Columbia Pipeline Group | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | TC Energy/TransCanada
FERC Extends Deadline for La. XPress Compressor Construction
In October 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finally, after months of dithering, approved TC Energy to begin construction on its Louisiana XPress project to beef up flows along the existing Columbia pipeline system by an additional 850 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) by adding three new compressor stations and expanding a fourth compressor in Louisiana (see FERC Finally Approves Louisiana XPress Compressor Construction). The work was supposed to be done and dusted no later than Sept. 17th of this year. FERC just granted TC/Columbia an extra three months to get it done.
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Some politicians make us ill. One of them is John Fetterman, currently Pennsylvania’s undistinguished Lt. Governor and the Democrat candidate for the U.S. Senate to take over the seat being vacated by Pat Toomey. Fetterman is a radial socialist who, in 2016, signed a pledge to ban all fracking nationwide, including his home state of PA. Now that he’s running for the Senate, Fetterman has changed his tune and thinks that at least some fracking is OK. He is a liar.
In April, a group of nearly 200 protesters from some 60 different wacko anti-fossil fuel groups (an average of 3 1/3 person per “group”) turned out to protest a tiny 5-mile pipeline proposed in the Springfield, Massachusetts area (see 
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Cheniere and PTT ink long-term LNG supply deal; NextEra plans to convert 16 GW of natural gas fleet to hydrogen; Texas adds greatest number of oil, natgas jobs in state history; NATIONAL: Market watcher flags USA natgas issue; INTERNATIONAL: Compulsory EU gas demand cut could happen.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is running for governor of the Keystone State, has once again targeted a shale energy company in his zeal to prove he despises the Marcellus even more than current Gov. Tom Wolf does (burnishing his credentials with the environmental left who makes up his base). Yesterday Shapiro’s office issued a press release announcing that the Big Man has bullied Southeast Directional Drilling, a subcontractor of National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation (i.e. Seneca Resources), into pleading guilty to spilling nontoxic drilling mud into a creek so small it doesn’t have a name. Southeast will have to pay a $15,000 fine.
Shale energy mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been quite active for the first half of 2022. According to powerhouse energy data company Enverus, the first quarter saw $14.7 billion worth of M&As. The second quarter saw $12 billion in M&As. However, almost all of it happened outside of the Marcellus/Utica. There was $2.8 billion worth of M&A in the M-U during 1Q22, and $0 in 2Q22. One of the main reasons our play hasn’t seen more M&A? Lack of pipelines to move natural gas out of the northeast.
We were excited to see a Reuters article with the headline, “U.S. pipeline companies eye nat gas infrastructure for growth.” Cool. More pipelines means more opportunity to sell product. And maybe it means there’s a change in attitude coming to allow more pipelines, right? Wrong–at least for the Marcellus/Utica. The article (below) does talk about some of the largest pipeline companies in the U.S., including Kinder Morgan, refocusing on LNG and exports. However, as the article points out, anywhere outside of Texas and possibly Louisiana, *nobody* is planning new pipeline projects. Why? Due to extreme resistance from the left and the current administration in Washington, D.C.
Last year the U.S. remained the #3 exporter of LNG in the world, just behind Australia and Qatar. However, during the first half of 2022, the U.S. became the #1 exporter of LNG in the world. Capacity expanded since late last year by an extra 1.9 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day), to hit an average of 11.4 Bcf/d, with gusts up to 13.9 Bcf/d. But then there was an explosion and fire at Freeport LNG in Texas in early June, which immediately took 2 Bcf/d offline until further notice (see 
Bad old ideas become bad new ideas for those on the left. In June 2018, MDN exclusively brought our readers the news that Diversified Gas & Oil (now called Diversified Energy) had purchased EQT Corporation’s Huron Shale assets, with a bunch of conventional wells, in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia for $575 million (see 
Anti-fossil fuel activists are agitating in Pennsylvania to get the state Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to drop a $5,000 initial (and subsequent $500 annual) fee to access what is called the Exploration and Development Well Information Network (EDWIN) database. The EDWIN database contains details about oil and gas wells throughout the state, including data on the location, ownership status, construction information, and completion reports. DCNR uses the Dept. of Environmental Protection’s database as a starting point and cleans it up, making it more useful.
New England’s gas supply is precarious and has been for years. The region eliminated all of its coal-fired power plants and now relies on natural gas-fired power plants for much of its electricity generation (and oil when the natgas runs low). Yet the region and its governors, along with New York’s governors, block any and all new natural gas pipeline projects from the Pennsylvania Marcellus just a few hundred miles away. New England wants and needs the gas, yet they block the mechanism that will deliver it. Just another day in a socialist paradise. So what happens is predictable: When there is a supply disruption or a tick up in demand (like a cold winter), and supplies run short, prices go through the roof. Looking ahead to December and January, the NYMEX futures contracts are doing that right now, with prices exceeding a whopping $40/MMBtu.