Exxon Plans to Double LNG Biz by 2030 to Supply Asia & Europe
An Exxon Mobil executive told the Nikkei news service his company is looking to nearly double the volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) it is handling to more than 40 million tons per annum (MTPA) by 2030. Exxon currently handles roughly 22 MTPA now. The company plans to invest in LNG projects, offshore oil in Guyana and South America, and in U.S. shale (the Permian). What about the Marcellus/Utica?
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Rich Negrin, newly ensconced Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) in Pennsylvania, was supposed to be the Great White Horse riding it to correct the problems at the DEP and “make the trains run on time” (i.e., clean up the bureaucratic dysfunction at the agency). He’s been running the agency since January, yet we haven’t seen any noticeable changes. Is it too soon to expect results? Last Friday, as happens about once every other month, the DEP’s oil and gas reporting database was offline, throwing an error. We could not bring you PA’s permit numbers for Friday (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: From ‘man camp’ to treatment center; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Phil Murphy’s plan to ban natural gas in New Jersey; NATIONAL: U.S. court tosses challenge to EPA’s greenhouse gas ‘endangerment finding’; Mike Kelly: Government is an invasive species; DOI’s “balanced approach” for O&G development is out-of-touch with reality; How much longer can shale support U.S. oil and gas production?
Long-range forecasts for hot weather and a lighter-than-predicted storage report for natural gas led to a 6% spike up in the price of the NYMEX Henry Hub yesterday, closing at $2.76/MMBtu. The National Weather Service released modeling yesterday that shows hot temps will get hotter for the end of July and the beginning of August. Also, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly storage report yesterday, showing 41 Bcf was injected into storage for the previous week–lower than a predicted mid- to upper-40s Bcf. That was enough for traders to bid up the NYMEX price.
On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (liberal Democrat from West Virginia) filed an amicus curiae “friend of the court” brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to show his support for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in its fight against the actions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (see 
Kimmeridge Energy, a private investment firm focused on the energy sector, yesterday published a white paper entitled, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” The thesis of the Kimmeridge report is that there are still too many (and too small) drillers in the shale sector. Kimmeridge believes we need consolidation into fewer, and bigger, companies. Why? There are not enough investors to go around, according to the report. As a result, the valuation of existing too-many public companies is too low. The fix is for fewer and bigger shale drillers.
Results from a new poll conducted by Morning Consult (on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute) indicate that an overwhelming majority of voters not only support the production of more American energy but also want the economic contributions of oil and natural gas to inform energy policies in the United States. Some 90 percent of voters agree that natural gas and oil play an important role in strengthening the U.S. economy. Some 88 percent of voters believe it is important to produce natural gas and oil here in the U.S. So why is Joe Biden trying to obliterate fossil energy?
We love a good “back from the dead” story. In 2017 Epiphany Water Solutions (aka Epiphany Environmental, LLC) filed for a permit to build a centralized oil and gas wastewater treatment facility in Coudersport (Potter County), PA (see 
Cheniere Energy CEO Jack Fusco dropped a verbal bomb at the LNG 2023 conference held last week in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). Fusco told journalists that his company “will likely build a pipeline” that connects to other pipelines to flow even more natural gas to its Sabine Pass LNG export facility that sits near Sabine Lake, close to the Gulf Coast. The motivation is to get more gas for a planned “stage 5” expansion of the Sabine Pass facility, designed to liquefy and export an additional 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG.
In January, Ohio House Bill (HB) 507 became law with the signature of Gov. Mike DeWine (see 
Researchers with the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) recently published a study in the journal Ecological Indicators. The study’s intent was to measure whether or not frack waste dumped in local landfills has radiation that is leaking out in groundwater (leachate) from those facilities. Research like this, if legitimate (and accurate), is a good thing. We need to know if the waste we’re dumping is causing a problem. But a funny thing happened during the study. The researchers found a big problem with recordkeeping.
Two of the world’s largest three oilfield services (OFS) companies, Halliburton and Baker Hughes, provided updates this week for their second-quarter performance and operations. Both companies said essentially the same thing. Drilling is slowing down in U.S. shale, but offshore drilling in other parts of the world is still going strong and makes up for the slowdown here at home.
This story reinforces what we have said FOR YEARS: The radicalized environmental left will NEVER be satisfied that fossil energy is acceptable, no matter what we do to ensure it’s “clean and green.” As we have said so many times before, the environmental left is unreasonable–not able to be reasoned with. Irrational. Haters. We have new evidence for our claims. There are four major certification schemes to ensure natural gas produced in the U.S. is “responsible”–or clean and green. In March, the Bidenistas began to sniff around the certification authorities to grab that authority for themselves. A cabal of some 150 “environmental” (leftist Communist) groups are telling the Bidenistas not to bother. Gas will never be acceptable.