NATIONAL: Cheniere announces uplisting to the New York Stock Exchange; Three reasons why moratorium on LNG projects is Biden’s latest misstep; ExxonMobil just set the climate alarm lobby on fire again; INTERNATIONAL: Impact on commodities, including LNG, due to chaos in the Red Sea.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Feb 1, 2024”
It looks like the radical left is running out of locals (people in Virginia and West Virginia) willing to get arrested and jailed to block work on the 99% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, so they’re importing them. Madeline ffitch (last name spelled correctly, not a typo) is an obscure writer and activist from Ohio who works for a group called Appalachia Resist! It is a so-called direct-action group, meaning they get aggressive and commit crimes in order to make a point. Ms. ffitch had a fellow leftist put her in a “sleeping dragon” contraption connected to a piece of MVP excavating equipment in the Jefferson National Forest (Virginia side in Giles County) on Monday. It took police about seven hours to cut it off her and haul her away to jail, where she still sits, having been denied bail.
Read More “Ohio Protester Stops Work on MVP for 7 Hours, in Jail with No Bail”
Not only did an out-of-state protester lock herself to a piece of equipment being used to finish up the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project on Monday (see today’s lead story), but protesters on both coasts held events outside the offices of Wells Fargo on Monday, demanding the bank withdraw funding for MVP. The pre-planned protests were held in front of the offices of Wells Fargo Bank in Blacksburg, Virginia, and San Francisco, California. Yep, the wackos of Cali got in on the bash-MVP action. And wow! What a show they put on! Complete with a coven of protesters who dressed themselves up in what looked to us like Klimate Klan uniforms.
Read More “San Francisco Protesters Demand Wells Fargo Pull MVP Funding”
Here’s one instance when antis may have a legitimate point. 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 FERC Approves MVP Southgate Request for 3-Yr Extension to Build). A few weeks later, Equitrans announced it was significantly changing the project, cutting it by more than half and increasing the amount of gas flowing through it (see Equitrans Slices MVP Southgate Pipe Project From 75 to 31 Miles).
Read More “NC Dems Ask FERC to Strike MVP Southgate Extension, Redo Full Eval”
Score a (very) minor victory for the radicals of a Little Green Group (funded with money from Big Green groups) called Protect PT. Last October, a lawsuit brought by Protect PT against a second injection well planned for Plum Borough (Allegheny County), PA, had oral arguments before the state’s Commonwealth Court (see PA Court Hears Arguments Against 2nd Plum Injection Well Permit). The lawsuit challenged an approval by Plum’s Zoning Board. Yesterday, the judges of the mostly conservative Commonwealth Court ruled in favor of the radicals to send the approval back to the Zoning Board for another look and more justification.
Read More “2nd Plum Injection Well Approval Suffers Minor Court Setback”
Evolution Well Services announced a three-year extension of their current electric fracturing partnership with Encino Energy after achieving operational efficiencies and milestones in 2023. Evolution uses “e-fracking” technology. Traditional fracking uses diesel-fueled engines to produce electricity to power pressure pumps for hydraulic fracturing operations. E-fracking uses natural gas from the well pad (or CNG or LNG) to power turbines to create electricity. E-fracking uses a different type of “engine” and different fuel. E-fracking fleets are roughly half the size of traditional diesel fleets — and a whole lot quieter.
Read More “Encino Gives Evolution 3-Yr Contract Extension for Utica E-Fracking”
In early 2013, the Pittsburgh International Airport and Allegheny County, PA, signed a deal with CONSOL Energy (now CNX Resources) to lease 9,000 acres surrounding the airport for natural gas drilling (see $50M Check in the Mail: Pittsburgh Airport Lease a Done Deal). The airport added an electric microgrid that burns Marcellus gas from airport property, and since July 2021, the airport has produced all of its own electricity (see Pittsburgh Airport Now Generates All Its Power Using Marcellus Gas). The microgrid was built and is owned by the utility company Peoples Gas (now called Essential Utilities). Essential announced yesterday it is selling the airport microgrid and two other microgrids it owns in the Pittsburgh region to Cordia for $165 million.
Read More “Pittsburgh Airport NatGas Microgrid & Two Others Sold for $165M”
Last November, CNX Resources CEO Nick Deiuliis signed a voluntary deal with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to expand drilling setbacks and several other regulatory steps not mandated for shale drillers under PA law (see CNX Signs Deal with PA Gov. to Increase Setbacks, Other Changes). The deal torqued off anti-fossil fuel fanatics who demanded Shapiro renounce it (see Antis Demand PA Gov Shapiro Drop Enviro Deal with CNX Resources). Mainstream media noticed the deal, and several national outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, ran articles about it.
Read More “CNX CEO Tells Dr. His Comments re Fracking Violate Hippocratic Oath”
NATIONAL: Tellurian counters speculations over company sale; Enbridge plans to lay off six percent of workers; WaPo editorial board slams Biden’s move to halt natgas terminals; Kennedy vows to block Energy, State nominees over Biden LNG pause; INTERNATIONAL: Activist investor says BP is wrong to set oil output reduction target; Rishi Sunak’s net zero targets are ‘path to ruin’ says Tory MP.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Jan 31, 2024”
Both conventional and unconventional (shale) drillers in Pennsylvania were supposed to submit a new annual report to the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) on December 10 detailing volatile organic compound (VOC) and methane emissions from their operations over the past one-year period. Shortly before that deadline, the DEP suspended the due date. This past weekend, the DEP published a new due date. Drillers must submit the annual report (for 2023) by June 1, 2024.
Read More “Due Date for PA DEP Report re Methane Emissions Slips 6 Months”
There are federal lands in the Marcellus/Utica. Did you know that? The Wayne National Forest (WNF) is a patchwork of public and private mineral rights that covers over a quarter million acres of Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio. For years, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) blocked new permits and drilling in WNF. During the Trump administration, the BLM began to auction off federal leases and permits (see our stories about BLM auction in WNF here). However, a federal judge blocked drilling in WNF in 2021, after Biden had seized control of the White House (see Federal Judge Blocks Permits to Drill in OH’s Wayne Natl Forest). Although drilling in WNF is blocked, the Bidenistas are considering a rule change to allow the drilling of carbon dioxide wells in national parks, including WNF.
Read More “Carbon Capture & Storage Coming to Ohio’s Wayne National Forest?”
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). Little did we know, but KM submitted an application to federal regulators last year requesting an expansion to the facility. That request is one of the 17 such projects now on “pause” while the Bidenistas rejigger the rules they use to approve such requests.
Read More “Elba Island is One of LNG Export Projects Blocked by Biden Pause”
Last Friday, Joementia announced he is putting “a temporary pause on pending decisions of Liquefied Natural Gas exports.” The reason? The so-called “climate crisis” is “the existential threat of our time.” It’s all rubbish. The real reason is that he bowed to radical leftists in his own party. He needs them if he has a prayer of a chance of winning reelection in November (God forbid). The action supposedly affects 17 projects in the pipeline that have requested approval from the Dept. of Energy to export LNG to countries without free-trade agreements. But now, antis say Biden’s pause can potentially help them with their existing lawsuits against facilities already approved by the DOE.
Read More “Antis Use Biden’s LNG Pause to Challenge Already-Approved Projects”
This is brilliant and something EVERYONE needs to pay attention to. Closely. The Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” WV Senate Bill (SB) 358 was introduced on Jan. 12. The state runs a short, 60-day session early each year. SB 358 would end state and local enforcement of certain Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules and regulations, which is 100% legal according to the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.
Read More “West Virginia Bill Blocks Federal EPA Power in the Mountain State”
Here we go again. Freeport LNG’s export terminal with three liquefaction “trains” shut down in June 2022 after an explosion and fire (see Explosion Rocks Freeport LNG Export Plant – Offline for 3 Weeks). What was initially thought to be a three-week outage lasted for ten months! The plant finally returned online in March of 2023 (see Freeport LNG Plant Back to Full Capacity Using 2.1 Bcf/d of NatGas). That wasn’t the only outage at the facility.
Read More “One of Three Freeport LNG Trains Offline for “About One Month””
The province of Quebec, Canada, with a huge supply of Utica Shale gas sitting beneath it, passed a new law in April 2022 — Bill 21 — outlawing all oil and natural gas production throughout the province (see Quebec Pulls Trigger & Commits Energy Suicide – Bans All O&G Prod.). It was a breathtaking grab of totalitarian power. It’s also energy suicide. Quebec said it would pay a piddly US$79.5 million to expropriate the oil and gas drilling rights of companies owning those rights in the province. A number of companies sued…
Read More “Canadian Court Blocks Part of Quebec’s Ban on O&G Drilling”