On Monday, MDN alerted you that Shell’s new CEO, Wael Sawan, would address the entire company (yesterday) in an attempt to talk some of the Millennial snowflakes that work for him off the climate change ledge (see Shell CEO to Talk Snowflakes Off the Climate Ledge Oct 17). How did it go?
Read More “Shell’s New CEO Pledges Allegiance to “Climate Action””
The radical left has successfully funneled foreign money (from Russia and China) to Big Green groups that hire lawyers to file a blizzard of lawsuits against oil and gas pipeline projects, blocking those projects. That strategy has worked so well that the radical left has turned its attention to a new target (same tactic but new target): LNG export facilities. The first stage in a new war is to “soften the target” with aerial bombing. In this case, the bombings are the lies coming from paid Big Green shills like Bill McKibben. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is expected to approve (soon) Venture Global’s CP2 LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. In a Tuesday conference call with reporters, McKibben (being paid by Big Green) let loose with a volley of lie bombs, calling the project an “enormous carbon and methane bomb” that will further drive climate change. He also called it “an inflation machine” because exporting gas will (goes the lie) raise prices here at home.
Read More “Radicals Turn Attention to Blocking New LNG Like They Did Pipelines”
NATIONAL: Oil industry titans turn on Trump; INTERNATIONAL: Key trader says world lacks enough LNG for energy transition; Canada’s Supreme Court tosses ‘no more pipelines’ bill; Chevron Australia LNG unions agree deal on eve of strikes resuming.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Oct 18, 2023”
According to an article in Ohio Country Journal, interest and activity in eastern Ohio’s oil and gas leasing has been growing in some new areas. Those areas include, says Clif Little, Ohio State University Extension educator in Guernsey County, portions of Guernsey and Noble counties where there hadn’t been interest in the past. Little specializes in, among other things, oil and gas leases. He’s the author of “Important aspects of an oil and gas lease” (copy below), chock full of good tips for landowners either leasing for the first time or looking to re-lease.
Read More “Leasing Activity Picks Up in Noble & Guernsey Counties in Ohio”
Yesterday, we brought you the great news that the Marcellus/Utica region scored one of seven major hydrogen hub project grants being dished out by the Bidenistas (see Hydrogen Hub Winners Announced – WV Takes Prize in M-U Region). As we pointed out, West Virginia is the big winner, hosting most of the 15 projects associated with the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2). However, other states, including Ohio, Kentucky, and even Pennsylvania, will also benefit by having some projects related to ARCH2 funding located in those respective states. One such project, that we are just now becoming aware of, is a plan by EQT to manufacture low-carbon aviation fuel using natural gas as a feedstock.
Read More “EQT Confirms Plan to Produce Jet Fuel from NatGas, but Few Details”
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 Hydrogen Hub Winners Announced – WV Takes Prize in M-U Region). PA Gov. Josh Shapiro also tried to sell that same line, falsely claiming PA is “the only state to secure projects for two regional hydrogen hubs. The future of clean energy will run through Pennsylvania.” The truth is that PA got table scraps (see PA Gets Consolation Prize in Hydrogen Hub Awards). Biden and Shapiro’s clap-trap didn’t fool the labor unions in southwestern PA who are upset that PA’s application for a hydrogen hub was passed over by the Bidenistas.
Read More “SWPA Labor Unions Disappointed Bidenistas Gave Hydrogen Hub to WV”
Haters gonna hate (shake it off, shake it off). We learned that from philosophical genius and pop culture guru Taylor Swift. “Hate” perfectly describes the radicalized left in this country that refuses to admit the reality and truth that 95% of all hydrogen today comes from cracking natural gas. In the future, that percentage is likely to remain about the same. Of the seven projects the Bidenistas awarded $7 billion to last Friday in the Hydrogen Hub Hunger Games, four of the seven in whole or in part will use natural gas as their feedstock to create hydrogen (see Hydrogen Hub Winners Announced – WV Takes Prize in M-U Region). That’s $4 billion of the $7 billion going for natgas-related projects, which does not please the haters who are having a conniption fit and loudly expressing their displeasure.
Read More “Enviro Left Hates Biden Plan to Support & Fund Hydrogen Hubs”
This is growing tiresome. Appalachians Against Pipelines, a group backed with big money from Big Green, continues to funnel paid “protesters” to construction sites for the 95% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), mainly in Montgomery County, Va., who chain themselves to equipment requiring state troopers to carefully remove them (requiring hours), slowing the already challenging work to complete the project. And then local county judges don’t do anything to stop it (see Va. County Judge Refuses to Stop Illegal Activities of MVP Protesters). About 25 protesters showed up at a Montgomery County construction site yet again yesterday. Three of them — every one of them from out of state — chained themselves to equipment (using “sleeping dragon” devices). All three were arrested and removed, but at the cost of yet another delay.
Read More “3 Out-of-State Protesters Arrested for Blocking MVP Construction”
Since work resumed in midsummer, 92 stream crossings had been completed through Oct. 1 for the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, according to MVP spokeswoman Natalie Cox. About 330 crossings remain. Can the company realistically complete the rest of the work and get the pipeline operational by Dec. 31 (less than three months away)? That’s the multi-billion-dollar question. Some 4,200 construction workers are actively working on getting it done. It doesn’t help that highly organized “protests” are being inflicted on the project by Big Green-backed groups like Appalachians Against Pipeline.
Read More “MVP Hits Construction Challenges – Will it Get Done in 2023?”
The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for October, issued yesterday (below), shows EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for November will *decrease* production from the prior month of October — by a huge quantity. This is the fourth month in a row EIA predicts shale gas production will decrease for the combined seven plays. EIA says combined natgas production will slide by 451 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) — nearly half a billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). The Marcellus/Utica, called “Appalachia” in the report, is predicted to decrease by a massive 194 MMcf/d in November compared with October, the biggest decrease in gas production for any of the seven plays.
Read More “EIA Oct DPR: Big Drop in Shale Gas Production in M-U & Haynesville”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: KC Fed report finds slight optimism in Midwest oil, natural gas markets; NATIONAL: Biden’s kamikaze climate plan for the US economy; Exxon becomes world’s first megamajor; INTERNATIONAL: Investment in climate tech startups down over 40% year on year; Chevron LNG workers in Australia reaffirm strike plans.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Oct 17, 2023”
As predicted by Reuters, on Friday, the Bidenistas announced the Hydrogen Hub Hunger Games winners. There were seven projects selected from 33 finalists. Among them was the West Virginia-led Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2), which is a project that will use Marcellus/Utica natural gas as the feedstock to produce “blue” hydrogen, which is hydrogen made from natgas where carbon dioxide from the process is captured and either used or stored underground. While there is no doubt the big winner is West Virginia, other neighboring states, including Ohio and (yes) even Pennsylvania, will benefit with several locations that will be part of the larger hub project. We’ll explain below.
Read More “Hydrogen Hub Winners Announced – WV Takes Prize in M-U Region”
Joe Biden traveled to Pennsylvania (campaign rally) on Friday to make the official announcement of the seven lucky winners of the Hydrogen Hub Hunger Games (see today’s lead story). Joe pitched Pennsylvania as the big winner, which is a joke. PA scored small pieces of two approved projects. The one big, main hydrogen hub project pitched by PA to the Bidenistas — the Decarbonization Network of Appalachia (DNA H2Hub) — didn’t make the cut. Joe needs to win PA in the next election, or he’s toast, hence his visit to Philly on Friday (with a complicit media) to try and paint PA as the big winner. It was not.
Read More “PA Gets Consolation Prize in Hydrogen Hub Awards”
With all of the good news about WV (and OH, and PA) winning the Biden Hydrogen Hub Hunger Games contest by scoring $925 million for the WV-led Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) (see today’s lead story), there is a potential black cloud on the horizon. Investments in ARCH2 might not actually come to pass unless the IRS resolves the 45V hydrogen tax credit. Yes, an obscure rule part of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has the potential to scuttle most of the planned investments in ARCH2 and other hydrogen hub projects.
Read More “ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub Won’t Happen Without IRS 45V Tax Credit”
The U.S. rig count actually rose last week, adding a piddly four rigs to 622 active rigs (regaining the four it lost the week before). We remain near the lowest point since February 2022. The count in the Marcellus/Utica, after falling by one three weeks ago and holding steady two weeks ago, gained one rig (in Pennsylvania) and now stands at 39 active rigs. The national rig count is down 147, or 19%, below this time last year. We’d classify it as limping along, but we’re happy to see this slight reversal.
Read More “Slight Reversal – U.S. Rig Count Gains 3 @ 622, M-U Gains 1 @ 39”
Emily Satterwhite, who teaches Appalachian studies at Virginia Tech and has been engaged in illegal activities against the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) going back more than five years (see our previous stories about Satterwhite here). Satterwhite continues to encourage others to join illegal MVP construction blockades. On Friday, MVP asked a Montgomery County judge to slap an injunction on Satterwhite to prevent this sort of lawless activity, but the judge was too timid to act.
Read More “Va. County Judge Refuses to Stop Illegal Activities of MVP Protesters”