MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Manchin unloads on climate activists re MVP; NATIONAL: USA gasoline prices could hit $4 thanks to OPEC+ cut; The police state is here and “governed” by Joe Biden; An OPEC-driven U.S. drilling boom? Not so fast.; Calling all consumers: it’s time to recall our failing energy policies; INTERNATIONAL: New OPEC+ cuts will push oil to $110 this summer.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Apr 5, 2023”
Last week it was a miracle when the three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e. 4th Circuit clown judges) turned back an appeal of a permit issued by the Virginia State Water Control Board allowing Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to cross some 150 streams and wetlands in Southwest West Virginia (see 4th Circuit Judges Hand Rare Permit Victory to Mountain Valley Pipe). This week the three clowns reverted to their typical fossil fuel-hating form, rejecting (for a second time) a similar permit issued by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection.
Read More “4rd Circuit Clown Judges Reject WV DEP Permit for MVP 2nd Time”
Yesterday, EQT Corporation and Context Labs announced a partnership to advance the commercialization of verified low-carbon intensity natural gas products and carbon credits. The partnership brings together EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., and Context Labs, an expert in distributed ledger technology, advanced climate data, and analytics. The partnership will help EQT prove that the natural gas it produces is low-carbon and responsible, and make it easier to market the gas to those who want to buy (and pay more for) low-carbon gas.
Read More “EQT Does Deal with Blockchain/Software Co to Sell Low-Carbon Gas”
Gulfport Energy, the third-largest driller in the Ohio Utica Shale (by the number of wells drilled), emerged from bankruptcy in May 2021 with a new board and new top management. In January of this year, the company appointed a new CEO, John Reinhart, the former President and CEO of Marcellus/Utica driller Montage Resources Corporation before that company was gobbled up by Southwestern Energy (see Marcellus Veteran John Reinhart Joins Gulfport Energy as CEO). Yesterday Gulfport announced two more additions to senior management, a new CFO and new Senior VP of Operations (top driller). Both of them formerly worked at Montage Resources. Sure looks like Reinhart is getting the Montage band back together again!
Read More “Mgmt Changes at Gulfport – Getting the Montage Band Back Together”
The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) owns and manages more than 1.5 million acres of state game lands throughout the Commonwealth. The primary purpose of these lands is the management of habitat for wildlife and providing opportunities for lawful hunting and trapping. You might think PGC gets most of its revenue from hunting and trapping licenses and fees. You would be wrong. PGC allows shale drilling on some of its vast holdings, and leases and royalties generate about 7X the income for PGC than all other sources combined.
Read More “PA Generates Record $370M from Game Land Leases & Drilling”
National Grid is desperately trying not to run out of natural gas for its customers in Brooklyn and Queens (on Long Island). It appears because of opposition from crazy leftists, they won’t succeed. For several years the company has fought a battle to run a tiny pipeline to its Greenpoint, Brooklyn facility to provide extra natural gas. That project is going nowhere fast. National Grid has/had a backup plan in case it could not complete the pipeline project–add two extra LNG vaporizers to the Greenpoint facility to turn trucked LNG back into gas that can flow through the system. It seems even Plan B is now gone. What’s left are coming gas outages for Long Island.
Read More “National Grid Withdraws Request to Build LNG Vaporizers in NYC”
The NYMEX futures price for natural gas recently hit a 30-month low (see NYMEX Henry Hub Crashing and Burning – Lowest Close in 30 Months). There’s an old economics bromide that goes, “The cure for low prices is low prices.” Meaning when prices get low enough, manufacturers (or producers, in the case of oil and natural gas) stop or greatly scale back their activity, taking inventory off the market, which ultimately drives prices higher to the point it is once again profitable to make the widget (or produce more O&G). But that doesn’t seem to be happening with natural gas. U.S. gas production will hit a new all-time high this year. Why is the market not responding to low natgas prices rationally?
Read More “Why Does NatGas Production Keep Rising with Lower Prices?”
We really have seen it all now. A news story appearing in the Washington Free Beacon discusses how a large Democrat Political Action Committee (PAC) is trashing Gov. Ron DeSantis for his support of natural gas. American Bridge 21st Century launched a website on Monday that hits DeSantis over his support for natural gas, the use of fracking, and projects like the Keystone XL pipeline. The PAC, which told DeSantis in its launch post that “we’re coming for you,” suggested DeSantis’s position has harmed the environment and contributed to climate change. Yet a lobbying firm closely connected to the PAC, ABI Associates, has gotten $240,000 from the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA)! Words escape us…
Read More “INGAA Pays $240K to Democrat Lobbying Firm that Trashes NatGas”
The most recent day of active trading was Mon., Apr. 3, 2023. The numbers below reflect yesterday’s closing numbers.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Societe Generale explains why it pulled out of Rio Grande LNG; NATIONAL: Biden has limited options to respond to OPEC+ cut; U.S. natgas slides again, oil-to-gas price ratio highest in 11 years; OPEC surprise oil cut and Biden’s missed opportunity to refill reserves; The debt ceiling debate creates an opening for permitting reform; Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to cost taxpayers triple gov’t estimate; INTERNATIONAL: Oil soars after unexpected production cut; Europe launches new LNG benchmark to help contain price spikes; Old refineries incapable of manufacturing enough light hydrocarbons.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Apr 4, 2023”
The ARCH2 (Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub) project, the West Virginia-led effort to attract government funding for one of 6-10 regional hydrogen hubs, took a leap forward today with the announcement by Adams Fork Energy, Haldor Topsoe, and CNX Resources Corp. of a plan to build a “multi-billion-dollar” clean ammonia manufacturing facility in southern West Virginia. CNX will provide natural gas to the plant, tentatively scheduled to begin construction in 2024 in Mingo County, WV. The ammonia plant will be an “anchor project” in the ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub application currently under consideration by the U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Read More “CNX to Provide NatGas for WV Hydrogen Hub Clean Ammonia Plant”
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) published notice in the April 1 Pennsylvania Bulletin that it has denied a request by the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) to reconsider the agency’s plan to regulate small, completely safe natural gas gathering pipelines. We have the news of the PUC’s rejection, and what it means, along with an exclusive–the official response from PIOGA.
Read More “PA PUC Denies PIOGA Petition re Regulating Gathering Pipelines”
The West Virginia Public Energy Authority (PEA) is a seven-member board that aims to make the best use of WV’s abundant natural energy resources. State code gives the board power to buy, lease, and issue bonds to build electric power plants and natural gas transmission projects. Gov. Jim Justice reactivated the board in the summer of 2021 after it had been dormant for most of a decade. The first meeting of the new board was held in February 2022 (see Reactivated WV Public Energy Authority Holds First Meeting). Over the past year, the board has held a number of meetings and listened to a lot of people, but hasn’t actually done all that much. A bill recently signed into law by Gov. Justice will change that.
Read More “New Law Requires WV PEA to OK Fossil Fuel Power Plant Closures”
We have new evidence that so-called environmental groups, including a long list of anti-fracking groups in Pennsylvania, don’t really care about the environmental at all. They only care about the power to dictate to you what energy sources you can and cannot use–as a way of controlling you. Great strides have been made in capturing and sequestering (storing underground) carbon dioxide (CO2). These so-called environmental groups all say that CO2 is killing Mom Earth. Yet when real science is employed to control CO2 (to sequester it), they attempt to block it. Why is that?
Read More “Antis Object to PA DEP Oversight of Carbon Capture Injection Wells”
Three weeks ago, Chesapeake Energy announced a 15-year deal to provide natural gas for LNG exports to Gunvor Singapore Pte (see Chesapeake Cuts Back on Marcellus, Signs Haynesville LNG Deal). As we shared then, Chesapeake plans to export some of its Haynesville production to an unnamed LNG plant along the Gulf Coast. In a follow-up interview with Chessy CEO Nick Dell’Osso, S&P Global Commodity Insights asked about the selection process for an LNG export plant. It was one of Dell’Osso’s peripheral remarks that caught our attention.
Read More “Chesapeake CEO Says 20-25% of U.S. Gas Production Will be Exported”
The Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) is a group formed under the umbrella of the United Nations. It is a “member-led initiative” of institutional investors committed to transitioning their investment portfolios to mythical net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The group’s members (some of the biggest banks and investment firms in the world) have some $11 TRILLION of assets under management. It’s mind-bogglingly huge. NZAOA issued an edict last week to its members: No new direct investments in upstream oil and gas infrastructure projects for new fields. Period.
Read More “UN Group with $11T Under Mgmt Demands No New O&G Investments”
