MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Coterra builds on partnership with Dennis Farm; NATIONAL: D.C. Circuit court rejects DOE’s de facto ban on natural gas boilers; USA LNG cargoes poised to shift to Asian ports; US Henry Hub, international natgas prices slump week over week; American energy independence is a national security priority; INTERNATIONAL: This is the goldilocks price for oil.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Jul 14, 2023”
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that a third-party contractor “struck a well head” on a Hilcorp shale well pad in Columbiana County, Ohio, resulting in a leak that forced the evacuation of 450 people within a mile of the well site (see Columbiana County, OH Evacuates 450 After Hilcorp Gas Well Accident). Good news. The leak has been fixed, the well head replaced, and the evacuees have returned home.
Read More “Hilcorp Well Leak in Columbiana OH Fixed, Evacuees Return Home”
The analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) have been looking at natural gas production in the Marcellus/Utica (i.e., Appalachia) for 2022. The M-U is the largest-producing natural gas shale play in the world. Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. after Texas. The EIA looked at PA’s production, specifically production from the four largest-producing counties, for 2022. They found what we told you about back in March: Production in PA has fallen (see PA Shale Production & Drilling Tumble in Latest IFO Qtly Report).
Read More “EIA Observes M-U Gas Production Flat, Key PA Counties in Decline”
For years we’ve railed against what we consider the theft of royalties and bonus payments by the state of Pennsylvania from landowners with creeks and rivers running through their leased (for shale drilling) property. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) claims that under a centuries-old law, the state of PA “owns” the property under “navigable” waterways–including rivers and streams (see PA DCNR Seizes $45M in Streambed Royalties & Bonuses Since 2015). Now comes another similar issue–the ownership of mineral rights under PA roadways.
Read More “Thorny Issue of Who Owns O&G Rights Under PA Roads – Strip & Gore”
One of the challenges faced by Energy Transfer in building its Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline (two pipelines) to transport NGLs from southwestern PA and eastern OH to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia was the terrain in Chester County, near Philly. The area has a karst topography–think of it as Swiss cheese underground, where there are a lot of holes carved out of the sandstone deposits over the years. ME2 didn’t create the karst topography but suffers from its presence because of frequent sinkholes that form when drilling through it. Although the drilling is long done and over, another very small sinkhole recently appeared in Chester near the ME2 pipeline.
Read More “PBS Hypes New Mariner East Pipe “Sinkhole” in Chester County, PA”
Driftwood LNG, a 27.6 million tonnes of LNG per year facility that will cost on the order of $16.8 billion to build, has not made an official final investment decision (FID) to proceed with building the FERC-approved project. However, construction began on the project in March 2022 (see Tellurian Begins Construction of Driftwood LNG with No FID). The EPC for the project is Bechtel Energy. Bechtel’s initial activities include demolition, civil site preparation, and construction of critical foundations. The Sierra Club, a radicalized organization rumored to be funded in part by Russian money, is trying to stop construction by claiming in a lawsuit filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that a permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers is unlawful.
Read More “Radical Sierra Club Tries to Block Driftwood LNG in 5th Circuit”
Yesterday the International Gas Union (IGU) released its 14th annual 2023 World LNG Report–the world’s most comprehensive public source of information on key developments and trends in the LNG sector (full copy below). With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the gas markets went wild last year. The IGU report calls 2022 the “most turbulent year of gas markets” in history and says, “LNG demonstrated essential value as a flexible, reliable, available energy resource for a secure energy transition.” Forget about the energy transition nonsense in that statement. The fact is, LNG saved the day over the past year plus. LNG, particularly U.S. LNG, pulled Europe’s bacon out of the fire.
Read More “IGU World LNG Report: 2022 Most Turbulent Year in NatGas History”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: NextDecade announces FID on Rio Grande LNG Phase 1; NATIONAL: Maximum extraction – shale development enters a new era; ExxonMobil sees LNG as a growth business into the future; INTERNATIONAL: Oil breaks out of trading range closing above $80; Shell says cutting oil and gas production “dangerous and irresponsible.”
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Jul 13, 2023”
Roughly 450 people within a one-mile radius of a Hilcorp Energy well pad in Fairfield Township (Columbiana County, OH) were evacuated following a mishap at the pad. Hilcorp says a third-party contractor “struck a well head” on the pad around 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, causing natural gas to leak into the air. What does that mean, that someone struck a well head?
Read More “Columbiana County, OH Evacuates 450 After Hilcorp Gas Well Accident”
Yesterday MDN told you that on Monday, the clown judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e., the 4th Circus) illegally stayed a THIRD permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to traverse a piddly 3.5 miles of the federally-owned Jefferson National Forest (see Colluding 4th Circuit Judges Do It Again – MVP Halted in Jeff Forest). No sooner had we delivered that news than the clowns returned (cue Judy Collins, Send in the Clowns). Yesterday the 4th Circus judges slapped a stay on a second permit, a THIRD permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) concerning endangered species. Both stays, which are blocking new construction, are illegal according to the recently adopted law known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023 (see Equitrans Announces Mountain Valley Pipe to Get Completed in 2023).
Read More “All Construction of MVP Stopped as 4th Circuit Stays Second Permit”
MDN has covered news about wastewater injection well company Buckeye Brine for more than a decade (see our Buckeye Brine stories here). Over the years, the company has drilled and safely operated three injection wells at the same location in Coshocton County, OH. Buckeye recently filed an application with the Ohio EPA to drill and operate a fourth wastewater injection well at the Coshocton location. The OEPA recently held a hearing, and as before, a group of activists and local residents turned up to oppose the plan.
Read More “Buckeye Brine Seeks Permit for 4th Injection Well in Coshocton, OH”
What a disappointment Rich Negrin has turned out to be as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection. During a DEP Citizens Advisory Council meeting held yesterday in Harrisburg (and remotely, via teleconference), several virulent anti-fossil fuelers addressed the council, making wild claims against the DEP. Negrin simply accepted their babbling and told them he agreed with them and would investigate any perceived problems. It was a shameful performance.
Read More “PA DEP Sec. Negrin Sucks Up to Radical Anti-Drillers on Conf Call”
Once a month, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysts issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months. Last month the EIA predicted an average price at the Henry Hub of $2.66/MMBtu for 2023, and $3.42/MMBtu for 2024 (see EIA Slashes 2023/24 NatGas Price Prediction in June STEO Report). The July STEO, released yesterday, lowers both of those projections once again.
Read More “EIA Predicts NatGas Prices Going Higher in 2H23 – July STEO”
Last week the Bidenistas at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new proposal to amend reporting requirements for petroleum and natural gas systems under EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. The proposed revisions would “improve the accuracy of reported emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), including methane, one of the primary drivers of the climate crisis [which doesn’t exist], from applicable petroleum and natural gas facilities.” The EPA is using the so-called Inflation Reduction Act as the excuse to ratchet up new reporting requirements so high it makes life miserable for the oil and gas industry. And that’s the point.
Read More “EPA Attacks O&G Again – New Reporting Updates for Methane Emissions”
Hydrogen is thought by some to be the great energy savior, able to fill an important gap in liquid fuels that batteries and electricity cannot. Hydrogen, a very flammable and ignitable substance (and the most common molecule in the universe), burns clean when it burns, producing only water as a byproduct. A major area of focus for those pushing hydrogen energy is using it to generate electricity. Wouldn’t it be great, they say, if we could swap out hydrogen for nasty old methane? The problem has been nobody has figured out how to mix more than perhaps 40% hydrogen with 60% methane in a standard gas-burning turbine. A company with operations in the U.S. and South Korea has just announced it has successfully performed a test of burning 60% hydrogen in a standard (refitted) gas turbine. That’s a really important breakthrough.
Read More “World First: Power Plant Burns 60% Hydrogen Using Flordia Co. Tech”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Shell, BP pursue arbitration claims against Venture Global LNG; Eugene natural gas ban removed from upcoming ballot; Cheniere shunning Panama Canal for longer LNG routes to Asia; NATIONAL: US climate envoy John Kerry criticises big oil for backtracking; INTERNATIONAL: Oil rises on signs of declining supply surplus; Crude oil and natgas proved reserves fell slightly in 2022; U.K. gas giant reaches $8 billion deal to import U.S. LNG; Cummins’ Darlington Engine Plant celebrates first natgas engine.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Jul 12, 2023”