MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of WV registers as independent; NATIONAL: Exxon beats the ESG activists; The verdict: separating the wheat from the chaff; FERC at odds with incoming Trump presidency; U.S. Shanghaied by China; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC+ working on complex production cut deal for 2024-2025; Tokyo Gas seeks more US natural gas assets.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Jun 3, 2024”
Coterra Energy announced a large layoff of employees at its GDS (GasSearch Drilling Services) Marcellus operation yesterday. GDS was founded in 2006 as a subsidiary of Cabot Oil & Gas (now Coterra Energy). GDS is based in South Montrose, PA, and provides services including pad site development, impoundment construction, water hauling, trucking, light equipment rental, and roustabout services supporting Coterra’s natural gas drilling. GDS employs approximately 170 people in Susquehanna County at various locations. Yesterday, 55 GDS employees got a pink slip.
Read More “Coterra’s GDS Subsidiary Lays Off One-Third of Pa. Workforce”
Two weeks ago, 16 new permits were issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica region. Last week, May 20-26, the number increased by two to 18. Two drillers tied for the top prize for most new permits. Chesapeake Energy received five new permits, all of them for drilling in Sullivan County, PA. Ascent Resources also received five new permits, with four of them to drill in Jefferson County, OH, and one in Guernsey County, OH. Antero received three permits for drilling in Wetzel County, WV. EQT Corporation got two permits to drill in Washington County, PA. Range Resources, Olympus Energy, and INR each got a single new permit (see below for where).
Read More “18 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV May 20 – 26”
Anti-fossil fuelers and some residents with portions of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) traversing their land are flooding the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) with comments asking the agency to delay permission for MVP to be placed into service. The latest in-service date MVP outlined to FERC in a recent request for startup permission is “early June” (see MVP Delays Startup from June 1 to “Early June” – Testing 99% Done). However, even as MVP works to finish, it is still making requests to FERC, indicating “the project is still a work in progress with an expanding scope.” That is, perhaps MVP is not ready to start up just yet.
Read More “MVP Asks FERC for More Space at Several Locations as Work Continues”
On Monday, the socialists of the European Union (EU) adopted into law a new regulation aimed at tracking and reducing methane emissions within the energy sector. The onerous new reg introduces new requirements for measuring, reporting, and verifying methane emissions. The reg mandates operators to measure emissions at the source and submit monitoring reports verified by independent bodies. What does this have to do with the Marcellus/Utica? If drillers want to export LNG to any country that’s part of the EU (many M-U drillers do export LNG to Europe), they will have to comply with these new regs. According to MiQ, an independent methane emissions measurement and certification authority, its certification is the only one that satisfies the EU’s new regulation.
Read More “MiQ Claims Its Cert the Only One to Meet New EU Methane Regs”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts that the natural gas consumed for electricity generation this summer in the United States will reach near (or match) the record high set last year. In the agency’s May 2024 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA forecasts natural gas consumed to generate electricity will average 44.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in the U.S. during the peak summer months of June through August, matching the record high set in the summer of 2023. Over the past few years, the balance of sources of electricity generation in the United States — especially in the summer — has shifted to more renewables and natural gas and less coal.
Read More “EIA Predicts Summer NatGas Use for Electric to Match Record High”
According to Bloomberg News, commodities traders are “bracing for a record-smashing summer that will shake up commodities.” Bloomberg falsely states that people around the world “are already living through the havoc brought on by global temperatures that are breaking records.” Bloomberg ominously warns, “It’s about to get a lot worse.” Nothing sells like bad news, even if the bad news is blatantly false. In a hilarious statement in the same article, Bloomberg attributes high inflation under Joementia to global warming. Talk about sleazy and sick. Based on assumptions that Mom Earth will toast this summer, Bloomberg predicts natgas prices will jump by 50% this summer, to $4/MMBtu, because of all the extra electricity required for air conditioning.
Read More “Bloomberg Predicts Henry Hub Price May Spike to $4 with Summer Heat”
In a companion post today, we brought you Bloomberg’s prediction of $4 natgas this summer based on the false premise of wild, scorching heat from man-made global warming. Whatever. This post contains predictions by analysts with J.P. Morgan for the price of natural gas for the rest of this year and into 2025. J.P. Morgan’s predictions are grounded in reality, not wild speculation like Bloomberg’s. J.P. Morgan predicts the Henry Hub price to average $2.88 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2024 and $4.75 per MMBtu in 2025. They break it down quarter by quarter…
Read More “JP Morgan Predicts Henry Hub Avg Price $2.88 in 2024, $4.75 in 2025”
NATIONAL: Sherwin-Williams launches erosion-resistant coating system for O&G; The EPA’s emissions rule will strangle AI in the crib; Should energy deniers be engaged or ignored?; INTERNATIONAL: Oil falls despite biggest us stockpile drop in five weeks; COP29 host set to propose levy on fossil fuels to fund climate action.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, May 31, 2024”
Yet another out-of-state protester temporarily blocked workers’ access to one of the few Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) construction sites remaining in Montgomery County, VA, yesterday morning. She was swiftly removed and arrested. According to Virginia State Police, 25-year-old Elsa Schlensker of Cleveland, Ohio, was taken into custody “without incident” and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where she was charged with obstructing the free passage of another.
Read More “Ohio Protester Arrested for Blocking Access to MVP Site in Va.”
Here’s a sad story that, as far as we can tell, is not directly connected to the Marcellus/Utica. However, it’s a cautionary tale related to the oil and gas industry in Appalachia. Mark Edward Holbrook and his son Marshall Holbrook, both from Kentucky, worked in a family-owned company called Puissant Industries. The company sources natural gas by “drilling wells” and “acquiring gas rights.” We assume, given the small nature of the company, that these are conventional (vertical-only) wells and rights. When the price of gas dropped in 2015/2016, the company and the Holbrooks hit hard times. So, the two compensated by manipulating meters on the gathering pipelines that flowed their gas, making it look as though they were selling more gas than they did. In a word, it was theft — getting paid for something they didn’t provide.
Read More “Kentucky Father & Son Going to Jail for Inflating Gas Sales”
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has extended three temporary air permits for the Shell ethane cracker plant in Monaca, PA, which would have expired at the end of April. The extended permits will suffice until Shell files for and receives what is called a federal Title V Operating Permit for air emissions from the cracker plant. In March, we told you that the DEP had told Shell to file for a Title V permit no later than June 21 of this year or risk being shut down (see Shell PA Cracker Must File for Full Title V Air Permit, or Else). Shell has indicated it will have its Title V application filed on time.
Read More “Shell Cracker Air Quality Permits from PA DEP Temporarily Extended”
Earlier this month, MDN brought you the great news that New Fortress Energy’s (NFE) proposed Wyalusing LNG export plant (in Bradford County, PA) and a docking facility in Gibbstown (in New Jersey, along the Delaware River) to load ships with PA-produced LNG, are not dead yet (see Northeast PA LNG Plant Lives! NFE Tells FERC Still Wants to Build). So if they aren’t dead, if NFE is still interested in building and has already spent $150 million on site preparation, what’s keeping the project stalled? We’ve just come across an article that does an excellent job of crystalizing where we are and why the project has not yet moved forward — and perhaps why it will not get built.
Read More “The Key Issue that May Decide Whether Wyalusing LNG Gets Built”
For more than a decade, MDN has brought you stories about shale development on and under land controlled by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD), an agency formed in 1933 to help control flooding and promote water conservation in the Muskingum River watershed area of Ohio, an area that covers 8,000 square miles (see our Muskingum Watershed stories here). Over the years, MWCD has leased tens of thousands of acres for Utica Shale drilling and cut deals to sell water to drillers for fracking. It has been one of the biggest success stories in the Buckeye State in the last decade, generating more than $1 billion in economic stimulus (see Muskingum Watershed Generated $1B in Econ Impact from Utica Drilling). Yet anti-fossil fuelers are *still* trying to shut down this success story!
Read More “Anti-Shale Group to Hold Presser Outside Muskingum Watershed Mtg”
Last December, WATT Fuel Cell Corp. signed a seven-year extension of its lease to keep its headquarters in Westmoreland County, PA (see NatGas-Powered WATT Fuel Cells HQ Staying in Westmoreland County). WATT Fuel Cell manufactures Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (“SOFC”) stacks and systems that operate on common, readily available fuels such as natural gas and propane. Instead of burning and combusting natural gas (or propane), those fuel sources are subjected to an electrochemical process that produces electricity (see this MDN post for a description of the process: SWPA NatGas Fuel Cell Backed by EQT Wins Product Certification). WATT is expanding, adding another 20,000 square feet to its manufacturing and office space at the Westmoreland facility.
Read More “NatGas-Powered WATT Fuel Cells Expands in Westmoreland County”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Casey pushes for changes to proposed hydrogen production tax credit; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: US regulator seeks new emissions data from Venture Global LNG; NATIONAL: Hess wins shareholder vote for merger with Chevron; Securing our nation means securing our LNG future; INTERNATIONAL: Dryad says attacks on commercial vessels in Red Sea drop.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, May 30, 2024”