NATIONAL: U.S. LNG exports vitally grow domestic natural gas production; USA crude oil stocks drop over 10 million barrels; INTERNATIONAL: Market expert says $100 oil is in sight; Can AI predict the oil price?; Putin’s natural gas leverage over the EU is not entirely gone.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Sep 5, 2023”
Yesterday morning at around 5 a.m., one or more persons used “homemade incendiary devices” (i.e., Molotov cocktails) to destroy two pieces of heavy equipment used for excavating a path for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The crime happened in the Boones Mill section of Franklin County, Virginia. Virginia State Police, along with the FBI and BATF, are looking for the criminals, seeking the public’s help in tracking down these pieces of human debris.
Read More “Radicals Get Violent, Burn MVP Excavators with Molotov Cocktails”
New Jersey is a Communist state, controlled by Communists from the Governor on down to radical judges packing its courts. Yesterday, three Commie judges from the Superior Court of NJ ruled that the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) should not have issued an exemption to the Highlands Act to Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) to build a new compressor station in West Milford. The compressor is part of the TGP East 300 expansion project, an upgrade of TGP to deliver an extra 115 MMcf/d of natural gas to Consolidated Edison and its customers in New York City and surrounding suburbs. East 300 is a FERC-approved project (see FERC Issues Compressor Permits for TGP’s East 300 Upgrade in NY, NJ).
Read More “Antis Convince NJ Superior Court to Block East 300 Gas Compressor”
There are four primary certification standards now in use by Marcellus/Utica (and other shale play) producers that want to prove the gas they produce is responsible, with low methane emissions. The original three include (1) Project Canary’s TrustWell Certification, (2) Equitable Origin’s EO100, and (3) The MiQ Standard (see Who Certifies Responsibly Sourced Gas (RSG) & How Does it Work?). Last December, we noticed a fourth new initiative on the part of several M-U companies (see Williams, Coterra, Dominion Partner on Certified Low-Emission Gas). That new initiative is built on an open-source set of protocols by GTI Energy. The first organization on our list of four, Project Canary, promotes itself as the most comprehensive of the certifying authorities. Big news: Project Canary is changing strategies and changing top management…
Read More “Mgmt Shakeup at One of Biggest “Responsible Gas” Certifiers in M-U”
When a government agency says it will “study” something, that means you can kiss it goodbye. It’s lights out. Our country has a serious problem: insufficient pipelines to get natural gas where it needs to go. In June 2020, during the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), published final rules to allow LNG to be safely transported by special rail cars (see PHMSA and Fed Railroad Admin Publish Final LNG by Rail Regs). Irrational fossil fuel haters got ahold of the cognitively challenged Joe Biden, and Biden put a “freeze” on LNG-by-rail during his first two days in office (see What Biden’s First Two Days on the Job Mean for the O&G Industry). Now, the Bidenistas at the DOT are moving to permanently (under Biden anyway) block LNG-by-rail by saying they “need to do more safety investigative work.” Kiss it goodbye.
Read More “LNG-by-Rail Officially on Hold with PHMSA, Agency Will “Study” It”
Antero Resources and Antero Midstream have donated a massive $4 million to West Virginia University’s Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources to help train the next generation of petroleum and natural gas engineers. Antero’s gift is the largest philanthropic donation to the school to date. It will support undergraduate and graduate students in the petroleum and natural gas engineering program.
Read More “Antero Donates $4 Million to WVU’s Engineering & Petroleum Program”
Last Friday, MDN told you about a new Cambridge University study published in the journal Science exposing the sale of carbon credits as a scam (see Cambridge Study Finds Carbon Offsets Using Trees is a Scam). Now that the carbon credit scam has been exposed, big companies like Shell, Nestle, and Gucci are exiting the market–refusing to spend money on pretend solutions to global warming. The word is out: The carbon credit emperor has no clothes!
Read More “With Carbon Credits Scam Exposed, Big Names (Like Shell) Exit Market”
New shale permits issued for Aug 21 – 27 in the Marcellus/Utica decreased once again. Up down, up down, up down. That’s what it feels like. There were 16 new permits issued last week, down nearly half from the 27 issued the prior week. Last week’s permit tally included 11 new permits in Pennsylvania, 5 new permits in Ohio, and no new permits in West Virginia (WV has issued no permits in four of the last five weeks). The top permittee for the week, for the third week in a row, was Chesapeake Energy, receiving 5 permits–1 in Bradford County and 4 in Sullivan County.
Read More “16 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Aug 21 – 27”
NATIONAL: The SEC may be overstepping its authority in ESG; INTERNATIONAL: Why the world needs more oil, not less; Global regasification capacity set to exceed 160 Bcfpd in 2024; Talks to avert strike fail as Chevron Australia LNG workers reject deal.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Sep 1, 2023”
Two weeks ago, MDN editor Jim Willis offered the opinion that PTT Global Chemical is not going to build an ethane cracker plant in Belmont County (see Facing Reality – PTT Ohio Cracker Plant Project is Dead). He backed up his opinion with observations and facts to support it. On Tuesday, the Belmont County Township Trustees Association heard a report from PTT’s public relations firm, which continues to dangle the carrot that the cracker plant is coming.
Read More “PTT Offers Excuses to Belmont County on Why Cracker Project Stalled”
Funny how a couple of miles can make all the difference. In West Deer, a township in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh), Olympus Energy faces organized opposition to every project it proposes. Some Olympus well pads get approved, and some don’t. Every Olympus pad is vigorously opposed by anti-fossil fuelers. Yet in the township immediately next door, Frazer (also Allegheny County), Range Resources appears to have no opposition. We hope we don’t jinx it for them! Range has just received a permit for the company’s fifth multi-well pad. No hew and cry from the crazy left–no nothing. Just business as usual.
Read More “Range Res. Gets Permit for 5th Well Pad in Frazer, Near West Deer”
The old Energy Harbor coal-fired power plant in Pleasants County, WV, which had been offline since June 1 and was scheduled to be demolished, has roared back to life under new ownership. Omnis Fuel Technologies invested $800 million to restart operations at the plant, which is now back online and producing electricity. Omnis’ plan is to transition the plant, renamed to Quantum Pleasants, to use hydrogen instead of coal.
Read More “WV Coal Power Plant Roars Back to Life, Will Convert to Hydrogen”
UGI, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations in the Marcellus and one of PA’s largest utility companies, is looking to sell or spin off its propane subsidiary into a new company. UGI’s propane subsidiary is AmeriGas, the nation’s largest retail propane marketer, serving nearly 1.3 million customers in all 50 states from approximately 1,400 locations. This is pretty big news in our book.
Read More “UGI Signals Looking to Sell or Spin-Off AmeriGas Propane Subsidiary”
Last week, MDN told you about the third and final public hearing held by the Pennsylvania House Philadelphia LNG Natural Gas Export Task Force (see Chester Residents Oppose Philly LNG Export Project at Final Hearing). The Task Force was established by law in early 2022 to study how to establish Philadelphia LNG exports to international markets, particularly European exports. The task force is supposed to deliver its report by November of this year. We have an addendum to our previous coverage of what was (in retrospect) Kabuki theater staged by the extreme left at that hearing.
Read More “PA Manufacturers Release Study Supporting Philly LNG Export Plan”
Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the “big bend” region of Florida on the morning of Aug. 30 as a Category 3 storm, then lost speed as it crossed the state, downgrading to a Category 1 as it pushed into Georgia, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers and reducing power and natural gas demand along with power prices. One of the consequences of the storm was/is an impact on the shore of Georgia, where the Elba Island LNG export facility is located. While we don’t have a post-storm update (yet), we can tell you that the Marcellus/Utica flowing to Elba Island was reduced by roughly 30% going into the storm.
Read More “Hurricane Idalia Reduces Feed Gas to Georgia’s Elba Island LNG”
A couple of major changes to alert you to at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC is the public utility commission in Pennsylvania. The PUC has five commissioners appointed by the Governor with the consent of the state Senate. The PUC oversees public utility and services operations in the Commonwealth, in sectors including water, energy, telecommunications, and transportation. The decisions made by the PUC impact the Marcellus/Utica–particularly pipelines, including the Mariner East pipelines. Consequently, any changes at the agency are of concern. This week, the PUC got a new Chairman and a new commissioner, both Harrisburg swamp dwellers, appointed by Gov. Josh Shapiro and confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate.
Read More “Harrisburg Swamp Dwellers Appointed to PA PUC by Gov. Shapiro”