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UGI Concludes Review, Decides to Keep AmeriGas Propane Subsidiary
UGI, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations in the Marcellus and one of PA’s largest utility companies, hinted last summer that it was looking to sell or spin off its propane subsidiary into a new company (see UGI Signals Looking to Sell or Spin-Off AmeriGas Propane Subsidiary). UGI’s propane subsidiary is AmeriGas, the nation’s largest retail propane marketer, serving nearly 1.3 million customers in all 50 states from approximately 1,400 locations. In UGI’s first quarter update issued yesterday, the company said after an extensive review, it has decided to keep AmeriGas.
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MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Washington County Chamber relocates to The HQ at CNX; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian sends production workers home amid sale talks; NATIONAL: US LNG exports fall in April for fourth straight month; How climate change activists undermine the energy transition; U.S. announces $392M grants to modernize aging natgas pipes; INTERNATIONAL: WoodMac descends into global warming hysteria; A shockingly inept report from the IEA on battery storage.
Equitrans Midstream, builder of the mighty Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), issued its first quarter 2024 update yesterday. The update came without the typical conference call for analysts, given the impending merger with (takeover by) EQT Corporation. Picking through the prepared updates and filings with the SEC, we discovered some useful bits of news. First and foremost, Equitrans expects to begin operations on MVP on May 31st, provided all necessary directives are issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). MVP’s cost went up yet again, from $7.6 billion, estimated earlier this year, to now approximately $7.85 billion. However, MVP wasn’t the only big news coming from the update.
In late 2015, MPLX (i.e., Marathon Petroleum) bought out and merged in the Utica Shale’s premier midstream company, MarkWest Energy, for $15 billion (see 
Private companies create jobs and economic stimulus, not “the government,” as the left convinces you. Companies, especially manufacturing companies, locate where there is cheap energy. In Pennsylvania, there is abundant cheap (and CLEAN) energy from Marcellus gas in the northeastern part of the state. And indeed, that is exactly what is happening. Businesses are locating in what locals call the “Inland Triangle” of PA — seven counties with numerous major interstate highways running through them in the heart of the Marcellus.
When the Bidenistas announced a $750 million “investment” of taxpayer money would flow to the Philadelphia region (actually Delaware and New Jersey, and a little bit of Philly) for a “green” hydrogen hub, wackadoodle antis pitched a fit (see 
Greg Wrightstone, a Pennsylvania native, is a geologist, the executive director of the CO2 Coalition, and an author. Wrightstone recently published an article detailing how Pennsylvania’s environment is not in the state of crisis that alarmists say it is. He implores Gov. Josh Shapiro to get his head out of his…mental morass…and stop worrying about mythical catastrophic global warming. Overall, the weather has been getting better and agricultural production is up in Pennsylvania. Shapiro needs to drop the doom and gloom routine.
First, the radicals of the Biden administration came for your natural gas stoves (see 
A week (nay, a day!) doesn’t go by that the Biden administration and one of the many executive agencies it oversees (EPA, DOE, PHMSA, DOT, FERC, etc.) issues a new “environmental” regulation. As we write about in a companion story today, just yesterday, the Bidenistas of the Dept. of Energy released a new final regulation yesterday controlling your what type of water heater you can buy, hoping to force you to buy a heat pump water heater (see Bidenistas Regulate Gas Stoves Furnaces, and Now, Water Heaters). Why the sudden flurry of new regulations coming from the alphabet soup of federal agencies? Because, says a card-carrying leftist, to “safeguard” environmental policies against an eventual Trump takeover next year.
Permitting in Pennsylvania, especially permits overseen by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), has been a hot mess for years. A Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation permit sometimes takes two, three, or even six to eight months for approval — instead of the law-mandated 14 days. It got so bad that in the fall of 2019, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw introduced a bill to allow third-party reviews of these permits in an attempt to speed it up (see 
As we told you earlier this month, the radicals who run the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) are gearing up to block the Iroquois Gas Transmission system from completing its Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project (see 
Encino Energy published its annual Community Progress Report for 2023 yesterday. The report provides insight into the company’s achievements through its Community Partnership Program and highlights its investments in the communities in which it operates. In five years of active operations in Ohio, Encino has donated more than $2 million to 145 community groups and organizations in the state. In addition, Encino employees have donated more than 2,000 hours of time to volunteer. Recipients include first responders at fire and police departments, seniors groups, 4H, hospitals, and many more.
When drilling for oil (or for natural gas), quite often, the hydrocarbon you’re not drilling for comes out of the ground along with the hydrocarbon you are drilling for. Natural gas coming out of the ground along with oil (in an oil play) is called “associated gas.” And in the Marcellus/Utica, other hydrocarbons (aside from methane) come out too, including ethane, propane, butane, and isobutane — called natural gas liquids (NGLs). Production of oil and NGLs are measured in barrels (Bbl), while methane is measured in thousand cubic feet (Mcf) or million Btus (MMBtu). Years ago, the oil and gas industry created a way to evaluate the total output for a given well or wells by converting all of the hydrocarbons into one unit, called barrels of oil equivalent (Boe). Not long after that came a comparison of how much each commodity sells for on an equivalent basis.