OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Vermont passes bill to charge fossil fuel companies for climate change; NATIONAL: GOP bill to keep Biden’s ‘hands off’ home appliances passes House; Exposing the lie that humans control the climate; INTERNATIONAL: Why Germany is choosing natural gas over nuclear power.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, May 9, 2024”
Pipeline giant Williams, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica and the owner of the mighty Transco pipeline that flows huge quantities of M-U gas south and southwest, issued its first quarter 2024 update yesterday. CEO Alan Armstrong said in prepared remarks that the company, which operates in just about every region of the country, has “20 high-return projects in execution across our business.” That’s 20 pipeline or storage projects of various kinds, many of them in the M-U region. The projects include “approximately 3.1 Bcf per day of expansion on Transco, which equates to a 15% increase in fully contracted long-term capacity that will be coming online over the next few years.” Transco current flows a maximum of 18.6 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day). It’s going to expand by another 3.1 Bcf/d!
Read More “Williams 1Q Revenue Up 8%, Replacing 112 Compressor Units”
Yes! It’s about time!! Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw (Republican from Lycoming County) is about to introduce a new bill that will cut off millions of dollars in tax revenues that flow from shale drilling to any municipality (county, town, village, city) that launches a lawsuit against “Big Oil,” as recently happened with Bucks County, a Philadelphia suburb (see Bucks County, PA, Sues Big Oil for Causing “Climate Change”). The Democrat machine that controls Pittsburgh (i.e., Allegheny County) with an iron fist is also seriously considering a lawsuit against “Big Oil” (see CCI Tries to Tempt Allegheny County into Suing Oil & Gas Cos.). Enough! Yaw’s bill will cut off such municipalities from the revenue — millions of dollars — that they currently enjoy from the industry they are suing.
Read More “PA Bill Cuts Off Impact Tax Revenue to Municipalities that Sue O&G”
Hope Gas, a large local utility company, provides gas service to more than 131,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-seven West Virginia counties. The company monitors and maintains over 7,000 miles of pipelines that safely deliver West Virginia natural gas to many homes and commercial and industrial sites. Hope employs over 450 employees, all working in WV. The company has been expanding like crazy, purchasing and integrating five companies over the past year. Yesterday, Hope announced a deal to buy a sixth company — Consumers Gas Utility Company — which will add another 8,500 customers to Hope’s growing natural gas customer base.
Read More “WV’s Hope Gas Growing Again – Deal to Buy Consumers Gas Utility Co.”
One year ago, MDN told you about Zefiro Methane Corp., a private “methane offsets originator” headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, acquiring a majority ownership stake in Plants & Goodwin (P&G), an OFS and oil well-plugging company located in Bradford (McKean County), Pennsylvania, for an undisclosed sum (see Canadian Methane Offsets Co. Buys Northwest Pa. Well Plugging Co.). Zefiro and its P&G subsidiary announced yesterday they are establishing a second P&G facility in the Marcellus/Utica, this one in Buckhannon (Upshur County), West Virginia. Why? To chase $29 million of federal money now flowing to WV to plug orphan wells. Follow the money…
Read More “Zefiro Chases Fed $$ to WV to Plug Orphan Wells, Issue Offsets”
Once a month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. We sometimes poke good-natured fun at the EIA because their predictions go up in one month, and in the next month, they go down, etc. What about the latest STEO dart board, published yesterday? EIA predicts the average spot price for natural gas will be $2.20/MMBtu in 2024, the same prediction as last month (see April STEO – U.S. Electric Use to Hit New Record High in 2024/25). However, the agency raised the average spot price prediction for gas in 2025. Last month, it was $2.90; this month, it’s $3.10. Hey, it’s moving in the right direction!
Read More “May STEO Predicts NatGas Production to Fall Slightly in 2Q”
In 2015, greedy lawyers, using a group of 21 Oregonian children, filed a lawsuit against the United States (President Obama at the time) for not doing enough about mythical man-made global warming. They were hoping for a quick “sue-and-settle” payday. Didn’t happen. The lawsuit eventually made its way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2019 (see Global Warming Lawsuit by Brainwashed Kids Begins at 9th Circus). After a number of twists and turns, including a refusal by the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, the judges of the Ninth Circuit tossed the bogus lawsuit in 2020 (see 9th Circuit Throws Out Fossil Fuel Lawsuit by Brainwashed Kids). At least, that’s what everyone thought. Like some bad “B” zombie movie, the lawsuit was still percolating in the background, not dead yet, as we outlined earlier this year (see Zombies: Fossil Fuel Lawsuit by Oregon Kids Still Alive). Last week, the 9th Circuit killed it yet again.
Read More “9th Circuit Dismisses Fossil Fuel Lawsuit by Oregon Kids, Again”
The very short answer to the question posed in the title is, Very good things! Current polls have Trump winning over Biden. But it’s still way too early to believe the polls. Still, it gets one wondering what will happen in the energy sector if DJT wins reelection in November. The staff of Rigzone posed that question to the top brass at the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute (two reliable, rational organizations) to get their take on the situation and the potential effects on the industry.
Read More “What Happens to Energy Sector if Donald Trump Wins in November?”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Fetterman: ‘Of course, fracking is important’; NATIONAL: Kimmeridge plans to invest more in US LNG despite Biden; Maintenance disrupts U.S. LNG; Biden administration ever more delusional on energy; How will AI be applied to oil and gas?; Nearly 75 Democratic lawmakers support Biden’s LNG pause; INTERNATIONAL: Self-drilling oil wells to beat self-driving cars to market, SLB says; Lower oil volumes dent Aramco earnings.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, May 8, 2024”
Last year in March and then again in May, New Fortress Energy (NFE) confirmed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it plans to apply for updated permits to build an LNG export plant in landlocked northeastern Pennsylvania (see New Fortress Confirms Intent to Build Wyalusing LNG Export Plant). In June of last year was the last time we wrote about the Wyalusing (Bradford County), PA, project. We have GREAT news. In a pair of filings last week with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), NFE and its subsidiaries confirmed it still plans to build both the Wyalusing LNG export plant AND the docking facility in New Jersey along the Delaware River to load ships with the PA-produced LNG. NFE plans to truck the LNG from Wyalusing, PA, to Gibbstown, NJ. And that has antis up in arms.
Read More “Northeast PA LNG Plant Lives! NFE Tells FERC Still Wants to Build”
EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with international operations in Trinidad and China), owns a huge 430,000+ acres of leases in the Ohio Utica. EOG calls its position the “Ohio Utica combo play” and now considers it one of the company’s “premium plays.” EOG concentrates on oil drilling in the Utica. As part of the company’s first quarter 2024 update, Keith Trasko, Senior VP for Exploration and Production at EOG, said Utica wells “compete with the best plays in America, very comparable to the Permian on a production per foot basis.” Wow! High praise indeed. The Utica is the new Permian…we like the sound of that!
Read More “EOG Says Utica Oil Can ‘Compete with the Best Plays in America’”
Southwestern Energy, with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica and Louisiana Haynesville, issued its first quarter update last week. You may recall that Southwestern agreed earlier this year to a deal to be acquired by and merged into Chesapeake Energy (see Deal is Done! Chesapeake & Southwestern Announce $7.4B Merger). Because of the impending merger, Southwestern did not hold a quarterly conference call with analysts for the second quarter in a row, so we have to go on the officially filed documents detailing the company’s recent performance. For 1Q24, Southwestern recorded a net loss of $1.5 billion (after making a profit of $1.9 billion in 1Q23). Although adjusting for impairment and other “one-time” charges, the company made $131 million in adjusted net income.
Read More “Southwestern Spent $538M in 1Q to Drill 29 Wells, Incl. 15 in M-U”
Two more tracts of Ohio public lands designated as “wildlife areas” have been nominated by shale companies to be drilled and fracked under (not on), which has the anti-fossil fuel group Save Ohio Parks up in arms. The tagline for Save Ohio Parks is “No fracking on public lands.” The thing is, there isn’t any fracking on public lands in Ohio. It’s UNDER, not ON. Well pads and equipment would be erected on PRIVATE land adjacent to the public land. There is no disturbance of any kind on top of Ohio’s public lands. The new parcels nominated include 84 acres in the Keen Wildlife Area in Washington Township (Harrison County). A second parcel of 30 acres has also been nominated for the Egypt Valley Wildlife Area in Flushing Township (Belmont County).
Read More “Drillers Nominate 2 More OH Wildlife Areas to Frack Under, Not On”
According to a new article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, abandoned oil and gas wells can be found “everywhere” in Pennsylvania. An influx of new federal funding gives the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) new urgency in finding and plugging them. However, it is the thorny issue of who pays or should pay when the owner is known that caught our attention. In some cases, producers (and speculators) buy leases and land, knowing that new drilling (in particular shale drilling) may one day happen on the property, but the new owners didn’t sign up for the financial responsibility to plug old/existing wells on the property. Should they (instead of taxpayers) be on the hook to pay?
Read More “The Thorny Issue of PA’s Old Conv. Wells & Who Pays to Plug Them”
Have you noticed? The NYMEX price of natural gas has been on an upward trend over the past week or so. We’ve actually broken the $2 barrier, and it continues to climb. Which begs the question, why? There are typically a number of factors combined to drive the price. This time around, we think we can boil it down to a classic economics principle — there’s more demand and less supply. The demand is coming from the problem-plagued Freeport LNG facility, which is rockin’ and rollin’ once again. Lower supply is coming from fewer natgas drilling rigs in operation.
Read More “Henry Hub Rises Thanks in Part to Gas Flowing to Freeport LNG”
We’ve always liked Ernest “Hair” Moniz, the Secretary of Energy under Lord Obama. He was the one bright spot in an otherwise dismal administration. What’s that? Why do we call him Hair Moniz. Look at his picture! At any rate, we’ve written a lot about Moniz over the years. He was/is one of the smartest people to occupy the office of Energy Secretary. He’s Albert Einstein smart (Moniz is a physicist). While he’s a Democrat, he’s one of the few who doesn’t let politics get in the way of solid/actual/real science. Last week Hair released a new report that is causing fits on the wackadoodle left. The report, titled “The Future of Natural Gas in a Low-Carbon World” (full copy below), touts LNG and natural gas as good for the environment.
Read More “Former Obama Energy Sec. Issues Report Favorable to LNG & NatGas”