Study: Rivers & Streams (Mom Earth) Emits HALF of Fugitive Methane
MDN readers have probably grown weary of us pushing the UN data into your face that the #1 largest source of so-called fugitive methane in the world at 40% is Mom Earth herself, coming from natural ecosystems (see UN Global Methane Assessment of 2021). The #2 largest source is agriculture, contributing 24% of all fugitive methane. And way down the list at #3 is the oil and gas sector, responsible (we’re told) for 21% of all fugitive methane. Which means 79% of all fugitive methane comes from non-O&G sources, raising the question, why pick on O&G when there are other sources that can be tamed for a much bigger bang for the fugitive methane buck? The research has been updated by the left, and the news is worse for the left than originally thought. An international team of researchers, including University of Wisconsin–Madison freshwater ecologists, have just published a new study that finds, “Freshwater ecosystems are responsible for about half of the world’s methane releases.”
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A coalition of 1,609 scientists worldwide, including two Nobel Laureates, have signed a declaration stating “there is no climate emergency” and that they “strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy” being pushed across the globe. The declaration does not deny the harmful effect of greenhouse gasses but instead challenges the hysteria brought about by the narrative of imminent doom. Whoops! What happened to the mainstream media narrative that ALL real scientists believe in the hoax of catastrophic global warming? One more lie from the left is now exposed…
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Natural gas hero: Justin Elliott; NATIONAL: CEWD launches Energy Industry Fundamentals 2.0; There’s a vast source of clean energy beneath our feet; Vanguard joins BlackRock, cuts support for ESG; INTERNATIONAL: Chevron LNG workers in Australia plan strike from Sept. 7; Russia’s answer to the U.S. shale boom takes huge step.
The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) released production numbers for the second quarter of 2023 late last week, and nobody noticed…except MDN (thanks to a tip from a good friend). ODNR no longer issues a press release to summarize the results as they once did. We’ve got the full spreadsheet with oil and gas production details for all 3,233 active shale wells in the Buckeye State. We’ve sliced and diced the numbers and have our usual Top 25 lists for natural gas and oil wells. We’ve added a couple of new charts summarizing the data, showing the total production for the quarter by driller (gas and oil) and the total production for the quarter by county. You’re gonna love it!
The rig count carnage continues. For the seventh week in a row and the 16th of the last 17 weeks, the U.S. active rig count lost rigs. A lot of rigs. Last week, the number decreased by 10 rigs after falling by 12 for the prior week. The total is now down to 632 active rigs across both oil and gas. Oil rigs have now fallen for a ninth straight month, while the combined oil and gas count has fallen for four straight months. After losing three rigs two weeks ago, the Marcellus/Utica count added one rig last week–in West Virginia.
An out-of-state, paid protester locked herself to a piece of excavating equipment used to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline early Saturday morning in Montgomery County, Va. She used a sleeping dragon device (arms in a PVC pipe wrapped in duct tape). She was there for seven hours, causing a delay. Virginia State Troopers and Montgomery County Sheriffs finally freed and arrested her. The unnamed protester was charged with a misdemeanor, and bail was set at $2,500. Here’s the thing: She was there protesting the pipeline because it’s fossil energy–yet the device she used, the sleeping dragon, was made from fossil energy! What a dodo bird.
Last summer, Pennsylvania House Bill (HB) 2644 was passed into law, becoming Act 96 of 2022 (see 
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Olympus owns a pipeline subsidiary called Hyperion Midstream that builds gathering lines to the company’s wells. Hyperion applied to build a compressor station on a recently approved Olympus well pad in rural West Deer Township (Allegheny County). The PA State Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) will hold a public hearing on Sept. 26 about the proposal. Grab the popcorn.
Columbia Gas of Massachusetts (NiSource) never quite recovered from a series of explosions in September 2018 that occurred with its local delivery pipelines north of Boston (see 
Over the past 12 months, the NYMEX Henry Hub price for natural gas (front month contract) has traded as high as $9.68/MMBtu (August 22, 2022) and as low as $2.01/MMbtu (April 13, 2023). Lately, we’ve been hovering around the $2.50 mark. One of the energy industry’s favorite parlor games is guessing where the price will go over the next year or so. Once a month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) hauls out its dart board and makes a prediction. Various analysts and consulting/analytics firms chime in from time to time. Today, we have a price prediction through the end of 2024 from a highly respected source: RBN Energy.
Last November, one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania) began to leak. The well leaked roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see 
East Daley Analytics, based in Colorado, is a consulting firm that specializes in identifying, understanding, and monitoring operational risk throughout the oil and gas value chain. A “Daley Note” published yesterday by the company focused on the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), providing a status update and a couple of intriguing (some might say controversial) comments. East Daley says while Equitrans, the builder of MVP, says it will finish the project by the end of this year, East Daley’s analysts don’t think so. East Daley also says when (not if) the pipeline gets done and comes online, the newly available capacity won’t translate into new/more shale drilling in the Marcellus/Utica–at least not initially.
The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) is giving utility giant Duke Energy (mega profitable) and one of its natural gas suppliers, Williams (i.e., the Transco Pipeline, also mega profitable) $1 million of taxpayer money to do their jobs of monitoring for methane leaks. Dontcha love corporate welfare? Of course, if the government is going to blow taxpayers’ money on energy projects like uncompetitive and unreliable renewables, why not give a little love to fossil energy too, right? Still, it bugs us.