MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Tim Ryan is hoping voters forget about his presidential run; NATIONAL: North America leads $370 billion global push for oil & gas pipelines; Drillers ask U.S. to exempt smallest wells from looming methane rule; We told big oil not to invest, so don’t complain now; INTERNATIONAL: Rishi Sunak’s anti-fracking gift to Vladimir Putin.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Nov 3, 2022”
Yesterday Equitrans Midstream, the builder and majority owner of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, issued its third quarter 2022 update. The big news (for us) was that Thomas F. Karam, CEO of Equitrans, said that if the 95% complete MVP is going to get finished, it’s probably going to take an act of Congress to do it. The same three clown judges (our words) of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals are signaling they will continue to block MVP, says Karam. In contrast to the clouds over MVP, yesterday’s update shared a bit of good news for a second Equitrans project.
Read More “Equitrans Says an Act of Congress is Best Way to Finish MVP Pipeline”
Unfortunately, EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., has succumbed to the siren song of seeking approval from the United Nations (U.N.), an organization dedicated to destroying fossil energy on the planet in the name of saving the planet. Yesterday EQT announced it has received the UN’s Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0) “Gold Standard” rating, the highest reporting level under the initiative. Support for OGMP 2.0 is growing in the natgas marketplace in the U.S. We previously told you that Cheniere Energy’s LNG export plants are seeking certification under OGMP 2.0 (see Cheniere LNG Makes Huge Mistake Joining UN Emissions Program). We also told you about Pioneer Natural Resources, Devon Energy, and ConocoPhillips also joining the program (see U.N. Tries to Control Oil & Gas Worldwide via Emissions Reporting).
Read More “EQT Receives U.N. Methane “Gold Standard” Stamp of Approval”
Fortuitously, following our rant on EQT joining the United Nations Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (see EQT Receives United Nations “Gold Standard” Stamp of Approval), we happened across a summary of a newly published report by O&G consulting giant Wood Mackenzie on so-called Scope 3 emissions and how oil and gas companies are struggling to plan for tracking (and to reduce) Scope 3. This report confirms exactly what we are saying: Programs like the U.N.’s OGMP 2.0 will eventually (sooner rather than later) begin to put the squeeze on oil and gas to track and reduce Scope 3. The obvious conclusion is that our O&G companies will be forced to exit the oil and gas business altogether to remain compliant.
Read More “How Will Oil and Gas Companies Get to Scope 3 Net Zero?”
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. That project is being investigated by the Biden administration on charges of racism (see Woke Nation: 2nd Fed Agency Investigating Brooklyn Pipe as Racist). National Grid has a backup plan–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 with the state Public Utility Commission saying National Grid’s vaporizers aren’t needed. Let the folks on Long Island run out of gas–that’s the preferred strategy, apparently.
Read More “NY PSC Consultant Says National Grid Doesn’t Need Brooklyn LNG”
Yesterday, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice and his English bulldog, named Babydog, presented a check from the state for $1,959,000 to the Mercer County Commission and the Development Authority of Mercer County to help complete a natural gas pipeline that will help bring more economic development to the Bluefield area and Mercer County as a whole. The money will help complete a natural gas pipeline from Cumberland Road in Bluefield where it now ends beneath Route 460.
Read More “WV Gov. Justice Presents $1.9M Check to Finish NatGas Pipeline”
The Freeport LNG export facility experienced an explosion and fire in early June (see Explosion Rocks Freeport LNG Export Plant – Offline for 3 Weeks). The plant has been offline since that time and is expected to resume operations sometime this month. But as we told you yesterday, Freeport won’t restart this month, according to FERC, unless and until it gives both FERC and PHMSA more information asap (see Regulators Need More Info Before Freeport LNG Can Restart). Just coming to light now are details that seem to indicate managers at the plant ignored warning signs days before a pipeline exploded.
Read More “Report Says Freeport LNG Managers Knew of Problem Before Explosion”
These days we pretty much ignore the International Energy Agency (IEA) because its Executive Director, Dr. Fatih Birol, is someone who spouts anti-fossil fuel rhetoric every chance he gets. IEA’s pronouncements are to be ignored, like this one from the recently published World Energy Outlook 2022: “global demand for natural gas, coal and oil is expected to peak or plateau by the mid-2030s.” Mainstream media, and even oil and gas media, pick up the IEA’s nonsense and regurgitate it as if it’s actually noteworthy. So today, we bring you the IEA’s recently published annual WEO-2022 and its anti-fossil fuel pronouncements as a sterling example of what NOT to pay attention to.
Read More “Anti-Fossil Fuel IEA Predicts (Surprise!) O&G in Decline by 2035”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Archrock and EnerVest successful field pilot of methane capture tech; California’s natural-gas bans push largest gas utility to find a new strategy; New Fortress LNG plant review resumes, start-up slips to 2H23; NATIONAL: SLB and Linde partner on CCUS; Windfall tax on Big Oil is more US politics than real threat; Biden, Trudeau choose green war on oil and gas over working class.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Nov 2, 2022”
In June, MDN told you about this year’s distribution of last year’s (2021) Pennsylvania impact fee revenue (PA’s version of a severance tax) to local municipalities and to the black hole of Harrisburg politicians (see PA Pays Out $234M in Impact Tax for 2021 – 2nd Highest Ever). Impact fee revenues for last year were the second-highest ever. The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) has just issued an estimate for how much the impact fee will raise this year (to be distributed next year). The IFO says it thinks, based on the price of natural gas and overall drilling activity, that PA will land its biggest impact fee haul ever. IFO’s estimates are typically pretty accurate.
Read More “PA IFO Predicts 2022 Impact Tax Will be Highest on Record – $275M”
Politics is fascinating for us (in case you couldn’t tell when reading MDN). This site often features articles about the intersection of politics and energy. Living in New York State, editor Jim Willis has long advocated for shale drilling. Fracking in NY was the reason Jim started this blog/news site! MDN began in 2009 when shale drilling in NY seemed about to take off. And then, a series of unfortunate events led to the profoundly corrupt Andrew Cuomo becoming governor, seizing power in the Empire State. Cuomo not only temporarily blocked fracking in NY, he ultimately signed a bill into law permanently banning it (see Cuomo PERMANENTLY Bans NY Fracking in Now-Adopted Budget). One of the key issues the current Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, is running on is overturning the ban and allowing Upstate to begin fracking. Zeldin’s message is resonating, and he may actually win!
Read More “Fracking May Help Republican Lee Zeldin Win NY Governor Race”
The KeyState Natural Gas Synthesis project in Clinton County, PA, is developing the first carbon capture project in Pennsylvania, which will locally produce hydrogen, ammonia, and urea (see Innovative Clinton County, PA Petchem Plant Gets More Investors). The $400-$500 million project will drill for the natural gas, transport and process it, and manufacture the end products–all within a self-contained, closed loop, nearly eliminating emissions by capturing and sequestering the carbon underground in the process. KeyState now has a major customer lined up to use the hydrogen it will produce: Nikola Corporation.
Read More “Nikola Trucks Will Use Hydrogen from KeyState’s PA NatGas Project”
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says natural gas consumption in all sectors in the United States was effectively flat between 2020 and 2021, down by only 0.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). The pandemic was to blame. Natgas usage hit a record high in 2019, just prior to the pandemic, but has decreased since that time. In 2021, natural gas used in the electric power sector (which is the largest U.S. natural gas-consuming sector) decreased by 3%. However, and this is the good news, the EIA predicts natural gas-fired generation will increase by 5% this year.
Read More “Gas-Fired Power Down 3% in 2021, Expected to Increase 5% in 2022”
You know what kneecapping is, right? It happens when a gangster or thug uses a handgun (or baseball bat) to shoot someone in the knee, inflicting permanent, lifetime damage. It’s a very cruel form of punishment inflicted on one’s enemy. It’s also an apt metaphor for what is coming under the so-called Biden Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the renamed version of what had been called Build Back Better, made possible by a single vote from U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (see Tragedy: Joe Manchin Caves & Agrees to Big Green Build Back Better). The IRA is about to kneecap the oil and natural gas industry. We spotted an article by the Atlantic Council that outlines how.
Read More “Here’s How the Misnamed Inflation Reduction Act Will Kneecap O&G”
Late last week, both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) held a conference call with Freeport LNG to discuss progress being made in restoring the 2.1 Bcf/d LNG export facility back to full working order. Freeport experienced an explosion and fire in early June (see Explosion Rocks Freeport LNG Export Plant – Offline for 3 Weeks). The plant has been offline since that time and is expected to resume operations sometime this month. But it won’t restart this month, according to FERC, unless and until Freeport gives both FERC and PHMSA more information…asap.
Read More “Regulators Need More Info Before Freeport LNG Can Restart”
Being a “pure-play” or “single play” (as the Brits call it) shale driller has its advantages. It also, in a changing world, can have its risks, or disadvantages. That is the point made in a new analysis by global research and consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Wood specializes in doling out advice on oil, gas, LNG, power, renewables, chemicals, and metals & mining. In an excellent article delving into the advantages and disadvantages of being a pure-play driller, Wood makes the following observation: “Five US operators – EQT, Pioneer, Antero, Diamondback and Range – have amassed single-basin positions on a global scale.” Yeah, three of the five are M-U pure-play drillers, and the assets they have “amassed” rival (produce more) than many of the Majors’ non-shale assets. It is a truly amazing feat.
Read More “The Advantages & Disadvantages of Being a Pure-Play Shale Driller”