Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines
EQT’s Toby Rice Says Industrial World Threatened by Pipe Lawsuits
EQT Corporation CEO Toby Rice says there is a “war on infrastructure” here in the U.S. (meaning a war against pipelines) that is sparking a “Europe-style energy crisis.” Rice says, “The industrial world that we enjoy now is severely compromised because of the lawsuits, the pushback and the movement to cancel energy infrastructures and modern society.” He also says we’re just five years behind Europe in regard to an energy crisis.
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Last week, on Halloween Day, officials from the PJM Interconnection presented a plan to make up for the retirement of fossil fuel generators and increasing demand on the way over the next five years. The plan includes 72 proposals from FirstEnergy, Dominion, and other companies designed to meet future power needs — for a total price tag of roughly $5 billion. Here is a startling admission from PJM made as part of its announcement: There will be a 7,500 megawatt (MW) increase in demand from now until 2028 due to data center additions to the system in Virginia and Maryland. At the same time, more than 11,000 MW of fossil fuel generation across the PJM footprint of 13 states and Washington, D.C., have or are being retired. Add the two together, and you get a delta of 18,500 MW that we need to cover somehow. Yikes!
A Maryland company called 
NATIONAL: Energy Transfer completes acquisition of Crestwood; Shale patch wages hit USA record; Oil strategists look at USA oil production; BMI Henry Hub outlook; How the U.S. is pumping more oil with fewer rigs; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices are being torn between these 2 factors; Germany and the EU buck calls to end fossil fuel use.
We have to confess this news came suddenly out of left field. And we’re still struggling with what to make of it. Yesterday, CNX Resources CEO Nick DeIuliis, author of 
The next few weeks will tell the story of whether or not the final nail has been driven into the coffin of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax in Pennsylvania. Yesterday, we brought you the really big news that PA’s Commonwealth Court voted 4-1 to block the state from joining RGGI (see 
Pipeline giant Williams issued its third quarter update yesterday. Among the news of interest for the Marcellus/Utica was a statement by Williams CEO Alan Armstrong that the company completed the first half of Transco’s Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project well ahead of schedule (on Oct. 21). The company is working with FERC to get the completed portion of the project online and flowing asap. REAE is a plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland. The initial portion (now complete) will flow about half that amount (see 
Clean Fuel Services LLC, a subsidiary of Hog Lick Aggregates LLC, is one of fourteen partner companies from West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania providing hydrogen production, offtake, and connective infrastructure for the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) project. Clean Fuel’s role is to develop a hydrogen fuel depot in Fairmont (Marion County), WV, as part of ARCH2. The depot will provide a “one-stop-shop” for customers transitioning heavy-duty and medium-duty trucks, construction equipment, delivery vehicles, and bus fleets from diesel to hydrogen.
New shale permits issued for Oct 23 – 29 in the Marcellus/Utica increased again. There were 26 new permits issued last week, versus 22 the week before. Last week’s permit tally included 18 new permits in Pennsylvania, 7 new permits in Ohio, and 1 new permit in West Virginia. Coterra Energy was the top permittee for the week, drawing 7 permits in Susquehanna County, PA. Chesapeake Energy was #2 with 5 permits issued in Sullivan County, PA.
In the end, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court was not fooled by the Democrat left’s attempt to rename a tax as a fee to circumvent the necessary approval needed by the state legislature in approving taxes as provided for by the state constitution. We’re referring to the illegal attempt by former PA Gov. Tom Wolf in 2019 to force the state into a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which would slap a new (very high) tax (i.e., “fee”) on electricity produced by coal- and gas-fired power plants, forcing them out of business in favor of unreliable “renewable” energy sources (see 
The Pennsylvania State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) should prepare to cough up some of the money it receives from the steep charges it assesses for Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation and Chapter 105 Water Obstructions and Encroachments permits. For YEARS, we’ve told you about these permits sometimes taking two, three, even six to eight months for approval — instead of the law-mandated 14 days. It got so bad that in the fall of 2019, PA State Sen. Gene Yaw introduced a bill to allow third-party reviews of these permits (see 
Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the country’s third largest publicly-traded natural gas producer, issued its third quarter 2023 update yesterday. The company reports a profit of $70 million in net income during 3Q23, down from $883 million in 3Q22. The drop was due to lower gas prices and less production. Second quarter net production was 3,495 MMcfe per day (or 3.5 Bcfe/d, 97% natural gas and 3% total liquids), down 15% from 4,108 MMcfe per day in 3Q22. The company used an average of nine rigs to drill 35 wells, down from 53 in the second quarter, and placed 34 wells on production, which includes 16 wells in the South Texas Rich Eagle Ford asset (which is in the process of being sold).
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May 2021 with a new board and top management. In January of this year, the company appointed a new CEO, John Reinhart, the former President and CEO of M-U driller Montage Resources Corporation before Southwestern Energy gobbled up that company (see 
DT Midstream (DTM), headquartered in Detroit, owns major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region and other regions (like the Haynesville). DTM issued its third quarter 2023 update yesterday. Items related to the M-U of note is that construction of the Ohio Utica System, a new greenfield gathering system in the Ohio Utica for EOG Resources, is progressing ahead of schedule with an expected in-service date of 1Q24. DTM also announced the NEXUS Pipeline added approximately 50 MMcf/d of additional leased capacity in 3Q.