Big Drop in Fugitive Methane Emissions in M-U, Other Shale Basins
The 28th U.N. Conference of the Parties, or COP28, gets underway today in Dubai. Representatives from most of the world’s countries will be there to party, get drunk, and pretend to care about the Big Lie that mankind is somehow destroying the planet by burning fossil fuels. With hypocrites confabbing in Dubai, it’s the perfect time to discuss the DECREASE in fugitive methane emissions across every major shale basin in the United States, including the Marcellus/Utica. Yes, even though shale drilling and production have gone UP over the past five years, fugitive methane emissions have gone DOWN. No other country can make the same claim, yet the COP28 hypocrites (including John Kerry) will renew their shrill calls to shut down U.S. shale drilling and fossil energy.
Read More “Big Drop in Fugitive Methane Emissions in M-U, Other Shale Basins”
Cheniere Energy, Inc., the largest exporter of LNG in the U.S., announced two new agreements yesterday to sell more LNG to Europe. The first (and foremost) agreement is with ARC Resources, one of Canada’s largest natural gas producers, to sell 140,000 MMBtu per day (140 MMcf/d) of natural gas to SPL Stage 5 for a term of 15 years, commencing with commercial operations of the first train (“Train 7”) of the Sabine Pass Liquefaction Expansion Project. Yes, Canadian molecules will travel all the way to the Louisiana Gulf Coast to be liquefied and exported.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Governor’s appeal of greenhouse gas decision wrong; NATIONAL: Well productivity gains clash with cost inflation in U.S. oil patch; INTERNATIONAL: Europe continuing to rely heavily on natural gas; Long-term LNG contracts offer Europe supply security.
Sometimes, the only place you can find important news is from your opponents. Example: The radicals of Food & Water Watch (far-left “environmental” organization) ran an op-ed appearing on NorthJersey.com that is the equivalent of a printed temper tantrum decrying the news that a compressor station project they thought they had stopped is, in fact, now up and running. The compressor in West Milford, NJ, is part of Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) East 300 expansion project, an upgrade of TGP to deliver an extra 115 MMcf/d of natural gas to Consolidated Edison and its customers in New York City and surrounding suburbs. East 300 is a FERC-approved project (see 
An increasingly important market for U.S. natural gas, especially gas coming from the Marcellus/Utica, is LNG exports. The gas that flows to LNG export plants feeding the plants so they can liquefy and export it, is called feedgas. The U.S. hit an all-time high of 13.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of feedgas flowing to LNG facilities in April of this year. Then exports slowed over the summer. However, as we recently reported, LNG cargo shipments picked up again in October, tying the all-time high of cargoes sent in a single month (see 
Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility recently received Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) authorization to place the final three liquefaction blocks (7-9) into service (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 U.S. Two years ago, MDN told you that TVA is spending over $1 billion to replace six coal-fired plants with natgas-fired turbines (see 
We spotted a pair of articles noting a decrease in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the U.S. energy sector in 2023. One of the articles, from the Bidenistas at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), credits an increase in so-called renewable power generation as the main reason for the decrease. The second article, from Philadelphia attorney Dan Markind, who writes about the Marcellus, properly credits the decrease in CO2 emissions to the retirement of coal-fired power replaced by natural gas-fired power. However, a chart in the EIA article caught our attention and is why we titled this post the way we did. The indisputable fact is that natural gas continues to dominate power generation (the #1 fuel for powergen), which is unchanged in 2024 and for the foreseeable future.
A team of researchers led by the University of Maryland claims they can now “fingerprint” methane to determine the source of where the molecules come from. Using isotopic variants, the researchers say they can distinguish fossil fuel sources of methane from microbial sources from swamps, landfills, and farms. If true, this is a new and welcomed development. First, the news, then a discussion of its importance.
In its assessment of global LNG supplies and natural gas stocks for the winter of 2023/2024, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says the world (and the U.S.) has enough natural gas to meet demand. However, there’s a big BUT… EIA says, “but risks remain.” What are those risks? Possible extreme weather and supply issues.
More progress to report on finishing the 94% completed (now likely closer to 97% completed) Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. MVP needs to cross under Interstate 81 in Montgomery County, VA, and it’s no small challenge to drill under the highway because it’s solid rock. On Oct. 13, MVP (being built by Equitrans Midstream) filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to drill 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on the I-81 crossing. Last Tuesday, FERC approved it, although the approval comes with a few strings attached, like using special lights and monitoring noise levels.
An interesting dichotomy we sometimes (but don’t often) see: The NYMEX Henry Hub futures price is down (below $3/MMBtu) and heading lower, while spot prices (physical trading) of natural gas at various trading hubs around the country are going higher, especially in the Northeast. In both cases — the futures price and the spot price — the primary reason for moving down or up is the weather, which may seem contradictory. We will explain…
We spotted an article appearing on the PBS-backed Allegheny Front website supposedly reporting a story about Pennsylvania lawmakers looking for “best practices” to adopt in regulating the soon-coming hydrogen hub projects the state will see. PA will see some investment in hydrogen from two different hydrogen hub projects led by neighboring states (West Virginia and Delaware). The article wants you to think that PA lawmakers are reviewing and considering various regulations they might use to protect the public in this uncharted new territory of hydrogen energy. The real thrust of the article, however, is to push a leftist narrative that the hydrogen hubs should avoid using natural gas as the feedstock to produce hydrogen.
On November 16, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) agreed to Dominion Energy subsidiary Virginia Electric and Power Company’s petition requesting that FERC declare Dominion’s planned LNG production, storage, and regasification facility in Greensville County, VA, would be exempt from FERC jurisdiction under section 7 of the Natural Gas Act (NGA). The project includes a 25-million-gallon LNG storage tank, 15 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of liquefaction capacity, 500 MMcf/d regasification capacity, pretreatment facilities, and associated station yard piping.