2.4 GW of Gas-Fired Power Retiring in 2024, Incl. Boston’s Mystic
The number crunchers at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a post yesterday highlighting that in 2024, some 5.2 gigawatts (GW) of U.S. electric generating capacity will be retired. It is the least amount of capacity being retired since 2008, in the past 25 years. The graphic the crunchers used is somewhat stark and misleading. It shows the number one category of retirements is natural gas power plants, retiring 2.4 GW (46% of all retirements). What you don’t discover until deep into the post is that a single gas-fired plant, Boston’s Mystic Generating Station, which has been online since the 1940s (!), represents 1,413-MW (60%) of the gas plants retiring.
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For more than three years, MDN has called out the International Energy Agency (IEA) and its executive director, Dr. Fatih Birol, as nothing more than tools of Big Green. We’ve reported on many of the IEA’s fake predictions about peak demand for oil and natural gas (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Backed by CCI and Sher Edling, Chicago files climate lawsuit; NATIONAL: Slumping US gas prices cause hedge funds to despair; Tumbling US natgas prices prove unstoppable, hurting producers; The hockey stick trial – science dies in a DC courtroom; Are policymakers intentionally sending us back to 18th century?; INTERNATIONAL: Oil falls on monetary policy uncertainty; Can Europe count on US LNG?
DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions like the Haynesville. DTM issued its fourth quarter 2023 update last Friday. The Marcellus/Utica region (which they call Northeast in the report) received several prominent mentions during a conference call with analysts. Also of note were comments by DT CEO David Slater, who said he’s positioning the company to take advantage of “bolt-on” opportunities in the regions where they operate. Meaning he’s on the lookout for mergers and acquisitions.
In September 2022, MDN told you about a new 53-mile pipeline project in Western Kentucky — a 16-inch natural gas pipeline to feed natgas to the southern Pennyrile Region (see 
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally-owned electric utility corporation in the U.S. TVA’s service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. TVA is the sixth-largest power supplier and the largest public utility in the country. Last May, TVA announced that it would convert the Kingston Fossil Plant (coal-fired plant) in East Tennessee to a natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 1,500 megawatts of electricity (see 
Last week, MDN told you about landmen knocking on doors in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, looking to sign up landowners for a big carbon capture and sequestration project (see 
Last summer, MDN told you that a new system to assess valuations of shale wells in West Virginia had turned into a royal mess (see 
Earlier this month, MDN told you that several New York Democrat legislators were introducing a new bill to ban the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) in any process to extract natural gas or oil in the Empire State (see 
Although Shell maintains flaring and accidental emissions from its new multi-billion-dollar ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA, have not violated state and federal air standards, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) says they have — on numerous occasions. Shell didn’t argue the point, and in May 2023, the company agreed to pay nearly $10 million in fines and “contributions” to benefit the local community (see 
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count lost two rigs after adding four rigs the week before. The count went from 623 active rigs two weeks ago to 621 last week. The national count has consistently stayed between 620-625 active rigs since last October. The Marcellus/Utica stayed even last week at 44 rigs after gaining two rigs the week before. The M-U is at the most active rigs we’ve had since last August!
Believe it or not, today is a New York Stock Exchange (i.e., bank) holiday. MDN rarely takes a day off, so we tend to track with those holidays observed by the NYSE. Have no fear; we are monitoring the news, and if anything earth-shattering happens, we’ll bring you the latest. Otherwise, look for a full-strength MDN to return tomorrow.
There were 19 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica during the week of Feb. 5 – 11, versus 20 permits issued the prior week. Pennsylvania issued 13 new permits last week. Ohio issued 4 new permits. West Virginia issued 2 new permits last week. Range Resources scored the most new permits with 5 split between Allegheny and Beaver counties in PA. Chesapeake Energy received 4 permits in Bradford County, PA. Seneca Resources received 4 permits in Elk County, PA. Encino Energy received 4 permits in Guernsey County, OH. And Diversified Energy received 2 permits in Harrison County, WV.
Antero Resources, which is 100% focused on the Marcellus/Utica with over 500,000 net acres under lease (and the largest M-U driller in West Virginia), issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2023 update yesterday. The company reports net production averaged 3.4 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) during 4Q23, an increase of 6% year-over-year. Production for the full year 2023 averaged 3.4 Bcfe/d as well. Of the company’s 2023 production, liquids (NGLs) averaged 193 thousand barrels per day (MBbl/d), an increase of 14% from 2022. Natural gas production averaged 2.2 Bcf/d, up 2% from 2022. The company made $95 million in 4Q23 versus a profit of $730 million in 4Q22 — down a big 87% year over year. For 2023, Antero made $243 million versus $1.9 billion in 2022, down 87% year over year.
It feels like the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price for natural gas is in a free fall, heading for $1.50/MMBtu or (gasp) maybe even lower. Yesterday, the NYMEX price for the front month closed at $1.58/MMBtu. The price has been down for eight trading days in a row and is at the lowest price since June 26, 2020 — roughly 45 months. Year-to-date (45 days), the price is down 93.30 cents, or 37%. The national average for spot prices, a metric monitored by NGI, was down 6 cents yesterday to $1.60/MMBtu. Jeesh!