EIA Echoes NERC, FERC in Warning of Short Gas Supplies This Winter
Yesterday, MDN brought you the news that the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) is sounding the alarm that more than half of the U.S. and parts of Canada, home to around 180 million people, could fall short of electricity during extreme cold again this winter (see NERC: Half of U.S. Faces Elec Blackouts This Winter – Lack of NatGas). FERC is also chiming in with a warning about potential blackouts. Why? Lack of natural gas pipelines to help feed gas-fired power plants.
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Earlier this year, Sempra Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Sempra, announced it had reached a positive final investment decision (FID) for the development, construction, and operation of the Port Arthur LNG Phase 1 project in Jefferson County, Texas (see 
An innovative financial solutions company based in Houston, TX, called OneNexus, just announced a new “insurance” plan for drillers called WellSecure that will pay out money to plug an old oil or gas well when it hits end-of-life. WellSecure is the only insured financial contract that provides long-term financial security for the purpose of funding oil and gas decommissioning liabilities. No more worrying about whether a company will have enough money to plug old wells. With WellSecure, the money is (literally) in the bank!
A new study from the Texas Public Policy Foundation finds that the actual hidden costs of fueling an electric vehicle, which some allege equates to $1.21 per gallon of gas, is more like $17 per gallon — all things considered. In a new paper recently published called “Overcharged Expectations: Unmasking the True Costs of Electric Vehicles” (full copy below), the study’s authors argue that while the direct cost of “fueling up” to an EV owner may appear low, the real costs and considerations add up to be significantly more. The wheels are beginning to fall off EV cars.
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In January 2016, Invenergy announced its intention to build a natural gas-powered electric plant in rural Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County, PA (see 
In January, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see 
Freeport LNG’s export facility on Quintana Island, TX, is again experiencing problems. Freeport LNG’s export terminal with three liquefaction “trains” shut down in June 2022 after an explosion and fire (see 
In May, the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations called the Clean Power Plan 2.0, aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see 
According to the prognosticators at the U.S. Energy Information Administration, North America’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity will expand to 24.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by 2027 (four years from now) from the current 11.4 Bcf/d we see today. However, the increase will not all come from the United States. Both Mexico and Canada are due to place their first LNG export terminals into service in the next few years. By the end of 2027, EIA estimates LNG export capacity will grow by 1.1 Bcf/d in Mexico, 2.1 Bcf/d in Canada, and 9.7 Bcf/d in the U.S. from 10 new projects across the three countries.
The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) is sounding the alarm that more than half of the U.S. and parts of Canada, home to around 180 million people, could fall short of electricity during extreme cold again this winter. Why? If you read certain leftwing publications, they will say we’re heading for blackouts due to an overreliance on natural gas. According to NERC and its just-released 2023–2024 Winter Reliability Assessment, the coming outages are because we don’t rely ENOUGH on natural gas! That’s right. NERC (and FERC) say we need more pipelines and natural gas to shore up a lack of supplies during the worst cold snaps. The lack of natural gas leads to a lack of fuel for electric power plants (and for people who use it to heat their homes). Both agencies, but NERC in particular, say we need more pipelines, and we need them NOW.
In September, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which has been hassled and harassed endlessly by so-called “protesters” and foreign-backed Big Green groups, sued some 40 protesters and two Big Green groups for $4 million for their ongoing illegal activity to block the final bits of the 303-mile project (see 
Epsilon Energy, a relatively small company, used to concentrate most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells. However, over the past year or so, the company has expanded into other plays and now owns assets in the Anadarko (Oklahoma and Texas) and the Permian (Texas and New Mexico). Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy (in the Marcellus), and the other company typically does the drilling. The company’s net gas production during 3Q23 was 2.0 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent) in total, NOT per day. That amounts to an average of 21.5 MMcfe/d (million cubic feet per day), down 14% compared to 2Q23 due to seven PA wells being offline for workover operations. Epsilon generated revenues of $6.3 million for 3Q23, down 3% from 2Q23.
ECA Marcellus Trust I, the royalty interest holder in some of the wells drilled and maintained by Greylock Energy in Greene County, PA, announced it would issue six-tenths of a penny ($0.006) dividend to unitholders for 3Q23. The company paid out 4.3 cents per unit in 1Q23 and nothing in 2Q23 (see