MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – May 23, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Mon., May 22, 2023. The numbers below reflect yesterday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Tue, May 23, 2023
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Chevron buying PDC Energy for $6.3 billion; Exxon’s $100 million acquisition suggests it may drill for electric cars; NATIONAL: What new oil and gas jobs will exist in the future?; What’s driving the energy industry’s latest cycle of consolidation?; Wind farms raise temperatures at the surface level; INTERNATIONAL: What will world oil demand be in 2023?; EIA expects lower crude oil prices for the 2H of 2023 and for 2024.
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Nightmare in Boston – Everett LNG Import Terminal May Close 2024
Everett LNG import terminal The Democrat left’s blockade of new natural gas pipelines from the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale into New England is about to be exposed as the biggest mistake ever made by people like current Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (who blocked pipelines as Attorney General). Next year, New England’s biggest natural gas-fired power plant–the Mystic Generating Station in Everett, MA (Boston suburb)–will shut down. It’s no longer profitable for the owner, Constellation Energy, to keep operating. Next door to the power plant is another facility owned by Constellation–the Everett LNG import terminal, which accepts and regasifies foreign natural gas. Speculation is that since the power plant’s main source of gas comes from the LNG import terminal, the LNG terminal may close down too. Which means Boston and New England are in deep doo-doo.
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Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia
BLM Approves MVP ROW Through Jefferson Natl Forest – Part III
Last week MDN told you the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) had given final approval to Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to install pipe through 3.5 miles of woodlands, and under the Appalachian Trail, in the Jefferson National Forest in Monroe County in West Virginia, in and Giles and Montgomery counties in Virginia for the THIRD time (see USFS Approves Plan for MVP to Build Through Jefferson Natl Forest). Approval was subject to the Biden Bureau of Land Management (BLM) endorsing USFS’s plan by issuing a right-of-way grant and permit. BLM’s approval came a few days later.
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Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell
Shell PA Cracker Plant Remains Shut Down for “Few Weeks” at Least
The Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA (near Pittsburgh) has experienced a number of problems over the past six months during startup, including flaring and foul odors (see Shell Hosts Virtual Meeting with Community re Cracker Problems). Earlier this month, Shell’s new CEO called the cracker plant problems “technical niggles,” meaning minor irritations (see Shell CEO Calls PA Cracker Plant Problems “Technical Niggles”). It looks like the problems are more than just niggles. The plant is shut down and will remain so for at least “the next few weeks,” according to Shell.
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Dan Rice’s Net-Zero CO2 Co. Gets $50M Investment from South Korea
Last December, Rice Acquisition Corp II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) started by the Rice brothers (Danny, Toby, and Derek), announced a deal to acquire NET Power–an electric power developer with revolutionary new technology to capture every last molecule of carbon dioxide from natural gas-fired power plants (see Dan Rice Buys Co. that Builds Zero-Carbon Gas-Fired Electric Plants). The deal is not yet consummated but is getting close. In April, we told you that two of the investors in the venture, Occidental Petroleum and the Rice boys themselves, were kicking in a combined extra $275 million to help close the deal (see Dan Rice’s New “Net-Zero” CO2 Company Gets Extra $275M Investment). On Friday, the deal got another $50 million cash infusion from South Korea.
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Weekly Rig Count Down Big Again – This Time Oil, Not Gas Rigs
Oilfield services company (OFS) Baker Hughes is the keeper of the venerable oil and gas industry rig count, which it has been tabulating since 1944. Last Monday, we reported on the previous Friday’s rig count as a gut punch to the natural gas sector, with some 16 gas-focused rigs being taken out of service (see U.S. Natural Gas Drilling Rig Count Craters, Down 10% in One Week). The prevailing theory is that there is a massive pullback on new natgas drilling due to ongoing low prices for gas. We cautioned that one week does not make a trend. Let’s see what happens in future weeks. So, how about the BH rig count from last Friday? What did it show?
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FERC’s Clements Exposed for Questionable Ethics, Ties to Big Green
FERC Commissioner Allison Clements A new expose running in RealClearEnergy reveals the tight relationship between Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Allison Clements and several Big Green groups, calling into question her ethics and her right to remain on the commission. In a May 4th Senate hearing featuring the four FERC commissioners, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, questioned Clements about a “closed-door” meeting she had with the funders of a left-leaning grantmaking institution known as the Energy Foundation. Participants in that meeting included the litigious, anti-fossil energy activist groups Sierra Club, EarthJustice, and Natural Resource Defense Council (Clements’ former employer).
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MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – May 22, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Fri., May 19, 2023. The numbers below reflect Friday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Mon, May 22, 2023
NATIONAL: Most of US faces elevated risk of blackouts this summer; ExxonMobil, Shell explode a pair of energy transition myths; Things I truly don’t understand about the “inevitable energy transition”; INTERNATIONAL: Russia reportedly delivering nearly 1.44 bcf of gas a day via Ukraine; Green groups say G7 support for more gas investments “death sentence.”
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Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Research | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia
New Permits to Drill in M-U, Other Gas Plays, Saw Big Drop in April
According to analysts at Evercore ISI, natural gas (and oil) permits to drill new shale wells dropped dramatically in April from previous months in both the Marcellus/Utica and other shale plays. Evercore tracks new drilling permits and says Marcellus permits fell by 25%. The M-U’s main competitor, the Haynesville, saw an even bigger 40% drop. We did a bit of analysis ourselves, and while new permits did drop quite a bit in April, that doesn’t tell the whole story.
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Green Radicals Protesting MVP Rush Stage at POLITICO Event
The Democrat Party has created a monster. They have brainwashed a considerable portion of their members to believe in the imminent toasting of Mom Earth by burning fossil fuels. Well into the second generation of mind-numbed robots, the issue is that many of these people are miseducated and have no sense of basic God-given (not man-given) human rights–like free speech. Example: The dunderheaded Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy, was giving a talk at a Democrat POLITICO energy summit in the D.C. swamp yesterday. She was asked a question about Mountain Valley Pipeline. She simply mouthed support for it (and it was lukewarm support at best), and a couple of unhinged wackos rushed toward the stage screaming. Did they wet their pants and howl at the moon too?
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Seneca Resources | Tioga County (PA)
Antis Try to Block Seneca’s Right to Drill in Tioga State Forest
In March, we warned you that a so-called environmental group flying under the name of Tioga County’s Pine Creek Headwaters Protection Group (PCHPG) is angling to block a new Seneca Resources well pad on Mt. Nessmuk on the company’s Tioga State Forest Lease #007 (see Enviro Group Objects to Well Pad Location in Tioga State Forest). Seneca has already developed two pads on their legally-purchased leasehold in the Tioga State Forest and wants to add a third.
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NYMEX Gas Price Leaps 9.6% to Close at 2-Month High of $2.59
Yesterday the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price of natural gas spiked nearly 10% (9.6%)–in a single day. It closed at $2.592/MMBtu, the highest closing number since March 13, over two months ago. The main reason for the price spike is a new weekly gas storage number issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The new gas added to storage was slightly lower than estimates predicted. The recent decline in the rig count last week (see U.S. Natural Gas Drilling Rig Count Craters, Down 10% in One Week), combined with less gas going into storage, prompted traders to bid up the price.
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EPA Power Plant Rule Destabilizes the Grid, Ends Reliable Electric
Last week the Bidenistas at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a hellscape of new regulations aimed at forcing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to close (see New Biden EPA Regs a “Death Sentence” for Fossil-Fuel Power Plants). The Wall Street Journal called the new regs a “death sentence for fossil-fuel power plants.” The WSJ is keeping the heat on the Biden EPA. In a new article, the WSJ says the “proposed power-plant emission rule would destabilize the energy grid and end reliable electricity.”
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Exxon Says World Hitting Mythical “Net-Zero” by 2050 is Nonsense
Finally, at least one Big Oil company is willing to go on the record countering the mass insanity of the left. The left wants humanity to kill itself in order to achieve mythical “net zero” (no extra carbon emissions) by 2050. Leftist lunatics have tried to brainwash the world that if we don’t hit net zero (which is impossible), that’s it. Lights out. The world toasts, and we burn ourselves to a cinder. There is no hope for the future. Which is complete nonsense. Exxon said as much in an official statement to shareholders in an SEC filing.
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