Plugging Orphan Wells in OH, PA More Complicated Than Just Money
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 Biden So-Called $1.2T Infrastructure Bill Passes Thanks to RINOs). Only about 9% of the $1.2 trillion will go to actual infrastructure projects like roads and bridges. One of the line items in the bill (so small it’s a rounding error) is money to plug orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells. A small amount of money was distributed last fall, a year after the bill became law (see PA DEP Solicits Bids to Plug First 50 Orphaned Wells Using Fed $$). Finally, after two years of waiting, the Bidenistas issued the next round of money in July — some $660 million in total, of which $163 million (or 25%) went to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia (see Bidenistas Dispense $163 Million to Plug Old O&G Wells in OH-PA-WV). It turns out that just throwing money at the problem doesn’t fix it. There is a long list of challenges before an old well gets plugged.
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Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil, and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in several unconventional shale plays, including the Marcellus and Utica. On Tuesday, the company issued an operational update based on third-quarter results (no financials, just operations). The company saw significant quarterly volume growth across nearly every segment, including 19% volume growth in its Northeast (Marcellus/Utica) segment. However, the big news from the update is that the company has received overtures to buy some or all of the entire company. The Summit board is now actively considering those offers.
TransCanada Corporation, which renamed itself TC Energy in 2019, bought out/merged in U.S.-based Columbia Pipeline Group (now Columbia Gas Transmission) in 2016 (see 
Freeport LNG’s export terminal with three liquefaction “trains” shut down in June 2022 after an explosion and fire (see 
NATIONAL: A new study zaps Biden’s plan to transform the electrical grid; Oil plummets amid demand outlook concerns; What McCarthy’s fall means for energy, environment policy; INTERNATIONAL: Germany reactivates coal plants for winter power boost.
Hope Gas, a Local Distribution Company (LDC), otherwise known as a utility company, provides gas service to approximately 112,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. In January, Hope announced it was buying the West Virginia division of Peoples Gas, currently owned by Essential Utilities, for an undisclosed amount (see 
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasters are predicting a sharp drop in natural gas demand in the power sector in the coming decades based on an expectation that unreliable renewables will add tremendous new capacity build-out and will accelerate and displace other sources. However, EIA’s forecasts over the past decade have “consistently and severely” underestimated gas burn for power. The sharp analysts at RBN Energy have done a deep dive into the pitfalls of forecasting gas consumption in a world often focused on pushing a renewables-heavy generation stack.
U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) fell, albeit modestly, in September from August as scattered outages at four gas-processing plants led to lower shipments. A total of 7.12 million metric tons of LNG left U.S. ports in September, down from the 7.32 million metric tons exported in August, according to data from LSEG vessel tracking. That’s down just 2.7%. Maintenance outages were at Freeport, Sabine Pass, Corpus Christi, and Cove Point. In fact, Cove Point is still down for maintenance.
Although we have a companion story from today’s lineup that criticizes the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) for its powers to predict the future (see EIA Consistently Underestimates NatGas Needed for Power Generation), the EIA is unparalleled in its tracking and reporting of historical energy data. The expert number crunchers of the EIA recently turned their eyes on U.S. petroleum exports and found that these types of exports (including NGLs) set a new record high in the first half of 2023.
We spotted the following headline for an S&P Global Commodity Insights story: “Closed LNG arbitrage endangers winter supply to Asia.” What the heck is LNG arbitrage, why is it “closed,” and how is that endangering LNG shipments to Asia? Those were the answers we went seeking by reading the S&P article. And, is there a connection to LNG exports coming from the U.S.?
Waco Oil & Gas Co., Inc., headquartered in Glenville (Gilmer County), WV, signed a proposed consent decree (settlement agreement) with the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to settle an “alleged” charge of violating the federal Clean Water Act and West Virginia state law for “unauthorized discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States in Braxton County, West Virginia.” Waco will pay a $825,000 penalty — split evenly between the feds and WV. Waco will also pay big bucks to restore “the vast majority of the impacted waters” and to provide “compensatory mitigation for waters that cannot be restored.” No doubt the bill will far exceed $1 million in total.
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 
New York State has become the North Korea of the United States. It is narrow and parochial and devoid of freedom. If you operate a business in New York and you are not in a protected or favored class, or if your business does not bribe someone in the Democrat Party, you are in danger of losing that business. New York is aggressively hostile to any business remotely connected to fossil fuels. A “bitcoin miner” operating in beautiful Upstate NY, near the shore of Seneca Lake, uses a small natural gas power plant to provide power for its 15,300 computer servers. The radical Democrats running the state, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, want it shut down and gone. They are close to achieving their objective. How did we fall this far?