MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – Jan 26, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Wed., Jan. 25, 2023. The numbers below reflect yesterday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Jan 26, 2023
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EPA to deny permission for continued operation of SWPA coal ash disposal; NATIONAL: U.S. crude oil production will increase to new records in 2023 and 2024; Democrats, eco groups take aim at other home appliances amid gas stove debate; Fossil fuel profits roar back; Do Chinese donations explain Biden’s energy policies?; INTERNATIONAL: Fundamentals strong enough for $90+ oil period.
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CNX Resources | Electrical Generation | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Marshall County | Pipelines | West Virginia
CNX Using Compressor Engine Exhaust Heat to Produce Electricity
CNX Resources and ICE Thermal Harvesting have partnered on a pilot project to generate 100% emission-free, locally-sourced power for use in CNX’s operations, the two companies announced yesterday. They will do so by capturing waste heat generated from compressor stations used in the natural gas industry and converting it into electricity which CNX will then use to power the compressor station. First up is an experiment at CNX’s Dry Ridge compressor station in Marshall County, West Virginia.
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Utica Gas Power Plant on Ohio River Returns to Service After Outage
The Long Ridge Energy Terminal, host to a Utica shale gas-fired power plant that went online in November 2021, scheduled brief downtime for routine maintenance during the fourth quarter of 2022. But when the techs started to analyze the equipment, they discovered a problem, turning a couple of weeks of downtime into more than a month.
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Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia
Enviro Radicals Ask 4th Circus Clowns to Toss MVP Va. Water Permit
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject a water permit granted by the Virginia State Water Control Board to help finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals by Big Green groups against the project. All three judges are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects. Yesterday, the three clowns heard oral arguments from the foreign-backed Sierra Club (and its cronies) arguing the Control Board’s approval of a permit to cross streams and wetlands violates the federal Clean Water Act.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Philadephia
Not-Nice Antis Oppose Permit Reissue for Nicetown Power Plant
A Marcellus gas-fired power plant in Nicetown (a neighborhood in North Philadelphia) received a permit to build in 2017 (see Antis “Shocked” Philly Approved Marcellus Power Plant for SEPTA). SEPTA’s (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) Marcellus gas-powered electric plant, which finally went online in 2020, provides electricity to the organization’s northern Regional Rail lines and a bus garage. When it appeared the plant would get approved, antis got desperate and made shrill arguments that the plant is racist (see Nicetown Claims “Environmental Racism” re Gas-Fired Plant). The permit that allows the plant to continue operating is now up for review. Here come the not-nice antis to blather on once again about racist electric plants…
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Expert Says Price of NatGas Will Soar Again When Freeport Restarts
click for larger version What the heck? This morning the price for the “front month” NYMEX Henry Hub futures contract (for February) almost sank to $3/MMBtu (see our graphic on the left). According to NGI, the NYMEX March contract for HH actually got down to $2.97/MMBtu. Ouch. The weather is fingered as the culprit. We’ve often said the weather is THE primary factor driving the price of natgas. However, an investor/trader (and expert) who reads MDN and is an MDN friend has a different take that he recently shared with us. His prediction is that the price of natgas will make a dramatic turnaround (increase) this year.
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Fed, State, Local $$ Used to Build Gas Pipe to WV Industrial Park
A combination of federal, state, and local grants totaling $6 million will be used to extend a natural gas pipeline to the Cumberland Industrial Park and residences near Bluefield, WV (Mercer County). The Mercer County Commission is chipping in $1 million. The state of WV is giving $2 million. And WV Sen. Shelley Moore Capito secured $3 million from the federal government. Work will begin “soon” on the project.
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Capstone Sells Microturbines to Power Remote Marcellus Compressors
MDN has highlighted Capstone Turbine Corporation, a California company that manufactures small electric-generating plants that run on natural gas, several times in the past (see our Capstone stories here). Capstone, at some point, renamed itself. The company is now called Capstone Green Energy Corporation. (It’s practically a requirement that businesses in California must insert the word “green” into their names or risk being banned from the state.) Capstone announced it has secured an “follow-on” order for two C200S Microturbines from “a leading oil and gas producer.” The two microturbines will power two different compressor stations where there is no nearby electric line for power. The microturbines create electricity by using gas from the pipeline itself.
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MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – Jan 25, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Tue., Jan. 24, 2023. The numbers below reflect yesterday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Jan 25, 2023
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Texas oil & gas industry paid record $24.7bn in taxes and royalties; Daily natgas spot prices in western U.S. exceed $50.00/MMBtu in Dec.; NATIONAL: Joe Biden’s opposition to natural gas hits home; A smart House GOP oil and gas play; INTERNATIONAL: This will be the decade of energy storage, Woodmac believes.
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Freeport LNG Asks FERC for Permission to Begin Restart Work
Credit where credit is due. Freeport LNG, which has been offline since an explosion and fire in June 2022, has changed the target date to restart operations at the facility multiple times over the past few months. (We care because Marcellus/Utica molecules flow to the facility.) Various experts have weighed in with estimates that Freeport won’t restart until February or possibly March (see Rystad Energy Predicts Freeport LNG Restart to be March Earliest). However, since early January, Freeport has maintained it would restart by the end of January (see Familiar Pattern: Freeport LNG Delays Restart Again, to End Jan.). It may not be restarted in the next week, but on Monday, Freeport filed an official request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin the restart process now, in January. It is the first step in a full restart (a process that will take months).
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FERC Approves New Compressor Unit in Sussex County, Delaware
On January 18, 2022, Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company (ESNG, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Utilities Corporation) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to construct and operate a new natural gas-fired compressor unit and ancillary facilities at its existing Bridgeville Compressor Station in Sussex County, Delaware (called the Southern Expansion Project). Right away, the odious radicals of Food and Water Watch filed an official protest. It took nearly a year, but (as we’re just learning now) on Dec. 16, FERC issued full approval for the project. The new compressor unit will flow an extra 7.3 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of natural gas to new residential, commercial, and industrial customers along the Delmarva Peninsula.
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New Research Finds PA Lease Deals Not Tied to Well Productivity
Purely by happenstance, we stumbled across an interesting “working paper” published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper (we’d call it a study) is titled “Negotiations of Oil and Gas Auxiliary Lease Clauses: Evidence from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale” (full copy below), first published in December but subsequently updated in January. Researchers scanned and (using software) analyzed nearly 60,000 leases signed in the Marcellus Shale Play of Pennsylvania. They learned some interesting things about PA leases. One of the main conclusions (eye-opening for us) is that getting more money for your lease is not necessarily tied to whether or not nearby wells are good producers. At best, better lease terms have a “weak relationship” to the performance of other wells in a given geography. What is the secret to getting more favorable lease terms?
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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Statewide OH | Statewide PA | Statewide WV | West Virginia
M-U Real Estate Market Booming – Manufacturers Invest $100+ Billion
The Marcellus/Utica region is becoming a booming real estate market and manufacturing destination in the U.S., with manufacturing investment currently estimated at over $100 billion, according to Bryce Custer from NAI Spring Commercial Realty. What’s drawing manufacturers to the M-U region? Geopolitical instability, supply chain disruption, the reshoring trend, and abundant raw materials, including cheap (and clean) M-U natural gas.
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Judge Asked to Certify Class Action Against Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc.
Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc., long known for providing stone quarries and asphalt plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio, also provides civil construction services for shale well sites. In August 2021, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced a plea deal with Hawbaker to pay back $20 million in alleged “stolen wages” from over 1,000 Hawbaker employees (see PA Construction Co. Glenn Hawbaker Pays $20M for “Stolen Wages”). According to Shapiro’s office, Hawbaker deposited retirement funds from one set of employees into a retirement fund account that benefits other employees, including Hawbaker management. Following the plea deal, three former Hawbaker employees filed a civil lawsuit against the company. Last week the three asked a federal judge to convert their lawsuit into a class action.
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