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EQT’s Game Plan Changed – Keep MVP & Expand Extra 0.5 Bcf/d
Yesterday, EQT Corporation, the country’s largest natural gas producer, issued its second quarter 2024 update. We’re dedicating another post to chronicling other news coming from the update. This post is dedicated to the most significant news from the update: EQT has decided to keep the newly christened 2.0 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) instead of selling it. Not only that, but EQT wants to expand the pipeline’s capacity from 2.0 to 2.5 Bcf/d as soon as possible.
Read More “EQT’s Game Plan Changed – Keep MVP & Expand Extra 0.5 Bcf/d”
MDN’s lead story today is that EQT Corporation has decided to retain majority ownership in Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and expand the pipe’s capacity with compressors asap (see EQT’s Game Plan Changed – Keep MVP & Expand Extra 0.5 Bcf/d). This post deals with the other (big) news coming from yesterday’s second quarter 2024 update. Namely, EQT is looking to sell the rest of its non-operated assets in the northeastern Pennsylvania Marcellus. In addition, we learned that EQT is still curtailing (limiting) production through the second half of 2024.
Yeah, we kind of felt like it was too good to be true. Tuesday, we told you that an LNG carrier had left Freeport LNG’s port last weekend fully loaded, and a couple of carriers were queued up, waiting to dock and load (see 
According to the left-leaning Spotlight PA, “A flurry of recent bipartisan agreements by state lawmakers on energy projects and policies is sending a clear message: Pennsylvania is slowly moving toward clean energy but fossil fuels aren’t going anywhere.” Joe Biden is sending big money to Pennsylvania to fund all sorts of ludicrous “renewable” energy initiatives (i.e., bribes). However, sources talking to Spotlight PA confirm that fossil fuels — the Marcellus industry — remain strong and are not going anywhere.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility in the country. In 2021, MDN told you that TVA is spending over $1 billion to replace six coal-fired plants with natgas-fired turbines (see 
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), injections into natural gas storage so far this injection season (April 1–October 31) is 15% (166 Bcf) *less* than the previous five-year average (2019–23) for the same period. Injections into storage are also 15% (172 Bcf) less than this same time last year. Yet working natural gas inventories in the Lower 48 states are 17% *higher* than the five-year average and 8% higher than this time last year. How can that be?
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the ranking Republican member of that committee, released the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Pa. Democrat leaders talk up Shapiro as VP pick; Steel Nation names business development manager; Companies chip in to help Encino raise $100K for charities; The Green New Deal may decide the election; NATIONAL: Conservatives praise ‘brilliant’ swing state GOP ad attacking Harris; Harris campaign working overtime to hide her far-left record; The SEC’s climate disclosure rule is a dark cloud over energy abundance; INTERNATIONAL: Vancouver reverses ban on the use of natural gas in new homes; Co-founder of anti groups sentenced to 5 years in UK prison.
In April, MDN brought you the news that EQT Corporation, the largest natural gas producer in the country (totally focused on the Marcellus/Utica) had signed two agreements with Glenfarne Energy’s Texas LNG Brownsville export facility to liquefy 2.0 million tons per annum (MTPA) of EQT-extracted shale gas (see 
Yesterday, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) opened up the shuttered Austin Master Services (AMS) radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, to begin cleanup work at the facility. One contractor began working at the site, while a bunch of others did a “pre-bid walkthrough” to look at what is there to make bids for cleaning it. AMS is permitted by the ODNR to temporarily store up to 600 tons of fracking waste, like drill cuttings and wastewater. ODNR estimates there are some 10,000 tons of fracking waste at the site. AMS ran out of money, and vendors quit accepting the waste. After failing to meet a court-ordered July 22 deadline, ODNR stepped in to handle the cleanup.
As we have been reporting, Austin Master Services, a radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, that handles fracking waste (trucks it for disposal), ran into trouble when it ran out of money. The facility where waste is temporarily stored went from a permitted maximum of 600 tons of stored waste to over 10,000 tons, in violation of its permit. The Ohio Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit against the company to force compliance. As is always the case, there are two sides to every story. The side of AMS and its owner, Brad Domitrovitsch, is not getting much media coverage. We have an update on Brad’s side of the story…
The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission operates the largest sewage treatment plant in the state of New Jersey — in Newark. When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, the sewer plant lost power and dumped BILLIONS of gallons of raw sewage into the Passaic River. The Commission has a plan to prevent that from happening again: Build a tiny natural gas peaker plant to generate electricity. It would only be used to prevent such environmental damage again (i.e., rarely used, only for emergencies). We told you last week that the ultra-liberal Phil Murphy administration approved the project (see 
In June, three new commissioners joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see 
The Bidenistas (or maybe we should now call them the Cackleistas) can’t help themselves. They want to end the use of natural gas. Democrat mayors and governors are trying it in various “blue” states, although the courts are beginning to overturn such lunacy (see 
Here is an incontrovertible fact: In a CNN town hall debate during the 2019 presidential primary, Kamala Harris said, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” She hasn’t changed her position in the last five years. And that’s a problem for Harris in “swing” states like Pennsylvania. She said she would ban it from “day one” on federal lands and then work her way around to private lands later. The left always uses incrementalism. There is no question that Harris is left of Joe Biden if such a thing is possible. We think it’s quite possible Harris will try to recruit PA’s dud, do-nothing Governor, Josh Shapiro, to run with her as her VP candidate to try and persuade PA voters that her radical position supporting a fracking ban shouldn’t prevent them from voting for her. Harris figures that if Shapiro is on the ticket, it will assuage voters’ concerns. Don’t fall for it. If Harris loses PA, she loses the election.