Marcellus Drilling News

Accidents | CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

What Happened at Freeport LNG? How Soon Will it be Online Again?
June 14, 2022June 14, 2022

Last week MDN told you about the June 8th explosion and fire at Freeport LNG located near Galveston, the second-largest LNG export terminal in the U.S. (see Explosion Rocks Freeport LNG Export Plant – Offline for 3 Weeks). The managers of the plant said it would be offline for “at least three weeks.” Many are already theorizing it will be offline longer, given the alphabet soup of government agencies now investigating. So what happened? Why was there an explosion and fire? And how much longer might it really be offline?
Read More “What Happened at Freeport LNG? How Soon Will it be Online Again?”
Industrywide Issues | Regulation

American Petroleum Institute (API) Shakes Up Top Management
June 14, 2022June 14, 2022

We’ve made no secret of the fact we don’t think the American Petroleum Institute (API), which is controlled by its Big Oil members (like Chevron and ExxonMobil), serves the best interests of the shale oil and gas industry. A few weeks ago we scolded API for its support of an oil and gas-killing carbon tax (see API Advocates for Destruction of the O&G Industry via Carbon Tax). Last week the API announced four different changes in upper management at the organization. In the organization replaced its top two lawyers. Six changes in three months. That seems like a lot–perhaps it can be called a shakeup?
Read More “American Petroleum Institute (API) Shakes Up Top Management”
CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues

Ukraine Deal to Import LNG from Quebec – Which Banned All O&G Wells
June 14, 2022June 14, 2022

We spotted news that the country of Ukraine, under attack by Russia, has cut a deal (a memorandum of understanding) with Canada’s Symbio Infrastructure to import LNG and green hydrogen. Symbio is building a 10.5 million mt/year LNG export facility in Quebec and will export the LNG and H2 from there. Wait just a minute…Quebec (the province) recently passed a new law outlawing all oil and natural gas production throughout the province (see Quebec Pulls Trigger & Commits Energy Suicide – Bans All O&G Prod.). So where, exactly, will Symbio get the gas it needs to liquefy and then float on ships out the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean and over to Europe?
Read More “Ukraine Deal to Import LNG from Quebec – Which Banned All O&G Wells”
Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation

FERC’s Glick Caught in Lie re Pipe Orders from White House
June 14, 2022June 14, 2022

Last month MDN brought you the news that Joe Biden is renominating Richard “Dick” Glick to serve yet another undistinguished term at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (see Joe Biden Renominates Dick Glick for Another FERC Term). Glick, a Democrat and former wind lobbyist who is an extreme anti-pipeline radical, was first appointed under Donald Trump. Glick is currently the Chairman of the Commission. He needs all 50 Democrat Senators to vote in favor of reappointing him. There is a serious effort underway to convince Sen. Joe Manchin from West Virginia to vote against Glick, which would likely block his reappointment (see Tell Joe Manchin to Block Dick Glick for Another 5-Yr FERC Term). Here’s some more fuel for the fire to deny Glick another term: The Wall Street Journal is reporting Glick has held secret biweekly meetings at the White House for some time, indicating he receives marching orders from the Bidenistas on the kinds of policies they want implemented–including no new pipelines.
Read More “FERC’s Glick Caught in Lie re Pipe Orders from White House”
Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Jun 14, 2022
June 14, 2022June 14, 2022

OTHER U.S. REGIONS: ‘Not backsliding on clean energy’ in California; NATIONAL: North America adds 30 rigs week on week; New federal rule aims to phase out residential furnaces that waste natural gas; Natural gas names continue to surge, hits new 52-week highs; INTERNATIONAL: The coming shipping revolution and LNG.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Jun 14, 2022”
Chester County | CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Philadephia

U.S. East Coast’s 3rd LNG Export Plant Proposed Near Philadelphia
June 13, 2022June 14, 2022

Proposed site for Penn LNG, downriver from Philly (click for larger version)

Seemingly out of nowhere, a plan to build an LNG export facility on the banks of the Delaware River south of Philadelphia is being actively, seriously discussed. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Andrew Maykuth reports that Penn LNG, headed by a native of Philadelphia, has “quietly lined up support to build a $6.4 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal near Philly.” The favored site for the project is currently a functioning warehouse (once upon a time a Ford assembly plant) in Delaware County. However, the owner of the warehouse/site says it’s not for sale. That’s just one of the headwinds the project faces.
Read More “U.S. East Coast’s 3rd LNG Export Plant Proposed Near Philadelphia”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | ESG | Industrywide Issues | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Threatens 6 Banks for Breaking State Anti-Fossil Fuel Law
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

In March West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed into law a new bill requiring the entire state government–all of the various state agencies and governmental departments–to stop doing business with any bank or investment firm that refuses to support coal, oil, and natural gas companies (see WV Bill Targeting Anti-Fossil Fuel Banks, Investors Becomes Law). Last week WV State Treasurer Riley Moore sent a letter to six big banks alerting them they will be added to the state’s “blacklist” for violating policies by not investing or doing business with fossil fuel companies. Let the fun begin!
Read More “WV Threatens 6 Banks for Breaking State Anti-Fossil Fuel Law”
Clearfield County | Crime | Energy Companies | Energy Corporation of America | Greene County (PA) | Greylock Energy | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania

PA AG Shapiro Charges ECA/Greylock with Environmental Crimes
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

In early 2018, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) collected a whopping $1.7 million fine from Energy Corporation of America (ECA) for violations at 17 well sites in Cumberland, Jefferson, and Whiteley Townships in Greene County, and Goshen Township in Clearfield County (see Energy Corp of America Fined $1.7M for Drilling Violations in PA). ECA’s violations? “Failure to properly contains fluids in onsite pits, unauthorized discharge of industrial waste into groundwater, unauthorized disposal of residual waste, failure to restore the pits and well sites, and operating solid waste storage, treatment, and transfer facilities without permits.” Now, more than four years later, PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro (running for governor with a need to keep his radical base stoked) has indicted ECA and Greylock Energy (which purchased ECA’s assets in 2017) with so-called environmental crimes for the same long-resolved issue. Greylock “strongly disputes” the way Shapiro is characterizing the company and its role in this matter.
Read More “PA AG Shapiro Charges ECA/Greylock with Environmental Crimes”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Regulation | Transco | Williams

Williams to Expand Capacity on Transco Pipe by 423 MMcf/d in NC
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

Transco & laterals

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.
Read More “Williams to Expand Capacity on Transco Pipe by 423 MMcf/d in NC”
CNX Resources | Energy Companies

CNX’s New Strategy Officer Sees an “Ocean of Possibilities”
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

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.
Read More “CNX’s New Strategy Officer Sees an “Ocean of Possibilities””
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Beaver County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Shell

Antis Go Plastics Hunting Near Shell Cracker Outfitted in…Plastics
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

Captain Evan Clark, the Three Rivers Waterkeeper, takes a “nurdle patrol” crew out on the Ohio River, near Shell’s new ethane cracker plant. Photo: Julie Grant / The Allegheny Front

You really can’t make this stuff up. Anti-fossil fuelers aligned with Three Rivers Waterkeeper recently went on a boat trip on the Ohio River in Beaver County, PA, near where Shell is almost finished constructing a huge ethane cracker plant, to look for plastic “nurdles.” The small plastic pellets or beads are what the Shell cracker will make when it’s up and running. The antis want to establish a baseline for how many nurdles are found in the water now, before operations begin at the cracker plant, so they can visit later and test again to see if anything has spilled into the local waterway. We think it’s fair to say the antis are also anti-plastics, given their comments. So the pictures of the plastics hunters accompanying the article are quite hilarious. All of the plastics hunters are kitted out in jackets, hats, glasses, hip boots, etc. that are made from the very plastics they are hunting.
Read More “Antis Go Plastics Hunting Near Shell Cracker Outfitted in…Plastics”
Electrical Generation | Hydrogen | Industrywide Issues

Norway Claims World First Running Gas Turbine on 100% Hydrogen
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

From left: Professor Mohsen Assadi, engineer Bjarte Hetlelid and doctoral fellow Reyhaneh Banihabib, with the world’s first gas turbine running on pure hydrogen as a combustion fuel UiS

Researchers at the University of Stavinger in Norway say they are the first in the world to run a gas-fired turbine on 100% hydrogen. The micro gas power plant produces heat, electricity, and hot water for hydronic heating. MDN previously told you about another world first when the gas-fired power plant (currently powered by Utica Shale gas) along the banks of the Ohio River in Hannibal (Monroe County), OH, successfully added a 5% mixture of hydrogen to the natural gas it burns (see Utica Gas Power Plant on Ohio River Uses Hydrogen in World First). The Long Ridge Energy Terminal is the first large, commercial operation to mix in hydrogen with natural gas to produce electricity.
Read More “Norway Claims World First Running Gas Turbine on 100% Hydrogen”
Best of the Rest

Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Jun 13, 2022
June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

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.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Jun 13, 2022”
Beaver County | Economic Impact | Energy Companies | Ethane | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Processing Plants | Shell

Shell Cracker has Not Led to New Petchem Cos. Nearby – So Far
June 10, 2022June 10, 2022

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.
Read More “Shell Cracker has Not Led to New Petchem Cos. Nearby – So Far”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Orange County | Regulation

Hudson River Gas-Fired Plant Loses Appeal of Permit Rejection
June 10, 2022June 10, 2022

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?
Read More “Hudson River Gas-Fired Plant Loses Appeal of Permit Rejection”
Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA

Energy Transfer Faces Hearing for Supposed ME Pipe Crimes June 21
June 10, 2022June 10, 2022

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 Corrupt PA AG Shapiro Charges Mariner East 2 Pipe with 48 Crimes). Shapiro has an ongoing, open attack against the Marcellus industry. He duped a grand jury into indicting Energy Transfer, convincing them accidents are now crimes. A preliminary hearing on those 48 sham charges will happen on June 21st. Here’s the latest update…
Read More “Energy Transfer Faces Hearing for Supposed ME Pipe Crimes June 21”