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.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Jul 27, 2022”
Last week MDN editor Jim Willis had the privilege and honor of a (remote) sitdown interview with Nick DeIuliis, the CEO of CNX Resources, one of the major producers in the Marcellus/Utica. Nick is a fascinating guy. In many ways, he is MDN’s hero. He recently published a book titled Precipice: The Left’s Campaign to Destroy America. If you want to know Nick’s philosophy, his worldview, and what makes him tick, read the book. Jim’s interview with Nick covered many issues and took a full hour. Today’s post is the first of a multi-part series from our extended interview. Along the way, you will learn some new things about Nick and CNX, including information about some exciting technologies CNX is working on/patenting that could change the future of the natural gas industry. And no, that’s not hyperbole.
Read More “Exclusive: Interview with CNX CEO Nick DeIuliis – Part 1”
In 2020 EOG Resources, one of the largest oil and gas drillers in the U.S. (with operations in Trinidad and China too), sold *all* of its Marcellus assets, which were located in Bradford County, PA, to Tilden Resources for $130 million (see EOG Resources Sells Marcellus Assets for $130M, Exits Basin). EOG left the M-U building, so to speak. But what’s this? EOG is ramping up its drilling program and increasing its acreage once again in the Marcellus/Utica, this time along the edge of the Utica’s oil window in Ohio, according to an investigation by The Capitol Forum (TCF).
Read More “EOG Resources Returns to Utica Oil Window After Exiting in 2020”
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.
Read More “PA AG Shapiro Bullies Another M-U Co. to Pay $15K for Accident”
Here’s a serious question for you to ponder: Why would we use wind and solar if it doesn’t actually reduce CO2 emissions? It’s not just an academic question. David T. Stevenson, Director of the Center for Energy & Environmental Policy at the Delaware-based Caesar Rodney Institute, researched how much wind and solar power was generated in the PJM electric grid (which includes Pennsylvania) from 2019 to 2021, comparing the increase of wind and solar with the level of CO2 emissions. He found that wind and solar power generation increased by 30% from 2019 to 2021, but the increase had *no impact* on carbon dioxide emissions (CO2). Carbon didn’t go down. Yet prices for electricity increased due to using wind and solar.
Read More “Research Finds Wind & Solar Fail to Reduce CO2 Emissions in PJM”
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.
Read More “Mergers & Acquisitions Active in O&G in 2022, but Not in the M-U”
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.
Read More “Midstreamers Look to Expand NatGas Pipes in TX, LA, Nowhere Else”
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 Freeport LNG Says 2 Bcf/d Export Plant Offline Until October). So the question is, Will the U.S. remain the #1 LNG exporter of the world during 2H22?
Read More “U.S. Became World’s Largest LNG Exporter 1H22 – Will it Last?”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Volunteer fire companies receive Act 13 grants; NATIONAL: Elitists feeling the power: The revolution comes closer!; FERC must regulate small-scale LNG export projects, green groups say; INTERNATIONAL: Russian gas supply uncertainty sends Asia LNG prices surging; Russia’s Gazprom tightens squeeze on gas flow to Europe; LNG outages and Russian aggression send global gas prices soaring – again.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Jul 26, 2022”
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 Diversified Gas & Oil Adds to Conventional Assets in KY, VA, WV). A few months later, the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization (WVSORO) accused EQT of selling off its conventional wells to avoid having to plug them (see WV Surface Owners Accuse EQT of Selling Wells Should be Plugged). Big Green groups are now using a couple of WV landowners in an attempt to launch a class action against EQT and Diversified.
Read More “Big Green Uses WV Landowners to Sue EQT, Diversified re Old Wells”
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.
Read More “Antis Lobby PA DCNR to Make EDWIN O&G Well Info Free for All”
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.
Read More “Lack of Pipelines Drives Boston Winter NatGas Contracts to $40+”
Quick! Where are Bob Howarth and Tony Ingraffea, current and retired (respectively) anti-drilling Cornell professors who hate fossil energy and everything to do with it–including drilling rigs? There’s a huge diesel rig set up on property owned by Cornell University in Planet Ithaca (Upstate New York), chewing away at a borehole that’s now two-thirds of the way down to its 10,000-foot target. Yet there hasn’t been a single protest, not a peep, from Howarth and Ingraffea. Why? Because the carbon/methane-belching drilling rig is drilling a hole for a geothermal heating project.
Read More “Diesel Rig Drilling 10K-Ft Well on Cornell U Campus – No Protests”
Increasingly ours is a world run by computers. Even in-the-ground pipelines are monitored and controlled by computers. The ransomware attack last year against Colonial Pipeline, a pipeline that flows a significant amount of refined products (gasoline and diesel fuel) from the Gulf Coast where it’s refined as far north as New Jersey, was a wake-up call for all pipelines. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) heard the call and responded. Last July, the TSA issued an initial “security directive” requiring pipelines, including natural gas pipelines, to do certain things to protect themselves and the public they serve (see Biden TSA Issues New O&G Pipeline Cybersecurity Regulations). Last week the TSA issued a revised version of its regulations.
Read More “Biden TSA Issues Revised O&G Pipeline Cybersecurity Regulations”
Some on the left (not all) get starry-eyed about the potential future of using hydrogen as the world’s key energy source. They believe hydrogen can and should replace both oil and natural gas. Hydrogen as a fuel source got off on a bad foot with the Hindenberg disaster, but it’s been making steady progress since the 1930s. When hydrogen burns in the air, water is the only byproduct it makes. Environmentalists love that! However, plans to mix hydrogen with natural gas and flow it through existing pipelines and burn it in existing furnaces and home appliances just got some bad news from a University of California study.
Read More “Study Says Blending More Than 5% Hydrogen with NatGas Won’t Work”
There is a very dangerous thing happening across the country. If you happen to have an opinion, a viewpoint, that’s different from the socialist left–and if you want to express that opinion in social media, via paid ads, etc., the left wants it shut down, calling it “dangerous.” You see, the socialist left can’t compete in the marketplace of free and open ideas and tolerance. Leftists are the most intolerant among us. Case in point: the group Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future (founded in 2010) promotes information about the useful role of natural gas and the pipelines that flow it–and those ads target (among others) black and Latino voters. The ads are effective, so the socialist left is attempting to shut them down–kill free speech.
Read More “Antis Seek to Silence Pipe Industry Free Speech Ads to Minorities”