL: Double Zero and SJ Enviro. collaborate to transform natgas into blue hydrogen; Oil climbs as traders track war and cease-fire talks; INTERNATIONAL: Western Canada gets first pieces of CNG natgas fueling corridor; Modi touts closer Russia ties at BRICS summit; In Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale lands, it’s drill, baby, drill!; A ‘tidal wave’ of natgas supply — biggest yet — will reshape global markets. Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Oct 23, 2024”
The Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) met yesterday to consider whether to allow fracking under (not on) two Ohio state-owned lands, including the Leesville Wildlife Area in Carroll County and Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County. Commissioners approved moving forward to the next step with Leesville, which is to accept bids. They also voted to delay a decision on more fracking under Salt Fork State Park. Read More “Ohio Delays Decision on More Fracking Under Salt Fork State Park”
Last December, Murrysville (PA) Council members voted to lease land for shale drilling under two town parks—Duff Park and Murrysville Community Park (see Murrysville, PA to Vote in Dec. on Plan to Drill Under Two Parks). Murrysville is located in Westmoreland County, in the southwestern part of the state. Olympus Energy pitched proposals to lease under both parks, using their adjacent leased acreage (on private land) to set up rigs to drill under the parks, which the council approved. The council also approved a lease last year with Apex Energy to drill and frack under Kovalczik Park. Last week, so-called environmental group Protect PT presented a petition to the council asking them to rescind the leases for drilling under the three parks. Read More “Murrysville Rejects Antis’ Petition to Cancel Leases Under Parks”
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) asked a panel of lawmakers called the Ohio Controlling Board to waive the need for competitive bidding for $11.2 million in contracts to plug orphaned oil and gas wells around the state. Yesterday, the Controlling Board approved the request. The contracts were awarded to two companies: Next LVL Energy (owned by Diversified Energy) will receive $7 million, and CSR Services will receive $4.2 million. Read More “OH Lawmakers Asked to Waive Competitive Bids to Plug Orphaned Wells”
Last Friday, RBN Energy published a blog post declaring that the Shell ethane cracker in Monaca (Beaver County), PA, is now “firing on all cylinders.” The post retrospectively covers the project’s history, from construction through recent problems as the plant was commissioned to the present day. We learned something interesting: Shell, a petrochemical giant and owner of other cracker plants producing various products, had exited the plastic pellets business years ago. The Monaca cracker is Shell reentering that market. Read More “Shell Pa. Cracker Ready for Prime Time, but Has an Achilles’ Heel”
What is happening in American politics is shocking. Unfortunately, we are so shocked almost daily that we’re (as a society) becoming numb to it. Never in the history of our country have the members of one political party sought to jail their political opponents. It’s happening now, and the party/movement in question comes from the left. Democrat elected officials in New York City and progressive advocacy groups are pushing New York City’s prosecutors to charge fossil fuel companies AND their executives with crimes for “reckless endangerment” for their supposed role in causing “climate change.” Never mind that the left can’t prove mankind is catastrophically causing global warming (which is what they mean by climate change). They seek to jail people who disagree with them. It’s astonishing. Read More “NYC Dem Politicians, Radical Groups Seek to Jail Big Oil Execs”
Under the Clean Air Act, legal challenges to “nationally applicable” EPA rules must be tried in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit). Unfortunately, that court is loaded with Constitution-ignoring liberals. The U.S. Supreme Court has just agreed to hear arguments in a set of cases that seek to move legal battles over certain EPA rules that aren’t “nationally applicable” from the D.C. Circuit to other appeals courts around the country. Is this the beginning of real justice, at least for some issues related to the out-of-control EPA? Read More “U.S. Supremes to Consider Moving EPA Cases Away from D.C. Circuit”
It seems the left’s proclamations that it had “won” the so-called “war on coal” were premature. So says none other than the lefties at Bloomberg. You may remember that Michael Bloomberg, the owner of the Bloomberg News Service, had donated over $1 billion to the odious (anti-American) Sierra Club in a bid to shut down every last coal-fired power plant in the United States. We’re far along the curve to completing that dubious goal. Except now, new coal-fired plants are popping up in other countries, and coal use is EXPANDING, not contracting. So, the only country truly harmed by Bloomberg’s mission is the United States. Bloomberg’s own news service is now admitting the truth—that coal is sticking around because without it, the lights would go out. Read More “The So-Called Transition to All-Electric is Powered by…Coal?”