MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – Jan 12, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Weds., Jan. 11, 2023. The numbers below reflect yesterday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Jan 12, 2023
NATIONAL: Chris Leitner leads Tenaska as new CEO; President Biden says no to gas stove ban; Crude oil prices forecast to decline beginning in the second half of 2023; Public shale drillers best private rivals in race to deploy rigs; INTERNATIONAL: Oil majors investing 8 times less in hydrogen than in biofuels; Europe still attracting majority of US LNG despite price plunge; The post-everything energy market.
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Josh Shapiro Nominates Former NFL Player to Head PA DEP
Rich Negrin Josh Shapiro has nominated Rich Negrin, a former top official (and Deputy Mayor) of Philadelphia, to become the next Secretary of the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). Negrin has some (not a lot of) energy-related experience. He was vice president for four years at Commonwealth Edison, the largest electric utility in Illinois, handling regulatory policy and strategy where his role was to push and promote so-called renewable energy, electric vehicles, and energy efficiency. He has zero oil and gas experience. Oh, and Mr. Negrin briefly played for the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets in his youth.
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WV Severance Tax Revenues “Eye-Popping” and “Historic” Thx to Shale
West Virginia’s annual 60-day legislative session begins today. Yesterday, in preparation for the new session, the state’s Revenue Secretary, Dave Hardy, and Deputy Secretary, Mark Muchow, gave a report on the state’s finances to the Joint Committee on Finance. Hardy said state surpluses from taxes (particularly the severance tax) are “eye-popping and they’re historic numbers.” The high price of natural gas has led to record severance tax collections in the Mountain State. Halfway through the fiscal year, severance tax collections are up 113%. State revenue is up 21% year-to-date because of high severance tax collections. But, will the severance tax gravy train continue?
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Bethlehem Marcellus-Fired Power Plant Kept PA Lights on During Xmas
In a modern twist on an old story, the little town of Bethlehem (this one in Pennsylvania) provided a savior this past Christmas–in the form of a natural gas-fired power plant. The Bethlehem Energy Center, owned by Calpine, received permission (indeed, strong encouragement) from the U.S. Dept of Energy (at the request of the PJM grid operator) to “ramp up production” of electricity while other gas-fired power plants that are part of the PJM system began to fail due to the super-cold weather. Bethlehem powered up, keeping the lights (and heat) on Christmas Eve. Otherwise, Pennsylvanians living in the Lehigh Valley would have frozen their derrieres off. Marcellus gas as savior. Has a ring to it, eh?
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January STEO Predicts Record NatGas Production in 2023, 2024
Once a month, the analysts at the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) issue the agency’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), their best guess about where energy prices and production will go in the next 12 months or so. We sometimes poke some good-natured fun at the EIA because one month, their predictions go up, the next month, down, etc. What about the latest STEO dart board, published yesterday? EIA predicts average natural gas production will be 100.34 Bcf/d in 2023 and will go even higher to 102.29 Bcf/d in 2024. The current all-time high was 98.02 Bcf/d, and that was last year. As for the commodity price of gas, EIA says the Henry Hub spot price will average $4.90/MMBtu in 2023, down from $6.42/MMBtu in 2022.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA
Better Path Coalition Demands Gov. Shapiro Ban PA Fracking
The Better Path Coalition is a mish-mash of the some of the most radical leftwing “environmental” groups in Pennsylvania, including THE Delaware Riverkeeper, 350 Philadelphia, EcoJustice Working Group, Freshwater Accountability Project, and many more. Some of their members are not beyond committing crimes in the name of supposedly saving the planet (see Extremists Illegally Block ME2 Pipe Construction in Chester County). The coalition sent a letter to incoming PA Gov. Josh Shapiro yesterday with its wish list for his administration. Tops on the list is a total, 100% ban on all fracking in the state. See what we mean by radical and extreme?
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TC Energy Branches Out into Liquefied Hydrogen – Orders 2 LH2 Units
Plug Power Hydrogen Liquefier (click for larger version) You’ve heard about LNG–or liquefied natural gas. But what about the FAR more explosive LH2? That’s liquefied hydrogen. Better known as rocket fuel (because rockets use LH2 as their main power source). Just like super-chilling natural gas into a liquid makes it easier and more economical to transport (especially on ships), super-chilling hydrogen makes it easier to transport too. TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), a gigantic pipeline company with major assets in the Marcellus/Utica, recently ordered two hydrogen liquefaction units to be used at two sites not identified and not yet operational.
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MDN Upstream Index (MUI) – Jan 11, 2023
The most recent day of active trading was Tues., Jan. 10, 2023. The numbers below reflect yesterday’s closing numbers.
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Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Jan 11, 2023
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Texas is flush with money, largely thanks to oil and gas; NATIONAL: US oilfield services jobs top 650,000, nearing pre-pandemic levels; The disappearance of good rock worries oil markets; Minority communities are suffering under the green energy agenda; INTERNATIONAL: EU energy regulator to launch LNG price assessment on Friday.
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Accidents | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | NGLs | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Processing Plants | Regulation | Washington County
Revolution Cryogenic Plant Partially Restarts Following Explosion
Residents living in the vicinity of Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline cryogenic plant in Bulger (Washington County), PA, got a nasty “present” on Christmas morning. Around 7:30 am, residents report hearing an explosion, followed by a fire, at the plant used to separate NGLs (natural gas liquids, including ethane, propane, and butane) from the raw gas stream that flows through the Revolution gathering pipeline (see ET Revolution Cryogenic Processing Plant Explodes in PA on Xmas). The good news is that the plant has resumed “partial operations.”
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Bidenistas Make a Run at Banning Natural Gas Stoves Nationwide
Natural gas stoves are used in roughly 40% of households in the United States. The hard-left Bidenistas who control the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission are floating a trial balloon that they want to ban them all, forcing you (if you have one) to replace it with an electric stove. The stated reason for forcing a change is that gas stoves supposedly emit cancer-causing, and asthma-causing, chemicals. The Bidenistas are attempting to use fear as a weapon to convince people to go along with this tyranny. Don’t let them.
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WV-Led Hydrogen Hub Proposal Green-Lighted for Next Round
Yesterday we told you that the Pennsylvania-blessed effort by Shell and Equinor to build (at taxpayers’ expense) a so-called hydrogen hub in PA has received the Dept. of Energy’s blessing (“encouragement”) to submit a full application (see PA-Backed Blue Hydrogen Hub Effort Passes First Hurdle with DOE). We were kind of nervous that we had not heard whether or not another project, led by West Virginia but endorsed by Ohio, Kentucky, and over 200 organizations, had also received DOE’s blessing to submit a full application. Whew. They did.
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33 of 79 Hydrogen Hub Teams Encouraged to Submit Full Applications
As we point out in a companion article today, the West Virginia concept paper to build a hydrogen hub in the Mountain State (endorsed by both Ohio and Kentucky) was approved, which now leads to a horse race with Pennsylvania and that state’s effort to do the same thing. Some 95% of the hydrogen created today comes from cracking natural gas. A hydrogen hub has the potential to be a HUGE new customer of Marcellus/Utica gas. That is, IF we don’t blow our opportunity to grab one of these hubs in our region. It would be better if PA joined the WV plan to present a united application for the entire M-U. But it seems that will not be the case. One of the two plans will win, and the other will lose. It could have been different. May the odds be ever in your favor.
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Allegheny County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Olympus/Huntley & Huntley | Pennsylvania | Regulation
Olympus Plan to Drill Wells Near Elizabeth High School Approved
Olympus Energy wants to drill six wells on a single pad in rural Elizabeth Township, a borough in Allegheny County on the east bank of the Monongahela River. The pad would sit about 2,400 feet (nearly half a mile) away from Elizabeth Forward High School. Some of the parents of students, and some of the administration, pushed back against Olympus’ drilling plan, using the kiddies as an excuse (see School Near Pittsburgh Pushes Back Against Olympus Plan to Drill). However, Elizabeth Township’s board of commissioners voted last night to approve the plan by a 5-2 margin.
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Henry Hub’s Wild Ride in 2022 – Highest Avg Price Since 2008
In 2022, the spot price for natural gas at the benchmark Henry Hub in southern Louisiana averaged $6.45 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), the highest annual average, in both real and nominal terms, since 2008. That’s the highest average in 14 years. Most casual observers would attribute the high price to Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and Europe’s sudden demand for non-Russian natgas–in particular, U.S. LNG. While there is no doubt Putin’s war had an influence, the truth is natgas prices were already on the rise before the war. It was a wild ride in 2022. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recaps the year…
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