Climate Cultists Running Out the Clock on Mountain Valley Pipeline
Every “game” comes to an end when play must stop and a winner, and a loser, are declared. If you watch basketball you know that the final couple of minutes can last what seems like a lifetime. One team, up by 2 or 3 points, gains possession of the ball and they are in the lead. What do they do? Play keep-away. Run the clock down so the opponent can’t score to tie or pull ahead. What does the opponent do? Try to foul the person with the ball, or call for a time-out, in order to stop the clock and (hopefully) when the ball is thrown in and play resumes, regain possession and score. In a sense, that’s what is happening with the 94% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, a 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia. Right now anti-American Big Green groups have possession of the ball (having co-opted leftist judges) and they are ahead by one point, hoping to end the game by running out the clock. Will they succeed?
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Despite screaming and howling at the moon by leftist Big Green groups, including the Sierra Club and Public Citizen, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week issued orders allowing two huge new LNG export facilities extra time to complete building those projects. On May 6, FERC issued a 31-month time extension to Cheniere Energy to build its third train (“Stage 3”) project at the existing Corpus Christi Liquefaction facility. FERC issued a three-year time extension to Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles LNG project. Both facilities have the potential to be fed, in part, by Marcellus/Utica molecules.
For how many years now have we had to suffer through insufferable “reporting” that tells us the day of Big Oil is over. That woke investors have turned their backs on oil and gas companies and that no new investment in O&G will happen ever again. Now that oil and natgas prices are through the roof and oil and gas companies are turning in record profits with gobs of free cash flow, buying back shares and issuing dividends–guess what has happened? Wall Street investors have turned their backs on high-flying, woke Big Tech companies and instead are investing where the money is–in oil and gas. We love it!
The Enverus rig count, as of Wednesday, stood at 806, up by three from the week before. We are only 32 rigs away from the pre-pandemic high of 838 rigs. Last week the Marcellus operated 45 rigs (up by one), while the Utica operated 11 rigs (same as the week before), for a total of 56 active rigs in the M-U. Our chief rival, the Louisiana and Texas Haynesville, operated 71 rigs last week, picking up two rigs from the week before.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Oil, gas education program recognized for excellence; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: ExxonMobil books 2 MTPA of LNG from Venture Global; NATIONAL: US weekly LNG exports decrease by four LNGCs; Natural gas consumed by U.S. electric power sector sets January record in 2022; Democrats are playing politics on oil and gas prices; Environmental group targets Biden energy diplomat over ties to gas industry; INTERNATIONAL: Historic price spikes lead to record LNG imports into Europe.
Ascent Resources, originally founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately-held company that focuses 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its first quarter update earlier this week. Ascent averaged production of 2.0 Bcfe/d for the quarter, a 9% increase over 1Q21. Nearly all of Ascent’s production (93%) was natural gas, while the rest was oil and NGLs. Ascent generated -$2 million of free cash flow (yes, negative free cash flow) and lost $1.5 billion during 1Q based on bad bets on derivatives/hedging.
Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil, and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in several unconventional shale plays, including the Marcellus and Utica. Last week Summit issued its first quarter 2022 update. The company’s Marcellus/Utica segment (now called Northeast) continued to be the star performer. Flows through the company’s pipeline system were down versus the prior year, with the exception of its Ohio Gathering unit where volumes increased. Revenues were down from the same period a year ago, but not by much.
The Natural Gas Supply Association’s (NGSA) 2022 Summer Outlook projects “upward pressure” on the natural gas market compared to last summer because of robust industrial demand, lower storage inventories, and the ripple effect on energy commodities caused by Europe’s energy crisis as it struggles for independence from Russian oil and gas. The NGSA Summer Outlook predicts a summer-over-summer increase of 3.6 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in average daily production (supply). NGSA says the supply increase (4% higher than last summer) is actually 1 Bcf/d more than demand for natgas will grow this summer. Oops.
Last year the Bidenistas initiated a massive power grab of transferring the right of individual states to regulate local natural gas gathering pipelines to the federal government, which is set to happen on May 16 of this year (see 
From the beginning of Richard “Dick” Glick’s tenure at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), we’ve pointed out that he votes against every single new pipeline project that comes before him based on cockamamie global warming excuses. Glick, a former wind lobbyist, took over as Chairman of FERC under Joe Biden. However, Glick’s tenure may be coming to an end. His five-year term on FERC will expire on June 30 and the Bidenistas have not yet renominated him for another term. Even if he leaves, which would leave an evenly divided 2-2 Democrat/Republican FERC, he still has until the end of this year to exit stage left.
An interesting development for an LNG export project in Canada we’ve tracked for years. Bear Head Energy, Inc., the current owner of Bear Head LNG in Nova Scotia, is being sold to Houston-based Buckeye Partners for an undisclosed sum. Buckeye is a portfolio company of, wholly owned by, IFM Global Infrastructure Fund (based in Australia). The former owner of the Bear Head LNG project, LNG Limited, was also based in Australia before it went belly up. Buckeye is a serious company with serious assets in the U.S. and has declared its intent to develop the fully-permitted Bear Head project forthwith. Maybe Canada’s East Coast will get an LNG export facility after all!
From time to time we bring you columns written by Ronald Stein, author, engineer, and energy expert. He writes for several organizations, including his latest column appearing on The Heartland Institute website (he is an advisor for Heartland). Stein’s column points out the blazingly obvious that nobody else seems to grasp: Without fossil fuels and the products that are made from fossil fuels, there’s no reason to have so-called renewable electric energy because there won’t be any products to power with that energy! But maybe that’s exactly what the left wants?
ECA Marcellus Trust I, the royalty interest holder in and another name for Greylock Energy, has just moved the goalposts. After issuing a payout (the equivalent of a dividend) to unitholders of 13.6 cents for 4Q21, the company has pulled back and will only issue a payout of 9.4 cents per unit for 1Q22. Why? The company announced it is building a bigger emergency fund than previously announced.
National Grid is desperately trying not to run out of natural gas for its customers in Brooklyn and Queens (on Long Island). For several years the company has fought a battle to run a tiny pipeline to its Greenpoint, Brooklyn facility, to provide extra natural gas. That project is being investigated by the Biden administration on charges of racism (see