Williams to Expand Capacity on Transco Pipe by 423 MMcf/d in NC
Here’s one that slipped by under the radar. Last month pipeline giant Williams filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to beef up capacity along the mighty Transco pipeline by upgrading compressor stations and other infrastructure (no new pipeline) in order to flow an extra 423 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) to Piedmont Natural Gas and its customers located in eastern North Carolina. The Southside Reliability Enhancement Project, as it is called, is a partial replacement of volumes Piedmont had planned to purchase from Dominion Energy’s now-canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.
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CNX Resources recently announced a couple of shuffles among senior management. Don Rush, CNX’s Chief Financial Officer, has become the company’s first Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). Alan Shepard, Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, was promoted to the role of CFO. Both men have and will continue to work closely together. Rush is a CNX cheerleader and says there is “no reason” why CNX can’t be “leading the charge” in the coming energy transition. Rush says, “We’ve got an ocean of possibilities” in referring to the company’s future prospects with natural gas and hydrogen.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Equinor signs LNG deal with Cheniere; NATIONAL: Drilling vs returns. U.S. oil producers’ tradeoff as windfall tax threatens; Dan Yergin talks oil, gas, Putin, and living his book, ‘The New Map’; 119 publicly traded global oil and natural gas companies added proved reserves in 2021.
One of the big promises of building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant project is its ability to act like a magnet attracting other petrochemical and manufacturing plants to locate near it, using the outputs of the ethane cracker as their inputs. According to an article appearing in the Pittsburgh Business Times, the great promise of attracting more businesses to the southwestern PA region with the construction of the Shell cracker plant has not, so far at least, resulted in a big influx of new businesses.
Big Green groups are rejoicing that they have convinced a New York State judge to rule that an existing natural gas-fired power plant on the banks of the Hudson River, Danskammer Energy, will not be allowed to upgrade its gas turbines from older, more polluting turbines to newer, more efficient and less polluting turbines. Such is the evil mind of Big Green that they rejoice in such a “victory.” Big Green, including the Sierra Club and Earthworks, prefers more pollution rather than allowing a company to improve operations for those who live nearby. How whacked is that?
Last October Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is now running for governor, indicted Energy Transfer with 48 enviro-crimes related to the building of the Mariner East pipeline project (see 
Since 2013 anti-fossil fuel zealots–people with an irrational hatred of fossil fuels–have tried to ban drilling under (not on) public parks in Allegheny County, PA (near Pittsburgh). A small group of perhaps 100 radicals gathered outside the City-County building in downtown Pittsburgh last night to throw a collective temper tantrum, demanding Allegheny County Council ban any new drilling under (not on) county-owned parks.
In March the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), corrupted by the Bidenistas, said it will begin to force all publicly traded companies to disclose their so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the imaginary climate risks their businesses face (see 
Two weeks ago a pathetically low six new permits were issued to drill shale wells across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia (see 
The second-largest LNG export terminal in the U.S., Freeport LNG located near Galveston, Texas, experienced an explosion and fire yesterday. Thankfully nobody was injured and it did not take long to extinguish the fire (see video below). However, the incident has, according to Freeport officials, taken the plant offline for “at least three weeks.” Freeport liquefies and exports approximately 2 Bcf (billion cubic feet) each and every day. In May the U.S. liquefied and exported 11.6 Bcf/d, ergo the Freeport outage takes ~17% of our exports offline. That news sent the Henry Hub NYMEX futures price plunging by 59 cents. At least one, possibly more Marcellus/Utica drillers sell molecules to the Freeport facility.
Although the NYMEX price for natural gas took a plunge yesterday due to news that the country’s second-largest LNG export facility, Freeport, is offline for three weeks (see today’s lead story), the price of physically traded “day-ahead” natural gas (the spot price) in the Marcellus/Utica region continues to soar. In May, the average price of natural gas for day-ahead delivery in the M-U region soared, up 209% over May 2021. The price of spot gas everywhere is up–across the entire country. But it was up the most in the M-U in May.
We’re always on the lookout for indicators and trends that tell us whether or not there will be more or less drilling (and leasing) in the Marcellus/Utica. Lately, we’ve seen a couple of mentions of new leases signed, at least in the Ohio Utica (see 
The Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) partially dismissed a challenge brought by Philly-area State Senator Katie Muth. She seeks to block Eureka Resources from moving forward with the construction of a new shale wastewater recycling facility in Dimock, PA–a location hours away from her own district. The EHB ruled that Muth has no standing under the PA Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA) to bring a challenge. The proposed facility is not in her district and there’s nothing that ties her to that location.