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NFG Lawsuit Alleges Fraud, Counterfeit Parts Used at Compressor Stn
Here’s the kind of thing you don’t want to read about. Utility giant National Fuel Gas Company, headquartered in Buffalo and parent to Seneca Resources and NFG Midstream (and Empire Pipeline), is suing a former employee and several vendors for buying and installing counterfeit parts at several compressor stations. One such part caused the temporary shutdown at one compressor station in New York’s Southern Tier when the part failed to work correctly.
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Encino Energy purchased Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio oil and gas assets (including Utica Shale assets) in 2018 for $2 billion (see 
In 2021, PennEnergy Resources made a request to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water a day from Big Sewickley Creek and one of its tributaries for shale fracking (see 
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 
In March 2023, Chesapeake Energy announced a 15-year deal to provide enough natural gas for 2.0 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG exports to Gunvor Singapore Pte (see 
ECA Marcellus Trust I, the royalty interest holder in some of the wells drilled and maintained by Greylock Energy in Greene County, PA, announced it would issue a three-cent ($0.03) dividend to unitholders for 4Q23. The company paid 4.3 cents per unit in 1Q23, nothing in 2Q23, and six-tenths of a penny ($0.006) in 3Q23 (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Fired FirstEnergy execs indicted in $60 million Ohio bribery scheme; NATIONAL: Enbridge makes progress toward U.S. gas utilities takeover; America must show energy leadership on a global stage; Rubio questions Biden admin’s authority to pause LNG exports; US LNG export terminal permit pause could boost coal use; How low can you go? Natgas down to $1.67/MMBtu; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC report shows uneven delivery of new oil production cuts; US exports crude to Nigeria for the first time.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an excellent article reporting on an effort by Tenaska, one of the largest privately operated companies in the U.S., to build a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) hub spanning tens of thousands of acres in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Landmen are “knocking on doors again” in all three states, looking to sign up landowners to store carbon dioxide deep underground. We have the details below, including how much money Tenaska is paying as a signing bonus and how much is on offer (per acre) each year.
West Virginia House Bill (HB) 4292 attempts to close a loophole affecting landowners and mineral rights owners with a conventional oil or gas well. Royalties from conventional O&G wells are typically small, as little as $40-$50 per month. Some energy companies (hopefully very few) that own the wells are intentionally late with royalty payments or outright refuse to make the payments. Because the amounts are so small, lawyers typically won’t take on a case for nonpayment of royalties. This bill aims to fix that.
We’re sad to have to report on yet another down day of the NYMEX Henry Hub natural gas futures contract. Yesterday, the NYMEX price closed at $1.77/MMBtu, the lowest closing price for the “front month” contract in 3 1/2 years (since Monday, July 27, 2020). Yesterday’s closing price breaks through the latest “floor” of $1.80, an important psychological barrier traders monitor. As has been the case in recent weeks, weather is cited as the main factor in the low price. It’s just not cold enough this winter to spur big domestic demand for natgas. The price is down 31.4 cents (15%) over the last five trading sessions. How much lower will it go?
We report today in a companion story about the crash in the NYMEX price to $1.77/MMBtu that NGI’s Spot Gas National Average jumped 36.5 cents to $2.115 yesterday based on winter weather forecasts in some states. What will the Henry Hub spot price (not the futures price, but the physically traded spot price) average for 2024 and 2025? The number crunchers at EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) explain their reasoning for a prediction that the average spot price will remain below $3 this year and next.
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Buffalo, NY, is the parent company for Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources and the parent of midstream company NFG Midstream (and subsidiary Empire Pipeline). Last week, NFG issued its latest quarterly update. During the quarter (considered the company’s first quarter), Seneca produced 100.8 Bcf (billion cubic feet) of natural gas, an increase of 10.2 Bcf, or 11%, from the prior year, mainly due to production from new Marcellus and Utica wells in Seneca’s Eastern Development Area (EDA).
The Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline project called Enhancement by Compression (ExC) increases horsepower at three compression stations — two in New York and one in Connecticut — by an extra 125 MMcf/d, flowing more Marcellus/Utica gas into New York City and New England (see 
Last Thursday, 29 far-left nutball groups wrote Mike Rolband, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), demanding that he issue a stop work order for the 99% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) due to “repeated and widespread violations and damage to waterbodies and private property.” This isn’t the first time these groups have demanded regulators intervene to block MVP based on flimsy grounds. The 29 radical groups include Wild Virginia, The Wilderness Society, Virginia League of Conservation Voters, West Virginia Rivers Association, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and others (most of them obscure, one-person “groups” pretending to be bigger than they are).