Eversource Tells Biden w/o More NatGas New England Gets Blackouts
We’ve been warning about it for years because various government and private companies have been warning about it–that Boston and New England were just one extended cold snap away from rolling blackouts. More than half of all electricity generated and provided to New England comes from natural gas-fired power plants. During cold periods when there is high demand for home heating, power plants are threatened with shortages. Somehow New England has dodged a bullet and has not had to resort to rolling blackouts. Until (likely) this year. Eversource, the region’s largest utility company, sent a letter last Thursday to President Biden urging him to assemble a panel and figure out how to ensure natgas flows to New England (via LNG) this winter–because if it doesn’t, this IS the year rolling blackouts become reality.
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We began to see the latest fake news attacks against natural gas nearly two weeks ago. The extreme, leftwing activist group Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSEHE) produced a junk science report that claims the natural gas in your cooking stove is leaking gas that contains chemicals that cause cancer. Mainstream outlets, like NBC News, dutifully (without verifying it) reported this nonsense like it was legitimate science news. It is not. It’s quackery. But then NBC (and others like it) have VERY low standards. NBC is more into propaganda and advocacy than it is reporting objective, unbiased news. No worries. We will debunk it for you below.
For some time, we’ve been sounding the alarm about a coming change at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that will force publicly traded companies to disclose mythical greenhouse gas emissions data (see 
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: LNG exports critical in preventing emissions backslide; Fetterman slams Big Oil for surging profits and failure to invest in new supply; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: JAX LNG refuels Sakura Leader with LNG; NATIONAL: Biden knows his policies increase energy costs for Americans; Why the U.S. has a diesel shortage; INTERNATIONAL: Growing LNG flotilla has big implications for European gas market.
EQT faced some strong headwinds during the third quarter of 2022, but the company still came out on top. The headwinds included third-party (mainly pipeline) outages beyond EQT’s control, as well as droughts that decreased the volume of water the company could lay hands on for fracking. As a result, the company brought online to sales just 16 new wells instead of the 22 to 32 forecasted. Production slipped too, to 488 Bcfe (billion cubic feet equivalent), down 7% from last year’s 3Q. That 488 Bcfe calculates out to be 5.30 Bcfe/d. On the plus side, the company generated net income of $684 million in 3Q22 vs. losing $1.98 billion in 3Q21, and it generated free cash flow of $591 million.
Antero Resources is one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica (with major assets in West Virginia). The company is the fifth largest natgas producer in the country and the second largest LNG exporter. Antero provided its third quarter 2022 update yesterday. Like other major M-U drillers, Antero had a great quarter financially. Antero’s 3Q22 net income was $560 million (adjusted net Income was $531 million), versus losing $549 million in 3Q21. Free cash flow was a whopping $797 million in 3Q. Antero produced an average of 3.2 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d), including 171,000 barrels per day (Bbl/d) of liquids. That’s down just a hair from 3.247 Bcfe/d produced in 3Q21.
As we mentioned yesterday, House Bill (HB) 1059, legislation to provide $142 million annually in state tax credits for several purposes, including clean hydrogen hubs, use of natural gas, semiconductor manufacturing, and milk processors, was approved by a Senate committee and is on a fast track to becoming signed into law (see 
Yesterday, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce held its “Energy Supply Chain: Present & Future” conference at the Ohio Statehouse Atrium in Columbus. Participants and speakers included oil and natural gas producers, pipeline operators, policymakers, renewable companies, and more. Questions largely centered on the energy transition and how various resources fit into a so-called sustainable future. The upshot was that Ohio’s natural gas (mostly Utica, some Marcellus) is front and center as a driving force for Ohio energy, and the Ohio economy.
In 2021, the use of coal in the U.S. to fire power plants actually rose by 16% after it had declined steadily, year after year, from 2014 to 2020. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects coal used to fire power plants in the U.S. to decline again this year, even though the price of natural gas has doubled and tripled. Coal and natgas are typically interchangeable, and power generators use whichever costs less. But not, it seems, anymore.
Norwegian company DNV operates as a quality assurance and risk management company. It offers supply chain, data management, technical assurance, software, and advisory services. DNV recently published its annual Energy Transition Outlook 2022. DNV’s predictions are somewhat shocking. The company is a global warming Kool-Aid drinker, believing we’ll all toast if we don’t “transition” away from burning fossil energy by 2050. Yet DNV’s report shows it thinks by 2050, the U.S. and Canada will still be 66% powered by fossil energy, primarily natural gas.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, ended his political future when he sold out the country by voting in favor of the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is actually a mini-Green New Deal bill (see 
Another weak and pathetic number of new shale drilling permits were issued for the week of Oct. 17-23 in the Marcellus/Utica. Pennsylvania had only 10 new permits, with six of them going to Range Resources in Beaver County. Ohio had just one new permit, for Southwestern Energy in Monroe County. And West Virginia had a big, fat, goose egg. No new permits. Bummer.
The clown judges who occupy the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (4th Circus) appear ready to reject another water permit granted by the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection to cross streams and rivers and swamps to finish up the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Three judges from the 4th Circus were appointed back in 2017 to hear appeals against the project. All three are profoundly bigoted and prejudiced against natural gas pipeline projects.
Two days ago, we told you that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Republicans from the state legislature are reportedly working hard on a “massive development package” of tax credits that would, among other things, encourage MORE natural gas development in the Keystone State (see