MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – Apr 18, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Mon., Apr. 17, 2023. The numbers below reflect yesterday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Apr 18, 2023
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California utilities propose charging customers based on income; California’s cautionary clean energy; NATIONAL: A new slew of EPA air rules add to Biden’s contradictory policies; INTERNATIONAL: IEA still predicts record oil demand in 2023.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Clinton County | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania
Bad Guys Win – Builder Cancels $1B Renovo Gas-Fired Power Plant
The same three radicalized environmental groups that have repeatedly attacked the $1.1 billion Renovo Energy Center (REC), a Marcellus gas-fired power plant planned for Clinton County, PA, have finally won. The Clean Air Council, PennFuture, and the Center for Biological Diversity (all completely radicalized fossil fuel bigots) have repeatedly challenged permits for REC. Last week the builder of the project, Bechtel Corp., announced it is pulling out of the project which has been in the planning stages for eight years. The reason for canceling the project is because of “the ongoing appeals from environmental groups.” What a tragedy.
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Accidents | Cambria County | Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Storage
PA DEP Withdraws Order to Fix Equitrans Rager Gas Storage Leak
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 ended up leaking roughly 100 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of gas into the atmosphere (see Equitrans Gas Storage Well in Cambria County, PA is Leaking). It took two weeks (14 days) for the leak to get fixed, after it had leaked roughly 1.4 billion cubic feet into the air (see Storage Well Leak Fix in Cambria County Failed, Leaked 1.4 Bcf). Both the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) investigated (see Feds Investigate Equitrans Storage Well Leak in Cambria County, PA). The PA DEP ordered Equitrans to plug several of the 12 wells at the Rager area and ordered the company to make certain (expensive) upgrades to the other wells. Equitrans appealed that order, and the DEP has just backed down.
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Accidents | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Regulation | Shell
PA DEP Investigates Bad Odor Coming from Shell Cracker Plant
Shell Polymers Monaca (click for larger view) The mighty Shell ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA (called Shell Polymers Monaca) has had “issues” getting and staying fully up to speed. Since it officially went online last November, Shell has received six separate notices of violation (NOVs) for exceeding allowable air pollution limits, largely related to repeated flaring episodes (see PA DEP Issues Three More Air Pollution NOVs to Shell Cracker). Sadly, we have another problem to report. Residents living near the plant last week reported a strong, very unpleasant odor coming from the plant. Shell says the odor happened when crews drained a process water tank in preparation for scheduled maintenance and shutdown. The odor lasted for two days.
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PA Gov Appoints Secretive Group to Work on Global Warming Plan
Newly-elected Gov. Josh Shapiro, who (we must say) has appeared to be completely ineffective since taking office (which is not necessarily a bad thing), appointed a working group to help guide him on what he should do with respect to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax and the broader issue of global warming. The panel is super-secret. Only two people who belong to the working group have been named, the two co-chairs: one from the radicalized National Resources Defense Council and one from a PA state labor union.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Northumberland County | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants
Antis Oppose $1.1B Plastics Recycling Plant in Northumberland, PA
Plastics come from oil and natural gas. You knew that, right? Without plastics, modern life would be impossible. We’d revert to a time when we used horse and buggy. Modern hospitals would close without plastic tubing to deliver life-saving medicine or plastic gloves to protect against infection. Yet our reliance on plastics is not without problems. Too much plastic ends up in landfills and our oceans–killing critters. Microplastics end up in our bodies. Yuck. However, there are solutions to the problems of plastics that avoid a ban on manufacturing plastic products.
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Diversified Energy Generated $1B GDP, Improved Environment in 2022
Diversified Energy (formerly Diversified Gas & Oil), with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica region (other regions too), owns approximately 8 million acres of leases with 65,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells. The company’s business model is to buy lower-producing wells on the cheap and find ways to make them more productive. Last week the company issued its fourth annual ESG report, titled “Decarbonizing While Delivering” (full copy below). Across its 10-state operations, Diversified added more than $1 billion in GDP to various state economies, supported more than 8,600 direct and indirect jobs, and generated $500 million in federal, state, and local revenues. On the environmental front, Diversified Energy reduced methane intensity by 20% overall and by more than 30% in the Marcellus/Utica.
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Study Says 10% of Pipeline Compressor Stations at Risk of Outages
Natural gas pipelines use both gas- and electric-powered compressor units. In fact, around 10% of pipeline compressor stations are powered by electricity. Electrically-powered compressor stations on natural gas transmission pipelines have been identified as a possible contributor to gas shortages because they are vulnerable to electric outages during severe weather events. It turns into a vicious cycle. Lack of electricity to the compressor means flows along the pipeline slow or stop, starving power plants of the gas they need to produce electricity. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) recently published an article (study) suggesting possible solutions to fix the issue.
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MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – Apr 17, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Fri., Apr. 14, 2023. The numbers below reflect last Friday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Apr 17, 2023
NATIONAL: Natural gas exporters skirt Washington’s scrutiny of China; Fossil-fuel veterans find next act with green hydrogen; Joe Manchin’s faux betrayal and an endless green bill of goods; INTERNATIONAL: G7 ministers agree to cut gas consumption and speed-up renewable energy; China doubles down on coal ahead of potential summer blackouts; Fuel that powers global economy flashing recession signs; For Fatih Birol, gaslighting is a way of life; Germany shuts down last 3 nuclear plants, relying on coal, natural gas; Luxury beliefs and energy policy: the fatal conceit.
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Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Statewide WV | Virginia | West Virginia
Forest Service Issues Final EIS to Mountain Valley Pipe 3rd Time
Yesterday the 303-mile, 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline project received a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement from the U.S. Forest Service, clearing the way for the pipeline to get built through a piddly 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest. Ring the bells! Dance for joy! Blow the party noisemakers, right? Wrong. This is the third time this same permit has been issued. Nobody was impressed. We only found a single news story about it. The stock of Equitrans, the builder, moved up one penny on the news. Why the muted response? Because everyone has seen this movie before.
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Ivy League “Study” Claims Poor Old Folks Suffer from M-U Fracking
For a moment, we thought we were reading an article in The Onion. But no! It was a real article appearing on the American Geophysical Union website. The article is a summary of a newly published “study” by researchers at Princeton and Yale purporting to find that communities with “high proportions of lower-income and elderly people in rural areas” are the “most vulnerable” to groundwater pollution from fracking in the Marcellus/Utica region. It’s a joke, right? Nope. Not a joke. However, the “study” is a complete sham. A farce. Worthless. And we’ll prove it to you.
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Accidents | Bradford County | Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation
Chesapeake Makes Slow Progress Cleaning Up Spills at NE PA Pad
There is an ongoing issue with cleanup at a Chesapeake Energy well pad in Bradford County, PA. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) showed up at the site to conduct an inspection earlier this year, in January. The DEP inspector found “multiple pools and puddles on the site contaminated with drilling wastewater and possible fracking chemical fluids.” The DEP issued a notice of violation (NOV) for failing to prevent contamination from being discharged on the site. Chesapeake promised to get it cleaned up. Yet, in multiple repeat inspections since then, inspectors have continued to find contaminated fluids on the ground.
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WV Bill Promoting New Gas-Fired Power Plants Signed into Law
Last time we visited this topic, West Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 188, aimed at making WV’s gas-fired power generation more competitive with its neighbors in Pennsylvania and Ohio, had passed the Senate and was on a fast track for a vote in the House (see WV Bill Promoting New Gas-Fired Power Plants Nears Final Vote). The good news is that the bill, dubbed the Grid Stabilization and Security Act of 2023, passed the House (March 6) and was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice (March 22)–over the objections of Big Coal.
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ESG | Industrywide Issues | LDCs | Statewide VA | Virginia
Virginia Natural Gas Now Buys 50% Responsible Gas for Customers
Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) continues to ramp up the amount of “responsible” gas it purchases to resell to its customers. VNG provides clean, safe, reliable, and affordable natural gas service to more than 300,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in southeast Virginia. In October 2019, MDN told you that VNG cut a deal with Southwestern Energy to purchase enough supply of responsible gas for 20% of VNG’s customers (see Southwestern Energy Lands Another “Responsible Gas” Customer). In December 2022, we told you VNG had expanded its purchases of responsible gas, buying enough to service 33% of its customers (see Is “Next Generation Natural Gas” Just Virtue Signaling?). Yesterday VNG said it was expanding responsible gas purchases again, buying enough to now service half (50%) of its customers.
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