MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Pennsylvania and LNG to Germany; NATIONAL: Oil falls to pre war level as demand eases; US weekly LNG exports up by four LNG tankers; Is Manchin about to get rolled by the Democrats?; Methane fee likely to survive ‘Byrd bath,’ lawmakers say.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Aug 5, 2022”
Chesapeake Energy issued its 2Q22 update on Tuesday and held a conference call with analysts yesterday. The big news is that Chesapeake has come full circle, back to its natural gas roots. Chessy CEO Nick Dell’Osso said the company will focus more on drilling for natural gas in both the Marcellus and Haynesville shale plays, and less on drilling in the company’s oil-focused Eagle Ford play. In fact, Chesapeake now views the Eagle Ford as “non-core” and will (soon) stop investing in drilling new wells there. Our take is that you can look for a sale of the EF assets soon.
Read More “Chesapeake Narrows Focus to Marcellus & Haynesville, Dropping Oily EF”
Coterra Energy, formed last October when Cabot Oil & Gas merged with Cimarex Energy, issued its second quarter update yesterday. The company made $1.2 billion in profit last quarter, versus making just $30 million a year ago. Natural gas production in the Marcellus stayed pretty much even at 2.22 Bcf/d. The company generated over $1 billion in free cash flowing during 2Q–one of the highest, if not the highest, we’ve seen. Coterra uses its free cash flow to issue dividends, buy back shares, and retire debt sooner.
Read More “Coterra Makes $1.2B in 2Q, Pumps 2.8 Bcf/d NatGas, 3 Rigs in NEPA”
Here’s some of the best news we’ve heard in a month! Freeport LNG, offline due to an explosion and fire in June, issued an announcement yesterday to say it has signed a deal with the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that will allow the export facility to restart in October–at or near full strength of exporting 2 Bcf/d of natural gas.
Read More “Freeport LNG Signs Agreement w/PHMSA to Restart 2 Bcf/d in October”
In July 2018, a group of 100+ southwestern Pennsylvania landowners sued EQT for failure to pay them rental fees for storing natural gas under their properties (see 100+ PA Landowners Sue EQT re Gas Storage Field Payments). In July 2019, that same group filed a request in U.S. District Court to upgrade the lawsuit to class action status, potentially including thousands of affected landowners (see PA Landowners Seek Class Action Against EQT re Gas Storage). The judge in the case agreed with their petition and upgraded the case to class action status in September 2021 (see PA Landowners Get Class Action OK’d Against EQT re Gas Storage). But the story isn’t over yet. A federal appeals court just undid/reversed the class action…
Read More “PA Landowners Class Action Against EQT re Gas Storage Overturned”
Two days ago, MDN mused over the issue of whether or not there will EVER be fracking in New York State (see Is There Still a Chance for Fracking in New York State?). We shared a novel idea for how fracking might restart–if the Democrats changed their position and reversed a permanent ban on fracking (hence our refrain that fracking will arrive in NY “when pigs fly”). Here’s another way it might happen: If the federal government passes a law that withholds Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) money from states that ban fracking. A bill to do just that will be introduced tomorrow by Rep. Claudia Tenney, Congresswoman from the Upstate NY district where MDN resides.
Read More “Congresswoman Floats Bill to Force NY, Other States to Allow Fracking”
According to Wikipedia, Elizabeth, PA is a borough in Allegheny County, on the east bank of the Monongahela River, where Pennsylvania Route 51 crosses, 15 miles upstream (south) of Pittsburgh and close to the county line. The population was 1,493 at the 2010 census. Very rural. Olympus Energy wants to drill a well in the township. The pad would sit about 1,700 feet (one-third of a mile) away from Elizabeth Forward High School. Some of the parents of students, and some of the administration, are pushing back against Olympus’ drilling plan, using the kiddies as an excuse.
Read More “School Near Pittsburgh Pushes Back Against Olympus Plan to Drill”
What makes an oil and gas company (specifically a driller) a “bad actor”? Anti-fossil fuel zealots believe they’ve found a clever way of smearing Marcellus drillers and painting them as “bad actors” by citing how many notices of violation (NOVs) the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has issued to a driller. The problem is, those notices are highly inconsistent and many times are for relatively minor (quickly fixable) “infractions” against regulations. Citing a high number of NOVs sounds impressive and scares people, which is the important thing for antis.
Read More “Leftist Radicals in Pittsburgh Try to Redefine Oil & Gas “Bad Actors””
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PA state lawmakers, antis collude on anti-fracking action plan; NATIONAL: Oil falls on slowing us demand concerns; Fitch Solutions unveils latest oil price forecast; Can the carbon-capture industry grow as quickly as it needs to?; Manchin-Schumer energy deal proves the power of the swamp; INTERNATIONAL: LNG vessel transit through Panama drops.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Aug 4, 2022”
As we previously stated and continue to state: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s sellout of the entire country (and the entire fossil energy industry) in return for a vote on separate legislation that supposedly will ensure Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) gets completed (no guarantee a vote will be taken), is not worth the price. Unsurprisingly, Equitrans Midstream, the company building MVP, is delighted to learn of Manchin’s plan to sacrifice the country in return for completing its pipeline. Extremely short-sighted.
Read More “Equitrans Likes Traitor Joe’s Sellout of Country for MVP Pipeline”
New Jersey Resources’ Adelphia Gateway project converts an old oil pipeline stretching from Northampton County, PA through Bucks, Montgomery, and Chester counties, terminating in Delaware County at Marcus Hook, into a natural gas pipeline. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued final approval for the project in December 2019 (see FERC Issues Final OK for Southeast PA Adelphia Gateway Pipeline). Since that time, THE Delaware Riverkeeper (Maya van Rossum) has been attempting to block the project. Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit) shot down Riverkeeper’s lawsuit.
Read More “THE Delaware Riverkeeper Loses Lawsuit to Block Adelphia Pipe”
Williams CEO Alan Armstrong was jazzed on yesterday’s second quarter update call with analysts. Armstrong said, “We continue to see strong fundamentals driving a great pipeline of growth opportunities, particularly increasing demand for U.S. LNG exports and power generation along the Transco corridor.” The mighty Transco pipeline (Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line) is a 10,000-mile pipeline network with a mainline extending approximately 1,800 miles between South Texas and New York City. Most of the gas flowing through Transco comes from the Marcellus/Utica. Net income for Williams was $484 million in 2Q22, up 48% from 2Q21. A big focus for Williams in the near term will be new gas gathering projects in the Marcellus region.
Read More “Williams 2Q: Summer Heat + LNG = High Activity on Transco Pipe”
In addition to issuing its second quarter update yesterday, Williams made a second announcement of interest. The company has invested an unspecified amount of money in Aurora Hydrogen, a company developing technology that converts natural gas to hydrogen with zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Several other companies, including Chevron and Shell, invested too.
Read More “Williams Invests in Tech to Convert NatGas to H2, No Emissions”
In June 2017, MDN reported that EmberClear, based in Houston, TX, wants to build a $1 billion, 1,100 megawatt combined-cycle natural gas-fired plant about 15 miles from Springfield, Illinois, in Pawnee (see NatGas and Coal Go to War in Central Illinois). In April 2018, Springfield city alderman approved a deal for what is now called the Lincoln Land Energy Center to purchase “at least” 80,000 gallons of water per day from City Water, Light and Power (CWLP) for a cool $29,000 per month (see Central Illinois Gas-Fired Power Plant One Step Closer to Reality). The radicalized Sierra Club tried to block the project by blocking a key permit (see Sierra Club Targets Proposed Central Illinois Gas-Fired Power Plant). They failed.
Read More “Illinois EPA Approves EmberClear Gas-Fired Power Plant in Pawnee”
One of the criticisms MDN has levied against the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, is that each state is attempting to “go it alone” with respect to attracting a $2 billion investment from the federal government for a hydrogen and CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage) hub in our region (see WV, OH, PA Compete Against Each Other to Attract $2B Hydrogen Hub). Other states outside of our region are combining their efforts. All three M-U states need to combine their efforts to attract the hub to the Marcellus/Utica region, or risk losing the opportunity. There is a group attempting to be that unifying force. Will it succeed?
Read More “Industry-Led Group Pushing for Hydrogen Hub in M-U Gets a Name”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Chesapeake Energy to supply gas to Golden Pass LNG; NATIONAL: Survey says sky-high gas prices don’t make us all want EVs; INTERNATIONAL: BP second quarter profits highest in 14 years; Shell makes record profits for two quarters in a row.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Aug 3, 2022”