New Contracts to Buy Gulf Coast LNG Slowed Significantly in 2023
According to analysis from Enverus Intelligence, in the first nine months of 2023, U.S. LNG developers signed 14 long-term sales and purchase agreements totaling 19.65 mtpa (million tonnes per annum). That pace is far slower than in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and set off a mass scramble by Europe to secure natgas supplies anywhere they could. One of the big beneficiaries of that scramble was the U.S. with our LNG exports. This year (so far), things have slowed down with new contracts…considerably.
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New shale permits issued for Oct 9 – 15 in the Marcellus/Utica gyrated once again, dropping to about half from the previous week. There were 14 new permits issued last week, versus 23 the week before. Last week’s permit tally included 12 new permits in Pennsylvania, no new permits in Ohio, and 2 new permits in West Virginia. EQT was the top permittee for the week, drawing 6 permits in Greene County, PA. PA General Energy was second with 4 permits in Lycoming County.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Chesapeake Utilities building $80M LNG storage in MD; NATIONAL: Shifting natgas and power market fundamentals driving storage values; Climate group spending $80M to tout Biden’s enviro record; INTERNATIONAL: The tyranny of ESG has run its course; Disciplined oil & gas companies successful in winning back investors.
Just two days ago, MDN brought you a post about the challenges faced by Equitrans Midstream in completing the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline project this year (see 
A long-running lawsuit filed by Big Green groups using (abusing) a small group of uppity Virginia landowners argues the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had no right to delegate authority to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to use eminent domain to cross land, including the land owned by the small group of uppity landowners in Virginia. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court made the mistake of keeping the lawsuit alive, remanding it to a lower court (see 
In the fall of 2021, President Biden signed into law the so-called Infrastructure bill, some $1.2 trillion in pork barrel spending, passed with the help of turncoat Republicans (see 
Rich Negrin, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), was supposed to be Gov. Josh Shapiro’s guy who could magically make the trains run on time at the DEP. He was the White Knight bureaucrat who could crack the code on getting simple permits for construction — things like Chapter 102 erosion and sediment control permits — back to being issued in two weeks (instead of months), as is required under PA law (see 
In August 2022, Seneca Resources, a subsidiary and the drilling arm of National Fuel Gas Company, announced it had achieved an “A” certification grade under the MiQ Standard for Methane Emissions Performance (MiQ Standard), the highest available certification level MiQ awards, for all of the company’s 1+ billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica (see 
Two radical Big Green groups have brazenly announced they are spending more than a quarter of a million dollars in an attempt to help buy an open seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Conservation Voters of PA Victory Fund, in partnership with Earthjustice Action, are attempting to convince Pennsylvanians who are inclined to believe Big Green clap-trap that they should vote for the far-left candidate Dan McCaffery (Democrat) in this November’s contest for the PA Supreme Court. Why? Because McCaffery is in the back pocket of the environmental lobby. He’ll vote any way they tell him to.
In May, the PHMSA issued a proposed new rule that would slap onerous and costly new requirements on pretty much all natural gas pipelines in the country, including 2.7 million miles of gas transmission, distribution, and gathering pipelines; 400+ underground natural gas storage facilities; and 165 liquefied natural gas facilities (see 
Oh boy, here we go again. The rumor mill is in overdrive. Reuters (which is pretty reliable with these kinds of reports) is reporting that Chesapeake Energy Corporation is sniffing around Southwestern Energy, looking to buy out and merge in its closest O&G peer. Both Chesapeake and Southwestern have significant, long-time Marcellus assets (in Pennsylvania), and both have added new assets in the Louisiana Haynesville in recent years. They are on parallel tracks with their strategy of using Marcellus assets as a cash cow to fund more drilling in Haynesville, with an eye on grabbing higher prices in foreign markets by exporting Haynesville gas as LNG. It certainly makes sense that one company would be interested in combining with the other. If the two do combine, it would become the #1 shale gas driller in the U.S., surpassing EQT (in market value).
Last Friday in Philadelphia, President Joe Biden tried to sell the line that Pennsylvania was a big winner in the Hydrogen Hub Hunger Games (see 
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held an informational briefing on Project Canary, a company that measures, analyzes, and reports on methane emissions from natural gas production and distribution infrastructure. Many Marcellus/Utica drillers use Project Canary’s services in their programs to produce “responsibly sourced gas” (RSG). It appears the aim of the session was to bring PA State Senators up-to-speed on Project Canary and the larger issue of cutting back on fugitive methane emissions. Companies that track and reduce methane can charge more for their gas, so the theory goes. As for whether or not that is happening (are they getting more money for their gas?), it is an open question.
American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, is a small but diversified company. They have their fingers in a number of different oil and gas pies, including subsidiaries in drilling, remediation, water, and more. We’ve written a number of posts about AEPT, the most recent in July 2022 when the company purchased Austin Master Services, a company that services the Marcellus/Utica industry (and other industries) with radiological waste management solutions, including remediation, decontamination & decommissioning (D&D), and transport (see 
New York State has made no bones about the fact that it HATES fossil energy — particularly natural gas. The state has banned fracking, permanently (for all time), preventing abundant supplies of natgas from being extracted within the state, dooming counties in Upstate to economic poverty. The state has blocked multiple gas pipelines from Pennsylvania into NY. It has banned new residences and businesses across the state from connecting to and using natural gas beginning in 2025. And lately, the state has begun to force natural gas-fired power plants to close. Yet sitting on the stage in Morgantown, WV, on Monday with West Virginia and Ohio officials and politicians there to commemorate and brag about WV’s big win in attracting a grant for a hydrogen hub, was the CEO of a New York company — a company that will play a key role in (and get gobs of money from) the WV hydrogen hub.