OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Enstor seeks to double capacity of Miss. Hub natgas storage; Debate over natural gas bill heating up in Albany; NATIONAL: Specialist buyout firms cash in on shale consolidation; Manchin says lawmakers close to a permitting reform deal; M&A activity furthers consolidation of U.S. oil and natgas firms; U.S. propane exports grow faster than production.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Mar 20, 2024”
The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for March, issued yesterday (below), shows EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for April will decrease production from the prior month of March. This is the ninth month in a row that EIA has predicted shale gas production will decrease for the combined seven plays. However, it won’t decrease everywhere. Gas-focused plays like the Marcellus/Utica and the Haynesville will see the biggest drop in production. In contrast, the oily Permian play will boost the production of “associated” natural gas — the gas that comes out of the ground along with oil. The Permian is also boosting oil production in April.
Read More “EIA Mar DPR: NatGas Production Continues to Drop, Oil Grows”
For years, we have watched natural gas production in oil-focused plays like the Permian (in Texas and New Mexico) steadily rise. It was an annoyance, a curiosity, mostly an afterthought because production in the Marcellus/Utica, where we concentrate our attention, was also rising and quite dominant. But the M-U hit a plateau in December 2019 and in January 2020 began a long-term trend of staying about even (see EIA Dec ’19 Drilling Report: M-U Production Drops 1st Time in Yrs). Some months, gas production in the M-U goes higher, some months lower, but over the past few years, it has remained in the 35-36 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) range. The problem (for the M-U and other gas plays) is that the Permian continues to add gas production month after month and year after year. It’s a competitive threat.
Read More “NatGas Plays Like M-U & Haynesville Getting Slammed by Assoc. Gas”
In an embarrassing act of ignorance, seven Virginia state delegates and two state senators (all of them Democrats) who represent the greater Richmond, VA area signed a statement last Wednesday opposing Dominion Energy’s plan to build four small “peaker” electric generating plants in Chesterfield County, VA, a Richmond suburb (see Dominion Plans to Build 1,000-MW Gas Peaker Plant Near Richmond, VA). The Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center in the James River Industrial Center calls for building four 250-megawatt gas-fired power plants (1,000 MW total) that can jump into action during the coldest and hottest days of the year to help supply enough electricity for 250,000 homes.
Read More “Virginia Democrat Lawmakers Don’t Want Dominion Gas-Fired Plant”
In February, MDN brought you the news that utility giant Duke Energy plans to build a gigantic natural gas-fired power plant next to another planned gas-fired plant at the existing coal-fired Roxboro Plant on Hyco Lake, in Person County, NC (see Duke Energy Seeks to Build 2 Massive Gas-Fired Power Plants in NC). Each plant would generate 1,360 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Now comes word of yet another pair of gas-fired plants Duke wants to build, but in a different location — in Catawba County. These two new plants together would generate a combined 850 MW (much smaller than the Person County plants) and would also replace coal-fired plants there now. Marcellus/Utica molecules would be needed to feed them.
Read More “Duke Energy Replacing Another 2 Coal Plants with NatGas in NC”
The highly functional and responsible Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC), unlike its completely dysfunctional and irresponsible cousin, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), continues to support the shale energy industry by approving water withdrawals for responsible and safe shale drilling. Last Thursday, the SRBC approved 23 new water withdrawal requests within the basin, eight of them for water used in drilling and fracking shale wells in Pennsylvania. The Marcellus/Utica shale drillers receiving a green light from SRBC included Beech Resources, Chesapeake Energy, Greylock Energy, Seneca Resources, and Southwestern Energy.
Read More “SRBC Approves 8 Water Withdrawal Requests for Fracking in NEPA”
Last week, a 22-year-old activist too cowardly to give her name spent nearly 36 hours inside the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in Virginia, halting construction on a section of the pipeline for two days. It is the latest in a string of organized criminal activity against the pipeline project. Two weeks ago, we told you about two old anti-Semitic hippies arrested for locking themselves to an old fossil fuel-powered car who blocked an MVP construction road for 11 hours (see MVP Protesters Reveal Themselves as Anti-Semites). Last week’s campout inside MVP was more of the same.
Read More “Another Environut Stops MVP Work by Crawling Inside Pipe 36 Hrs”
This will come as a major disappointment to the climate worshippers who believe, as an article of faith, that mankind is causing the planet to toast by burning fossil fuels. News flash: Mankind and fossil fuels are not causing our current pattern of warming. Scientists doing some real research using real data have discovered that when the Earth and Mars pass each other in years-long cycles as both planets circle the sun, Mars and Earth “tug” at each other’s orbits and cause the Earth to get a tad closer to the sun. You know, the sun, that big ball of burning hydrogen that emits sunlight and heat? The scientists can lay a ruler down and show that when such “tugging” happens, the temps here on Mom Earth rise for a time, for a period of years. And then years later, when the tugging stops, our temps fall again, and we get ice ages. It’s been happening for millennia.
Read More “The Cause of Climate Change on Earth is… Mars?!”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Is Gov. Shapiro’s pivot toward energy taxes in PA driving unions to GOP?; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: LNG developer Tellurian to explore sale, CEO steps down; Exxon CEO says hydrogen project at risk without IRA tax credits; NYC pols urge Albany to OK tax break for ‘green’ mandate; NATIONAL: U.S. crude oil exports reached a record in 2023; Team Biden undermines American, European energy security; INTERNATIONAL: Exploding energy demand places spotlight on decarbonization; Aramco investing in renewables but slams fantasy of no O&G; Globalists hallucinate that humanity’s “micro-second” is mightier than galactic forces.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Mar 19, 2024”
Some fairly big news broke last week just as MDN editor Jim Willis was taking a two-day break. So let’s get caught up. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled to Scranton, PA, to announce a proposal to “immediately pull Pennsylvania out of a multi-state carbon cap-and-trade program” (the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI) and instead enroll PA in its very own RGGI-like carbon tax program. Same end result: It would kill Marcellus-fired power plants in the state, driving them to close and relocate to West Virginia and Ohio, states that don’t engage in the lunacy of taxing carbon emissions from power plants.
Read More “PA Gov. Shapiro Proposes Own Version of Marcellus-Killing Carbon Tax”
This one is too funny. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a leftist liberal Democrat and the chosen candidate of the environmental left, appeared at a Philadelphia union hall for a speech last week to tout a hydrogen hub that is supposedly coming to the area, called the Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub (MACH2). The MACH2 project is actually centered in Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware but will give a few economic table scraps to the Philly area, which excites and titillates PA politicians. Early in Shapiro’s “ain’t hydrogen just great” speech, Maya van Rossum, THE Delaware Riverkeeper (that’s what she calls herself), got up and began to shout down Shapiro. That’s right! The guy SHE voted for and helped elect! You see, Miss Maya (hereinafter to be called Mouthy Maya) doesn’t like hydrogen hubs, even “clean” hubs like the MACH2 project.
Read More “Mouthy Delaware Riverkeeper Disrupts PA Gov. at Hydrogen Rally”
A three-judge panel from the federal D.C. Circuit spent two hours on Friday hearing arguments for and against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of Williams’ Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project. REAE is an expansion of the mighty Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland. Part of the project was done and went online last year (see Williams 1Q – Regional Energy Access Pipe Coming Online Early). The balance of the project is scheduled to be completed and online by the end of this year.
Read More “Fed Court Quizzes Enviros and NJ re Williams Transco Expansion”
In April 2022, MDN reported that the top brass at Kinder Morgan, the owner and operator of the Elba Island LNG export facility (also known as Southern LNG), was considering an expansion of its modestly-sized facility (see Kinder Morgan Considers Expanding Marcellus-fed Elba Island LNG). KM subsequently submitted an application to federal regulators last year requesting an expansion of the facility. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) personnel issued a positive Environmental Assessment (EA) on March 8. But, there’s a wrinkle.
Read More “Elba Island LNG Expansion Gets Positive Enviro Assessment from FERC”
CNX Resources was slapped with a “notice of violation” (NOV) by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for withdrawing over 1.8 million gallons of water in Washington County, PA (for use in shale gas fracking) without first seeking the proper “Mother, May I?” approvals. The withdrawals happened over a 22-day period in the summer of 2023. Yes, it takes the DEP a looooong time to respond to so-called violations. When CNX realized it didn’t have express permission to withdraw the water, the company immediately reported the situation and corrected it. Still, DEP wants a new plan to prevent it from happening again. The plan is due today.
Read More “CNX Failed to Ask “Mother, May I?” for Reservoir Water Withdrawal”
There were 19 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica during the week of Mar. 4 – 10, up 2 from 17 permits issued the prior week. Pennsylvania issued 11 new permits. Ohio issued 5 new permits. And West Virginia issued 3 new permits. Range Resources and Ascent Resources tied for most new permits with 5 each. Range received 5 permits to drill in two PA counties: Lycoming and Washington. Ascent received 5 permits to drill in Belmont County, OH. Chesapeake Energy got 3 permits to drill in Bradford County, PA, and Seneca Resource also received 3 permits for Tioga County, PA. Southwestern Energy scored 2 permits for Ohio County, WV, and CNX Resources received a single permit for Marshall County, WV.
Read More “19 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Mar 4 – 10”
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count added the seven rigs it had lost the week before. The count went from 622 active rigs two weeks ago back up to 629 last week. The national count is officially rangebound. Since last October, the national count has gone as low as 616 and as high as 629. And that’s it. No higher and no lower. The Marcellus/Utica cumulatively lost one rig last week and now runs 43 rigs. Pennsylvania lost two rigs and now operates 22 rigs. Ohio stayed the same at 12 rigs. And West Virginia picked up one of PA’s rigs and now operates nine rigs (up from eight the prior week).
Read More “Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Adds 7 @ 629, M-U Drops 1 @ 43”