EQT Eliminates ~9,000 Natural Gas-Powered Pneumatic Devices
Yesterday EQT announced it had completed spending $28 million to dump ALL of its natural gas-powered pneumatic devices–almost 9,000 of them. The pneumatic controllers were replaced or retrofitted on all EQT production locations and compressor stations. At EQT, natural gas-powered pneumatic devices were the source of 39% of the company’s 2021 Production segment Scope 1 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Those stray emissions are now eliminated. So what are pneumatic devices, and why is this a big deal?
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S&P Global Commodity Insights published an analysis article speculating on the overall level of natural gas production we can expect to see in the U.S. in 2023. According to S&P’s analysts, weaker prices for the NYMEX Henry Hub futures price expected this year, along with recent weakness in the internal rate of return (IRR) for companies, are combining to lower the amount of growth in natgas production we might otherwise have experienced. S&P isn’t saying we’ll go backward–with less production. It’s saying production won’t grow as much as it could have if not for these negative factors.
Finally! Richard “Dick” Glick is no longer a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioner. He is also no longer Chairman of this key agency that has the power to block new pipeline projects. We’ve complained about Glick, a former wind lobbyist, for years–pretty much since Donald Trump nominated him to serve at the behest of Chuck Schumer (see 
Kentucky is joining a number of other states, including Texas, West Virginia, and Florida, in putting Big Banks (and Big Investment Firms) on notice that those companies are about to lose the business of the State of Kentucky. On Tuesday, State Treasurer Allison Ball released a list of 11 financial companies that are engaged in energy company boycotts–refusing to invest in, or loan money to, fossil energy companies. The list includes BlackRock, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase, among others.
NATIONAL: Chevron CEO defends record profits; Crude oil prices increased in 1H22, declined in 2H22; Things to watch in the House Republican rules package.
Here we go again. On Dec. 22, the U.S. Forest Service published a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS, full copy below) that allows the nearly-completed Mountain Valley Pipeline to finish up construction through 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest straddling West Virginia and Virginia. This is the THIRD time the Forest Service has issued this permit. Two previous attempts at the same permit were overturned by the three clown judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e. 4th Circus). The public has until Feb. 6 to file official comments on this latest plan.
Hope Gas, a Local Distribution Company (LDC), otherwise known as a utility company, provides gas service to approximately 112,000 residential, industrial, and commercial customers in thirty-five West Virginia counties. Hope is about to add another 13,000 customers to that number. Yesterday, Hope announced it is buying the West Virginia division of Peoples Gas, currently owned by Essential Utilities, for an undisclosed amount.
James Daly, vice president for energy supply at New England’s largest electric utility, Eversource, recently delivered some blunt truth to regulators in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Daly told them if they want to lower the insanely high price of electricity in the region right now, in the short term, they need to import more foreign LNG, which is high-priced too. But not as high as burning oil (see 
The NYMEX Henry Hub price for natural gas is once again in freefall. Over the four previous trading sessions, the price has crashed $1.29/MMBtu (down 25%) to settle yesterday at $3.99. We haven’t seen prices this low since February 2022. Weather is the culprit. Baby, it’s warm outside! So, where is the price heading in 2023? Let’s try to answer that question.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has traditionally not regulated nor overseen low-pressure natural gas gathering pipelines in the state because it’s not required to (nor allowed to) by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). That has changed. The PHMSA published new standards that bring gathering pipelines under its regulatory umbrella. The PA PUC held a public hearing in early December and subsequently published material from that hearing in the Pennsylvania Bulletin in late December–material that discusses how the change in PHMSA’s gathering pipeline regulations affects PA.
The Freeport LNG export terminal, located in Quintana Island, Texas, has been offline and not producing LNG since June 2022 due to an explosion (see 
It’s that time of year. Typically at the end of a year, or the very beginning of a new year, publications will pontificate on what they predict will happen in the coming 12 months. We’ve seen a number of such articles about the energy space, including some predictions targeted specifically for the Marcellus/Utica. We’ve selected three such articles to share with you–all of them from authors and publications we highly respect.
