Diversified Energy has Already Surpassed Its 2030 Emissions Goals
Diversified Energy (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil), with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (with assets in other regions, too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. Diversified set a goal of reducing methane emissions by 50% over levels from 2020 and to do it by 2030. At the recent Hart Energy DUG GAS+ Conference and Expo, Diversified senior VP of EHS&R, Paul Espenan, said the company is pleased to announce it has already met that goal! And the company is well on its way to zero methane emissions by 2040. How is Diversified doing it?
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting recently sat down with Charlie Burd, president of the West Virginia Gas and Oil Association (GO-WV), to ask him about the Mountain State’s role in supplying natural gas to the global market. The discussion covered a number of topics, including who are the biggest gas producers in WV, pipelines, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), and why WV still has not added any new natural gas-fired power plants to its electric generating fleet.
It must be its “predict the future price of natgas” season, along with tax season. Yesterday, we told you that BMI, a Fitch Solutions company, hauled out its crystal ball to make predictions about the “front month” contract price for NYMEX natural gas (based on the Henry Hub) for the next five years, beginning with 2024 (see 
We’ve written plenty about “responsibly sourced gas” (RSG) and the certification authorities that put their stamp of approval on natural gas drillers and pipeline companies. In 2021, we brought you a 
From time to time, so-called experts will come out of the woodwork to proclaim that burning coal is better for the environment than burning natural gas. Cornell professors Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea (Ingraffea is now retired) attempted to make that case back in 2011 (see 
The problem-plagued Freeport LNG export plant remains out of order. The plant had been mostly offline following an episode of cold temps in January (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Cheap natgas means lower electricity prices except in Texas; Illustrating the absurdity of New York’s energy transition; New BLM drilling rule could put Wyoming O&G on life support; NATIONAL: Biden admin pressured Snopes to change fact-check rating on gas stove ban; Mandating social changes to achieve net zero emissions is a fool’s game!; INTERNATIONAL: Oil shows little change awaiting Israel response; China imported record amounts of crude oil in 2023.
We now have more insight (possibly) into why radioactive frack wastewater handler and processor Austin Master Services (AMS) is in trouble with the Ohio Attorney General. Three weeks ago, Ohio AG Dave Yost took legal action seeking to force AMS to correct “egregious violations of Ohio law” regarding the storage of oil and gas waste that he says threatens the Ohio River and Martins Ferry’s drinking water supply (see 
We tried to cram the gist of the news into the headline but found we could not. This is a big story, for multiple reasons. Most news outlets are reporting (and this is not incorrect) that EQT pulled off a big deal to divest a good chunk of its nonoperated assets (acreage and functioning wells in which EQT owns a minority stake) in northeastern Pennsylvania, trading those assets for 10,000 operated acres in Lycoming County, PA (in northeastern PA), plus 26,000 operated acres in Monroe County, OH, plus receiving $500 million cash, in a deal with Norway’s Equinor (formerly Statoil). EQT divesting from its nonop assets is a big deal. However, the bigger news, in our humble opinion, is that Equinor has (with this deal) completely exited all operated assets in U.S. shale. The company wants to keep its fingers in the U.S. shale pie, but only as a nonop operator — that is, investing in wells that other companies drill and maintain.
An injection well in Southington (Trumbull County), Ohio, is generating complaints. According to a news report from Youngstown TV station WFMJ, some of the neighbors claim when it’s warm outside, or when it rains, a strong odor emanates from the injection well. The well is located near a school and near homes. The local NAACP is making noise about it, claiming this is an “environmental justice” issue, meaning the well is racist. The left often trots out the racism argument when it’s losing in a bid to bully the other side to cave on a given issue. So we are immediately suspicious when we read about an injection well (a) causing odors, and (b) being an environmental justice issue.
The United States exported 10% more natural gas in 2023 than it did in 2022 — a record of 20.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Natural Gas Monthly report. U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports accounted for more than half of all U.S. natural gas exports, and natural gas exports by pipeline to Canada and Mexico accounted for the remainder. You don’t often think about the fact that we export a huge amount of natural gas to our two neighbors via pipeline — Canada in the north and Mexico in the south. We exported 8.9 Bcf/d to Canada and Mexico combined (43% of all exported gas) and 12.0 Bcf/d via LNG (57%).
BMI, a Fitch Solutions company, hauled out its hefty crystal ball to make predictions about the “front month” contract price for NYMEX natural gas (based on the Henry Hub) for the next five years, beginning with 2024. BMI’s report also includes an aggregation of predictions by Bloomberg called the Bloomberg Consensus. What does it show? If the predicted average price in 2024 comes to be, we’ll need to see a pretty stiff rise in the price soon!
CNX Midstream, a subsidiary of CNX Resources, plans to construct two 13.9-mile-long, 24-inch-diameter steel natural gas pipelines and one approximately 3.9-mile-long, 20-inch-diameter high-density polyethylene (HDPE) permanent waterline in Westmoreland County, PA. The aim is to support new shale well drilling by CNX in the region. The reason we know about the project is from a notice by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in the weekly Pennsylvania Bulletin inviting the public to comment on a Chapter 105 Encroachments Permit for the proposed construction.
Welcome to Paradise, where natural gas is the fuel of choice to generate electricity. In 2017, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) held a dedication ceremony for the Paradise Combined Cycle Gas Plant in Drakesboro, Kentucky (see