MiQ Launches World’s 1st LNG Cert and Registry Covering All GHGs
MiQ, a certification authority that monitors for methane (and other) emissions and issues responsible gas certifications, announced today it has launched the world’s first certification to cover all GHGs (greenhouse gases) from the LNG supply chain. LNG buyers are now able to compare exporters and choose lower emissions cargoes for the first time–ever. MiQ’s new framework tracks 100% of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide emissions from every segment of the LNG supply chain–including production, gathering and boosting, processing, pipeline, liquefaction, shipping, and regasification.
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If leftists can redefine what is and what is not “waters of the United States” (WOTUS), they can pretty much control you and what you can and can’t do with your own private property. WOTUS, according to the Bidenistas, is pretty much anything down to mud puddles, as they proposed earlier this year (see 
The United Nations’ (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published an updated climate change (global warming) report yesterday. It is the hardest of hard-core dictatorial screeds we’ve seen yet out of the UN, an agency that desires to rule the world. The out-of-control UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said in releasing the report that “Humanity is on thin ice – and that ice is melting fast. Our world needs climate action on all fronts – everything, everywhere, all at once.” Cute–invoking the name of this year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture. Guterres’ preferred solution? “Ceasing all licensing or funding of new oil and gas,” and “stopping any expansion of existing oil and gas reserves.” You read that right. No more new drilling anywhere for fossil fuels, if the UN gets its way.
We have to wonder, are we witnessing the end of modern society and a full regression back to the Stone Age? Two lawyers, one from Public Citizen’s climate program and the other a professor at George Washington University Law School, have written a paper that will be published in the Harvard Environmental Law Review that claims if there’s a NATURAL disaster, like a flood or hurricane or big snowstorm, and if people die in that event, governments and prosecutors can sue Big Oil, holding Big Oil criminally negligent for homicide. No, this is not a joke.
NATIONAL: Green hydrogen presents attractive alternative investment opportunities; Dominion Energy achieves unique (and dubious) honor; Oil near 2021 lows as banking crisis boosts recession fears; U.S. petroleum product exports set a record high in 2022; INTERNATIONAL: Plummeting ‘energy return on investment’ of oil; Greens refuse to discuss recycling renewables and mining restoration.
Two Marshall County, WV landowners with the same last name (brothers? cousins? father/son?) have sued Southwestern Energy accusing the company of “well bashing.” The landowners seek to have the lawsuit certified as a class action. Well bashing happens when drilling a child well near a parent well causes the parent well to lose pressure or become clogged with fracking fluids and sand. Ultimately the child well causes the parent well to become less profitable (i.e., less revenue from royalties for the landowner). The lawsuit says Southwestern is practicing well bashing intentionally–in order to keep lease rates low.
Josh Shapiro promised he was a different kind of Democrat, but in the end, he turned out to be the same kind as most. We told you, warned you, that should Shapiro be elected, he would embrace the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax, even though he expressed sentiments during the campaign that he doesn’t support it (see 
The Democrats who control and write for the Cleveland Plain Dealer are, once again, attacking a new law that allows for shale drilling under (but not on top of) Ohio state-owned land. The new measure was passed and signed into law late last year (see 
On March 14, eight business groups across five states (including PA and WV) sent a letter to the federal EPA urging the EPA to expedite approvals for well permits for carbon sequestration, including allowing primacy for states. Businesses and consortia are actively pursuing significant investments in projects related to the so-called energy transition. Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is an important piece of the “transition,” both for capturing direct emissions and enabling clean hydrogen production from promised regional hydrogen hubs. CCS investments can accelerate a region’s energy transition and grow jobs. But the feds are dragging their feet. States want to take control of approving CCS projects for themselves, to speed things along–to become the primary regulatory authority. But the dysfunctional EPA is not responding. Hence the letter.
While we don’t track rig counts each week, given the volatile up-and-down nature of rig counts, the count from last week warrants comment. Oil rigs fell by one last week to 589, while gas rigs rose by nine to 162. Total rig count is up 13.7% over the same time last year–a good indicator that more drilling is happening. In our region, the Marcellus play gained five rigs from the previous week, while the Utica lost four rigs from the previous week.
BlackRock, the largest investment bank in the world with some $10 trillion in assets under management, is hurting. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink insists that public companies adopt ESG (environment, social, governance) policies that include reducing CO2 emissions. Fink’s demands are tantamount to divesting (or refusing to invest in) any company that produces or heavily uses oil and natural gas. Yet in the company’s latest annual letter to investors, Fink says the oil and gas industry is essential in meeting global energy needs, despite the increasing shift towards renewable energy sources. He says BlackRock loves investing in O&G. He is categorically lying to avoid more action by states in dropping BlackRock funds.