One of Five Canadian East Coast LNG Export Projects Leads the Pack
In March MDN brought you information from the Toronto Financial Post that said the Ukrainian crisis has put two East Coast Canada LNG export facilities “back on the map” (see Ukraine Crisis Injects New Life into East Coast Canada LNG Exports). There are actually five proposed LNG export facilities announced for the Canadian East Coast. In April we brought you details for all five (see Of Canada’s 5 East Coast LNG Export Projects, Will Any Get Built?). Earlier this week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about Germany buying LNG from Canada. One of the five East Coast projects, in particular, seemed to be the focus of their discussion.
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Mike Rowe is a TV host, writer, narrator, producer, actor, and spokesman. He is perhaps best known for the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs, running for eight seasons, ending in 2012 (but recently revived in 2022). Rowe has a lot of fans. One of them wrote him a letter after seeing Rowe appear in a commercial for the Oklahoma Energy Resource Board (OERB). She proceeded to lecture him on his ignorance that we must dump fossil energy in the next 12 years or we’re all toast. Sound familiar? Rowe, in his inimitable style, writes back and kindly, gently, with his verbal hand around her shoulder, proceeds to obliterate her arguments.
INTERNATIONAL: Shell chief says world heading for turbulent period; Germany’s LNG terminals completion could be delayed, sector lobby says; Media cling to false claim climate change is making heatwaves worse.
S.T.L. Resources, LLC, an independent oil and gas company with headquarters outside of Pittsburgh, announced yesterday that the company has purchased the remaining assets of Tilden Marcellus for an undisclosed sum. Tilden filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February (see 
Equitrans and its Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, attacked by Big Green groups including the Sierra Club (rumored to be backed by Russian money), finally got some good news yesterday. As soon as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a certificate approving the MVP Southgate project, the FERC certificate was challenged by the Clubbers in federal court. Yesterday the court turned back the challenge by the Clubbers and said Southgate has a right to life.
The oil and gas industry historically has been subject to wide swings in profits and losses. Some years are up, others are down. Ours is a “boom and bust” industry–let’s just be honest about it. Oil and gas are both commodities and are driven, largely, by market conditions. When the government interferes by threatening banks to avoid investing in O&G, when there’s a big increase in demand due to political events (avoiding Russian O&G because of the unprovoked Ukraine war), and when there’s not enough supply to meet the demand, prices skyrocket, as they have done over the past six months. The recent up-cycle has been good for Marcellus/Utica drillers and the bottom line.
More than half of the refining capacity in the U.S. is located on the Gulf Coast, where more gasoline and distillate fuel is produced than used. On the other hand, the U.S. East Coast has very little refining capacity but is often the location where the most gasoline is consumed. Consequently, the East Coast receives fuel from other regions, predominantly the Gulf Coast, and imports fuel from other countries. It seems to us that there is a big opportunity to build new refineries along the East Coast.
The Group of Seven (G-7) is an inter-governmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. G-7 countries are the world’s largest democratic (freely elected) economies, representing roughly half of the world’s wealth (but only 10% of the world’s population). President Biden and the leaders of the other G-7 countries had a confab yesterday in Germany and issued a joint communique (copy below) that says, in part, it’s OK to invest in natural gas and LNG infrastructure.
There’s no way for the Bidenistas to put lipstick on this pig–but they tried anyway. The Biden administration’s Dept. of Energy published its annual U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER) yesterday. The report shows HUGE fossil fuel industry job losses in 2021. The report finds the fuels technology sector experienced job losses totaling 29,271 jobs in 2021, down 3.1% from 2020, with the majority of losses coming from the fossil fuel industry.
U.S. Well Services (USWS), a company that specializes in fracking shale wells using gas-fired electric (as opposed to diesel) engines, has operations in the Marcellus/Utica, as well as other plays. Last week USWS announced it is selling itself to ProFrac Holding Corp. in an all-stock transaction analysts value at $225-$230 million. The deal will create the second-largest U.S. fracking company by total horsepower, and the largest electric fleet operator with 12 active e-fracking fleets.
President Biden began a five-day “swing” through Europe on Sunday. Yesterday he met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss energy security in light of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. European countries are in various stages of reducing the import of Russian natural gas and oil, which is leading to upheaval in the world market. Biden and von der Leyen issued a joint statement following their meeting (pre-written, of course). What does the statement say about energy and LNG in particular?
If we hear the phrase “energy transition to renewables” or that natural gas is a “bridge to renewable energy” one more time, we’ll throw up. We’ve written, a number of times, that fossil energy–natural gas in particular–is the destination, not a bridge to somewhere else. Here’s the truth of the matter: We need ALL forms of energy. We need solar and wind, we need nuclear, we need hydro, and yes, we need oil and natural gas. And we will continue to need all forms of energy for decades–likely a century or more. That’s the simple truth. We spotted an excellent column that says it perfectly: The changes we’re seeing in the energy sector are an energy expansion, not an energy transition. It’s simple, yet profound.
Hundreds of climate cultists marched on the New Jersey State Capitol last Thursday to demand Gov. Phil Murphy deny permits to any future project that involves the burning of fossil fuels. Here’s what we noticed about the picture of the protesters. Every one of them was wearing clothes made from plastics (fossil fuels), wearing sneakers and shoes made, in part, from plastics (fossil fuels), holding up signs made from plastic (fossil fuels), wearing hats made from plastic fibers (fossil fuels), and holding phones made, in part, from plastics (fossil fuels). Does the average citizen who is not brainwashed by the climate cult see the rank hypocrisy of these people? We sure hope so.