NJDEP Hearing on Transco Compressor Upgrade Brings Out the Antis
In March 2019, MDN told you about a new Williams plan to beef up the Transco pipeline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, to deliver an extra 829 MMcf/d (originally 1 billion cubic feet per day) of Marcellus gas to PA, NJ, and Maryland (see Williams Announces Transco Competitor to PennEast Pipe in NEPA). The project, called the Regional Energy Access (REA) expansion project, was aimed at competing with the PennEast Pipeline project by flowing gas from northeastern Pennsylvania to the Trenton, NJ area. PennEast is no more, but REA is still alive and well. Last Thursday, the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) held a hearing about upgrades to a compressor station in Branchburg, part of REA. The antis came out to lie.
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In early February, MDN told you about an industry-led group collaborating to attract one of four $2 billion hydrogen hubs to the Marcellus/Utica region provided for in the so-called Biden infrastructure bill (see 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) two Republican members, Mark Christie and James Danly, sent a letter to Vanguard Group asking the company for detailed information about how it throws its weight around with the companies it invests in. Specifically, the two FERC commissioners want to know if Vanguard, with some $8.5 trillion (!) under management, is guilty of forcing local electric utility companies to avoid using or buying electricity that comes from natural gas power plants, under the excuse of lowering so-called greenhouse gas emissions.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) reporting website finally fixed whatever problem was plaguing it (this time), so we now have the permit report from August 1-7. Pennsylvania only issued seven new permits during that time, with three going to Range Resources in Washington County and three going to Southwestern Energy in Susquehanna County. Ohio issued a single new permit to Southwestern in Monroe County. And West Virginia issued five new permits, with four of the five going to EQT in Wetzel County.
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Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon typically does not do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company typically does the drilling. Epsilon issued its second quarter 2022 update earlier this week. The company’s Marcellus net gas production was 2.324 Bcf (billion cubic feet) in total, not per day, during 2Q22. That number is down from 2.548 Bcf in 2Q21.
Oil and gas companies have fallen into line over the past few years, bowing to pressure to play the silly games the left sets up, including generating reports on how much greenhouse gases (GHG) a company produces. The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an extremely arrogant organization, declares itself to be the arbiter of what is and is not acceptable for carbon dioxide and methane emissions. When oil and gas companies begin to play the game a little too well (winning the game), the left gets torqued off and attacks. Attack of the Big Green clones. Here’s an example from the Marcellus/Utica, involving Range Resources, of how Big Green attacks when companies begin to win the game…
The second-largest LNG export terminal in the U.S., Freeport LNG, located near Galveston, Texas, experienced an explosion and fire in early June (see 
While some companies (ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Diversified Energy) have sold out in return for corporate favoritism in the Manchin-Schumer so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is really just a Big Green giveaway that slaps a huge new methane tax on oil and gas companies, there are some (many) bold and brave companies that are telling Manchin and those who have caved that the “Emperor has no clothes.” This bill is terrible. Among the groups pushing back are (surprisingly) the American Petroleum Institute (API). Also among the bold and the brave are the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) and the Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA). In fact, 58 major oil and gas associations and groups representing thousands of companies sent a letter yesterday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy outlining their strong opposition to Manchin-Schumer.
Global research firm Wood Mackenzie recently published an analysis of where investors are putting their money in the energy sector. Unsurprisingly (for us), WoodMac found investors are plowing money like crazy into “pure play” (meaning single focus) oil and natural gas companies instead of into companies that dabble in “low-carbon diversification” (i.e. renewables). Fossil energy companies that stick to their knitting (stay focused on fossil energy) are outperforming renewable-focused companies big time.
In what appears to be a regular occurrence, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s online database of oil and gas permit information is offline once again, throwing an error. Very frustrating. We checked Ohio’s numbers and found only a single new permit issued for last week. West Virginia issued five new permits last week. Given that PA typically issues the most new permits, we’ve decided to hold back the report until we can complete it with PA data, hopefully early next week. We’ll keep you posted.
In June, a Shell executive told the Appalachian Energy Innovation Collaborative conference that the company’s Pennsylvania ethane cracker project was 98% done and would be fully online within “a couple of months” (see