Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Mar 20, 2023
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Pennsylvania could benefit greatly from hydrogen hubs; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: CA seeks EPA authorization to ban gas and diesel vehicle sales; NJ seeks more offshore wind contracts as opponents push for halt; NATIONAL: Bank turmoil fuels largest weekly loss since April 2020; Greenhouse gases and the refining industry; Biden administration policies hurting energy development across U.S.; INTERNATIONAL: LNG plant cancellation could kill premier’s shale gas ambitions.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Mar 20, 2023”
National Grid is desperately trying not to run out of natural gas for its customers in Brooklyn and Queens (on Long Island). For several years the company has fought a battle to run a tiny pipeline to its Greenpoint, Brooklyn facility to provide extra natural gas. National Grid has a backup plan in case it can’t 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. A so-called independent consultant reviewed the plan and filed a report last November with the state Public Utility Commission saying National Grid’s vaporizers aren’t needed (see 
Last September, Spanish oil and gas drilling giant Repsol, which owns the St. John, New Brunswick (Canada) LNG facility, filed an application with the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) to export up to 300 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas from the St. John facility (see 
GAIL (formerly known as Gas Authority of India Limited), is a huge natural gas and petrochemical company located in India. The country of India owns and operates GAIL. It is the largest natural gas utility company in the country. Earlier today, GAIL signed an agreement with Shell for Shell to source and supply ethane that GAIL can import and use to replace natural gas and naphtha as feedstock for its petrochemical plants. Last month GAIL invited companies to bid on providing it with a very large ethane carrier (VLEC) for 20 years starting mid-2026 so it can import ethane from the U.S.
We’re always a sucker for a good price prediction. Everybody and his brother (and sister) loves to predict where the price of the NYMEX Henry Hub will go in the next few months, or even for the next few years. Ratings agency giant Fitch, which owns the Fitch Solutions subsidiary, is the latest organization out with a prediction of where natgas prices will end up in 2023. Fitch says the NYMEX average for this year will be $3.60/MMBtu. Which is interesting, given for the past couple of months the price can’t get much above $2.50. Fitch must think the price will go quite a bit higher at some point this year in order to average out at $3.60 by year’s end.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) seems to have been co-opted by the Bidenistas. It used to be the EIA was independent no matter if Democrats or Republicans controlled the White House. Even when Obama occupied the White House, EIA remained independent. No longer. It’s evident in the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2023, released yesterday, that things have changed at the EIA. Last year EIA showed a chart called U.S. energy consumption by fuel source, 2010-2050 (see 
New shale permits issued for Mar. 6-12 in the Marcellus/Utica increased by one from the prior week. There were 30 new permits issued in total last week, including 21 new permits for Pennsylvania, 5 new permits for Ohio, and 4 new permits issued in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits was EQT with 7 new permits–all of them (interestingly) issued in Lycoming County, PA. The second highest number of permits went to Repsol, with 6 permits in Bradford County, PA. Chesapeake Energy came in third with 5 permits for Bradford County, PA.
Environmental radical Pat McDonnell of PennFuture, the former Pennsylvania Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), along with his best friend THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Maya van Rossum, have just sued McDonnell’s former agency over permits the DEP issued to Williams to build the Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project (see 
Uh oh. This isn’t good news for those pegging their hopes and dreams (and financial future) on developing a hydrogen hub in the Marcellus/Utica region. The research arm of Enverus (formerly Drillinginfo), one of the most trusted, energy-dedicated SaaS platforms, offering real-time access to analytics, insights and benchmark cost and revenue data, has just released a new report examining the potential for CO2 storage in Appalachia. The report looks at the geology and the economics of storing CO2 in our region, and the results are not promising.
Once again, the Biden administration is attacking the fossil fuel industry. This time it is via one of its favorite blunt force instruments: the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Yesterday the EPA released what it calls its final “Good Neighbor Plan” that forces gas- (and coal-) fired power plants to further reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. It’s either reduce NOx by installing really expensive new equipment, shut the plant down, or option #3…pay an indulgence (tax) to keep sinning (polluting) by purchasing an “offset.” Liberals are so predictable.
Venture Global Plaquemines LNG, LLC is developing an LNG export facility in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, approximately 20 miles south of New Orleans. The Phase One of the project is currently under construction, and the first shipment from the facility will happen in 2024. Earlier this week, Venture Global announced it had pulled the trigger on a decision to build Phase Two of the project and has directed the builder to move forward with construction of Phase Two. Both phases, when completely done and running, will export 20 million metric tonnes per year of LNG.
This lunatic notion that companies must focus on so-called environmental climate change (the “E” in ESG) is at the core of why Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) went bankrupt. SVB’s collapse threatens to restart another worldwide economic collapse like the one we experienced in 2008. Everyone is still holding their breath that this situation does not spread to dozens of other banks and financial institutions. While SVB had its eye on efforts to “halve” its greenhouse gas emissions, its woke board of directors didn’t have their eye on actually making money. The bank’s managers and board failed to protect the bank and its depositors from rising interest rates (rates brought on by Biden and the Democrats’ wild spending spree). While bank managers were frittering around with greenhouse gas issues and educating employees on which pronouns to use, the bank became insolvent. Bidenomics at its best.