Antis Ask DC Circuit to Cancel FERC Time Extension for MVP Southgate
In 2018, Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), proposed to extend MVP (when it’s done) by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The 75-mile extension is called MVP Southgate. Last year, Equitrans asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend Southgate’s project timeline an extra three years. FERC agreed in December (see FERC Approves MVP Southgate Request for 3-Yr Extension to Build). A group of extreme left anti-fossil fuel organizations are now challenging that time extension in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC Circuit).
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Yesterday, we brought you the great news that Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the 303-mile, 2.0 Bcf/d pipeline from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA, is essentially done (see 
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We never thought this day would arrive! We hoped. We prayed. But finally, it’s (almost) here. The 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is almost ready to begin operation. On Monday, Equitrans Midstream filed a letter (below) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting a May 23 startup date for the pipeline. MVP (Equitrans) says the pipeline will be in the ground, buried, and ready to begin on May 22 (called “mechanically complete”). Get the champagne on ice and ready…
Evolution Well Services, headquartered in Houston with a regional office in Pittsburgh, specializes in “electric” fracking — using natural gas from the well pad (instead of diesel fuel) to power turbines to create electricity that drives fracking pumps. Evolution announced yesterday it had successfully deployed two new electric fleets in March, one in Appalachia and one in South Texas, bringing the company total to 12 fully operational crews.
PJM is the largest electric grid operator in the U.S. It serves 65 million people in 13 states plus the District of Columbia (including PA, OH, and WV). PJM recently issued a press release to tout a radical reduction in emissions of all types. From 2005 to 2023, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rates fell 43% across PJM’s footprint. Emission rates for nitrogen oxides (NOx) declined 90%, and the rates for sulfur dioxide (SO2) dropped 96%. It is, says PJM, a new all-time low for electric power emissions across the PJM region. Why the drastic drop? Because (says the Marcellus Shale Coalition), a number of coal-fired power plants have been replaced by natural gas-fired plants.
Yesterday the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a post to announce that U.S. natural gas consumption set annual and monthly records during 2023. In 2023, some 89.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas was consumed in the United States, the most on record. Since 2018, U.S. natural gas consumption has increased by an average of 4% annually. Why the significant increase in gas usage? It wasn’t due to residential, commercial, or industrial usage — all of which stayed even or decreased last year. It was (as you may have guessed) a huge increase in the use of natural gas to feed gas-fired power plants.
As we outline today in another post, the PJM electric grid, which covers 13 states including Pennsylvania, reports emissions of all the nasty things (carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide) have decreased radically thanks to the change from coal-fired power to natural gas-fired power (see Marcellus Fracked Gas Leads to Record Low Emissions in PJM Grid). We also report today that in 2023, the country as a whole increased its usage of natural gas specifically because the country (including the M-U) is adding more low-carbon gas-fired power plants (see NatGas Grew Its Share of Electric Power 7% in 2023, New Record High). So what does the “brilliant” Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, do? He signs up PA government agencies (sentences them) to use unreliable solar energy.
Here’s something we had not previously heard: Investors (at least some investors) have “mixed or negative sentiment towards EOG Resources, particularly concerning its activities in the Utica Shale.” Some investors, according to Investing.com, are unsure that EOG’s Utica operation will perform well for the company and may be a drag on the company. An analyst with KeyBanc takes the opposite view and believes EOG’s Utica program will help the company.
Encino Energy is one of the big success stories of drilling for oil in the Ohio Utica Shale. Roughly 5 ½ years ago, Encino Energy, in partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), closed on buying Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica assets for $2 billion (see 
West Virginia natural gas drillers are excited at the prospect of the soon-opening Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which will carry WV gas 303 miles from Wetzel County, WV, to Pittsylvania County, VA. During a recent meeting of the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Energy and Manufacturing, the CFO of Pillar Energy said it’s only a month or two until MVP will be online and flowing. Hallelujah! We [the O&G industry] were finally able to get this one done.
A new bill proposed by two Republican state lawmakers in Ohio would make it easier to site and build natural gas pipelines to areas of the state where pipelines currently don’t exist. If our reading of the bill language is correct, it is aimed at stimulating new jobs by running pipelines to industrial parks and businesses that currently are not serviced by natgas. The aim is to stimulate new jobs and opportunities in the Buckeye State. Smart.