Open Season for New Capacity at Enbridge’s Dawn Parkway System
The Enbridge Gas Dawn Parkway System is one of the most robust pipeline systems in North America and provides for the movement of natural gas from Enbridge Gas’s Dawn Hub located near Sarnia, Ontario, to the Greater Toronto Area, where it interconnects with other downstream pipelines serving eastern Canadian and northeast U.S. markets. Marcellus/Utica molecules help feed the Dawn Hub via the Rover and NEXUS pipelines. Enbridge Gas is holding a new capacity open season for an extra 300 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of natural gas along the Dawn Parkway System. Let’s move more M-U molecules!
Read More “Open Season for New Capacity at Enbridge’s Dawn Parkway System”
In November 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed regulatory lawyer Willie Phillips to serve as a commissioner on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), replacing Neil Chatterjee (see 
For traders who buy and sell NYMEX Henry Hub futures (and there is a fair number who read MDN), listen up! CME Group, which operates the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), announced it is launching Micro Henry Hub futures and options beginning November 6. The standard Henry Hub natural gas futures contract for a single contract trades 10,000 MMBtu of natural gas, equivalent to 10 million cubic feet (MMcf). The new Micro Henry Hub contract is one-tenth that size — 1,000 MMBtu, equivalent to 1 MMcf. The other major difference is that the standard Henry Hub contract costs $10 to execute, whereas the new Micro contract will cost just $1.
According to the International Gas Union’s (IGU) 2023 Global Wholesale Gas Price Survey report (full copy below), 2022 was THE most turbulent year in the history of gas markets, as the global energy crisis intensified and the global price levels reached record highs. Last year saw record price levels, with Europe’s wholesale prices reaching over $30 per MMBtu. The average world price for natural gas reached $9.44 per MMBtu in 2022 — the highest ever — compared to a record low of $3.23 per MMBtu in 2020. Record high prices last year were seen in all regions apart from North America and the Former Soviet Union.
NATIONAL: Rising oil prices boost US drilling, producer costs rise; INTERNATIONAL: Shell CEO comes under pressure from within on renewables shift; Brent crude oil expected to average $96 per barrel in Q4.
An important decision was recently issued in a federal court case (in Ohio) that has the potential to affect landowners and drillers with shale leases throughout the Marcellus/Utica. At least, we believe it has broader implications. The case is known as Grissoms et al. v. Antero Resources Corporation. The case revolves around the issue of a “market enhancement” royalty clause (MEC), which is common in many shale leases throughout the M-U. An MEC lease typically prohibits the deduction of any post-production costs incurred in transforming raw gas into a marketable product. The question is, when is the gas marketable? At the wellhead or later on, after it has been cleaned up? The judge in the Grissoms case ruled in favor of the landowner and said the gas is NOT “marketable” in its raw form at the wellhead.
Hope Gas, a Local Distribution Company (LDC) or a utility company, provides gas service to approximately 112,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. Hope Gas recently received approval from the Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia to acquire nearly 900 miles of gathering pipelines in northern West Virginia from Equitrans Midstream and add the pipeline to the 2,000 miles of WV gathering pipes it already owns (see 
Yesterday, Ameren Missouri, a subsidiary of Ameren Corporation, a regional electric utility, announced its updated 20-year plan to provide reliable, affordable, and resilient energy to its customers. The plan calls for investment in new on-demand energy sources (two new gas-fired power plants) to ensure the long-term stability of the energy grid and accelerated deployment of renewable energy generation. Even though the plan is loaded with all sorts of so-called new renewable electric generation, anti-fossil fuel zealots have latched onto the two new gas-fired power plants and are stroking out. By the way, those two gas-fired plants will get their molecules from the Marcellus/Utica.
Going back at least 10 years, MDN has referred to the way Coterra Energy (then Cabot Oil & Gas) was seemingly able to spin golden profits from the straw of low gas prices in the northeastern PA Marcellus (see 
Did the Democrats running the Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) just receive a consolation prize from the Democrats who run the federal Dept. of Energy (DOE)? That’s the question swirling in our heads as we read about the PA DCNR receiving a $1 million grant from the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) to do some CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration) work. Is the DOE about to bypass PA and award a $1 BILLION grand prize to West Virginia for a hydrogen hub (that includes CCUS), and is this $1 million grant the Biden way of preempting sore feelings in PA by throwing them a bone?
According to analysts writing for S&P Global Commodity Insights, the long-range forecast from the U.S. National Weather Service calls for milder temperatures in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region this winter. Warm temps equal less natural gas usage. Williams’ Transco Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project will partially come online in October, flowing an initial 450 MMcf/d (out of 829 MMcf/d) of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland. More supply with less demand is a classic economic prescription for lower prices in New York, New Jersey, and the Mid-Atlantic region. So says the S&P analysts.
Folks new to the Marcellus/Utica may not know this, but Chesapeake Energy’s then-CEO Aubrey McClendon first “discovered” the Ohio Utica about 15 years ago. Under McClendon, Chesapeake spent over $2 billion acquiring rights to drill 1.3 million acres in Ohio — or roughly 5% of the state’s land area. McClendon pegged the value of the Utica for Ohio at half a trillion dollars. He famously said the Ohio Utica is “the biggest thing economically to hit Ohio, since maybe the plow.” While McClendon rightly deserves credit for launching the development of the Utica, he guessed wrong on the best places to drill in the Utica.