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Who’s to Blame for Dirty NatGas that Ruined WV University Boilers?
This is a case of everybody pointing at somebody else. Natural gas with contaminants (dirty gas) flowed through pipelines to Fairmont State University (in Marion County, WV), which “significantly damaged boilers, gas lines, valved and regulators and other structures and equipment on the college campus” in September 2021. The university sued the local utility company providing the gas, Hope Gas. In return, Hope said that *if* the gas was not clean, it was not their fault. They got the gas from Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage (EGTS), formerly owned by Dominion Energy but now owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
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You really can’t make this stuff up. A big picture is splashed across the pages of the Baltimore Sun website showing anti-fossil fuel nutters protesting “burning oil and gas indoors” (i.e., protesting the continued use of fossil fuels in stoves and furnaces). They were there to lobby the state Public Service Commission to disallow spending on new natural gas pipelines of any kind (local delivery, statewide transportation, etc.). Two of the protesters were dressed up as characters from The Flintstones. Both costumes were made from plastics — from oil and gas. That is, they were there protesting fossil fuels and WERE TOO STUPID to know they were wearing fossil fuels! Hilarious!!
Oglethorpe Power is investing more than $2.3 billion in two new natural gas-fired power plants to supply its 38 member cooperatives with an additional 1,400 megawatts of electricity to meet escalating demand across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. We think some, perhaps most of the gas that will feed these two new plants will come from the Marcellus/Utica.
In September 2019, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave its blessing to Eagle LNG to build a small LNG export facility project at a site on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida (see 
Lansing (Michigan) Board of Water and Light (BWL) is committed to the false premise that humans are catastrophically warming the planet. BWL has a clean energy plan that includes building solar, wind, and battery storage. However, solar and wind — even with battery storage — are intermittent and unreliable. That’s just a fact. In order to use MORE solar and wind, BWL needs to install a small (very small) natural gas-fired peaker plant that will turn on during periods of high demand, periods when solar and wind and battery backup can’t meet the demand. In other words, natgas will make using more renewable power possible. And still, antis who irrationally hate fossil fuels are protesting the peaker.
As you may have noticed, a number of our posts today are stories about gas-fired power plants, which are vitally important (very big) customers for shale gas. According to an analysis by Reuters, natural gas use by power generators has expanded by around 3.5% a year over the past three years and is by far the largest single source of gas used in the U.S. However, natural gas consumption by the other major sectors, including industry, households, and commercial, is falling each year. The fall in usage by industry, etc., is more than the growth in powergen.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Governor Josh Shapiro “ain’t got sh*t done”; PA Utility regulators file complaint against natgas utility in fatal 2021 blast; NATIONAL: Natural gas continues to look at $2; Oil falls to 7-week low in on demand fears; Legal challenges to the SEC’s climate-related disclosures rule; Senate’s energy permitting reform gains broad industry support.
Last week, CNX Resources issued its second quarter 2024 update. The company lost $18.3 million in 2Q24, compared with making a profit of $475 million in 2Q23. This is quite a whack due to the low price of natural gas. Production was 134.0 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent) in 2Q24 — which works out to 1.47 Bcfe/d — down from 134.2 Bcfe last year (statistically the same). On the bright side, management was excited about the early results of two deep Utica gas wells that were brought online last quarter.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) slapped the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project (which is now online) with a fine of $30,500 for violations of erosion and sediment control rules that happened during the second quarter. It is the fourth consecutive quarter in which MVP was fined by the DEQ for violations. In total, MVP has been fined nearly $100,000 by the DEQ over the past one year. Which is pretty much a nothingburger.
The Algonquin Gas Transmission pipeline (owned by Enbridge) transports up to 3.09 Bcf/d 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. Much of the gas flowing through it comes from the Marcellus/Utica. Algonquin needs to install a backup “meter and regulator” station in Lincoln, Mass., to keep the gas flowing in the region. The city of Cambridge owns a piece of land that it uses as a “buffer” for the city-owned reservoir in the area. Algonquin needs to cut some of the trees on that land in order to get its equipment through for the meter and regulator station, which will be constructed on land owned by Algonquin. Enter several nutjobs who are trying to block work at the site.
Hope Gas, West Virginia’s largest natural gas utility company, and Quantum Pleasants, which is working on a plan in Pleasants County, WV, to use natural gas to produce hydrogen for electricity generation at what is currently a coal-burning plant, are squabbling before the state Public Service Commission (PSC) over whether or not Quantum Pleasants has the right to buy its natural gas from a different vendor (with a different pipeline).
We need a scorecard to keep track of all the ups and downs at the problem-plagued Freeport LNG export facility. We don’t think it’s a stretch to say the plant, which is the second largest LNG export plant in the U.S., has been down as much as it has been up over the past two years of its short existence. Just last Thursday, Reuters reported full operations at the plant (all three “trains”) would not be fully online again until “early August” following Hurricane Beryl visiting the area (see 
The U.S. national oil and gas rig regained more of its lost ground last week by adding three more rigs back to active status. The national combined Baker Hughes oil and gas rig count now stands at 589 rigs. The Marcellus/Utica remained even last week. Pennsylvania continued to operate 21 rigs. Ohio operated 11 active rigs (after adding a rig two weeks ago). West Virginia remained the same with five active rigs. The M-U’s primary competitor, the Haynesville, remained static with 36 active rigs — one less than the M-U’s 37 rigs.