MDN Off Thursday & Friday for Thanksgiving Holiday
Happy Thanksgiving! MDN is taking both Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday off. While you’re taking time to be thankful for your friends, family, food, drinks, and other luxuries, take a moment to say THANK YOU to the resources that make this holiday so wonderful: fossil fuels! Below is a video from our friends at Clear Energy Alliance. Watch it (under 4 minutes) to learn just how much oil, natural gas, and coal bring to the table during the holiday season–and every other day of the year.
Read More “MDN Off Thursday & Friday for Thanksgiving Holiday”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Sempra announces partnership with ConocoPhillips for Port Arthur LNG; NATIONAL: Proposals for a windfall profits tax are damaging even if never enacted; Looming rail strike complicates Biden options to avoid diesel supply crisis; INTERNATIONAL: Nearly 60% of German chems need to cut output to reduce natgas use.
The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) released a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that will focus on the construction of a 32-inch buried pipeline under 3.5 miles of forest service land in the Jefferson National Forest. This is the third time around for the same permit. The first two EIS/permits were rejected by the clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. There’s no reason to believe the clowns will not reject it a third time, but Equitrans (the builder) and the USFS must go through the motions anyway.
Here in the real world (not the pretend world of leftist radicals who seek to shut down all fossil energy), the Shell ethane cracker finally went online, officially, last week (see 
MDN previously reported that in October, Joe Nolan, the CEO of New England’s largest utility company, Eversource, sent a letter to President Biden urging him to assemble a panel and figure out how to ensure natgas flows to New England (via LNG) this winter–because if it doesn’t, this IS the year rolling blackouts become reality (see 
In his first two days in office, Joe Biden declared war on the oil and gas industry. One of the first things he did was to revive an interagency working group on the “social cost” of greenhouse gas emissions and directed the issuance of an “interim” cost (see 
The country of Japan is perenially either the #1 or #2 top LNG importer in the world. The country has virtually no domestic supplies of oil and gas and, therefore, must import what it uses. It’s no secret that Japan and its traders are some of the best in the world. So when Japan says supplies of LNG are getting tighter and that “Procurement [of LNG] can also be said to be in a state of war,” that’s alarming. And sobering. Japan says not enough money is being invested in LNG export projects, and although this year most countries can muddle through, beginning next year, it’s going to be a problem.
On Friday, MDN reported that one of the ten natural gas storage wells at the Equitrans Rager Mountain Gas Storage Area in Jackson Township, Cambria County (in Pennsylvania) that was leaking roughly 100 MMcf/d of gas had finally been plugged (see 
These days we don’t often see the contract details for new leases signed by landowners to allow shale drilling. We used to see and report on large landowner coalitions and the deals they had struck back in the earlier days of the Marcellus/Utica. But today, about the only time you get any kind of insight into deal amounts comes when municipalities lease land for drilling, given that the business dealings of a municipality must be disclosed publicly. We’re always on the lookout for such deals. Allegheny Township in Westmoreland County (near Pittsburgh) has just approved a shale lease with Olympus Energy to drill under (not on) 27.7 acres of the Tredway Trail. The terms of the deal are…
Banpu is Thailand’s largest coal mining company. But Banpu is far more than just a coal company. It has multiple subsidiaries in various energy industries scattered around the globe. For example, here in the U.S., Banpu partners with Kalnin Ventures and operates BKV Corporation (Banpu Kalnin Ventures), the American shale drilling arm of Banpu (96% owned by Banpu). Over the past seven years, BKV has become one of the top 20 gas-weighted natural gas producers in the U.S. BKV is now (with recent purchases) the largest natural gas producer in the Barnett Shale. Yesterday, BKV (i.e., Banpu) announced it would soon launch an initial public offering (IPO) and trade its stock on the New York Stock Exchange.
In April of this year, Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester County, NY, and to New York City, called the East 300 Upgrade Project, took a giant leap forward when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued permits that allow TGP to upgrade two existing compressor stations (in PA), and build a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County, NJ), just across the border and not far from Westchester County (see 
The Freeport LNG facility, which has been out of commission since early June, has once again changed the target date it will restart. According to Freeport officials, the export facility will restart incoming gas flows to the plant in mid-December. That is, provided Freeport gains permission from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to do so. In an announcement issued Friday, Freeport said full production of 2 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day) of incoming gas won’t happen until January 2023, and using both docks for cargo vessels won’t happen until March 2023. Net net: Freeport won’t return to full, 100% service until next spring.
House Republican leaders said last Thursday the party is preparing an energy and environment package that will likely emerge in January as one of the first pieces of major legislation passed by the Republican-controlled chamber. The Republican leaders of the House energy committees said they have an interest in tackling permitting reform (proposed by Joe Manchin) in the next Congress as well. They say it’s doubtful a permitting reform bill can move in the next month before the current Congress adjourns.