NatGas Makes a Run at $7/MMBtu – Highest in 13 Yrs – “Fear Premium”
The “front month” May NYMEX natural gas futures contract “exploded” (poor choice of words?) yesterday, going up 37 cents in a single day to close at $6.64/MMBtu. Yesterday’s price for NYMEX natural gas was the highest in the past 13 years. In trader’s language, “key resistance” has been in the $6.10-$6.30/MMBtu range. Previous price rallies “petered out” after going past $6, never getting by $6.30. That’s all behind us now. So why are prices spiking now with warmer spring weather on the horizon?
Read More “NatGas Makes a Run at $7/MMBtu – Highest in 13 Yrs – “Fear Premium””
We didn’t see this one coming! Must be the intense pressure from U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had the intended effect (see 
Last Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court ruled that Gov. Tom Wolf’s obscene carbon tax, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), will not go into effect until “pending further order of the court” (see 
The main reason Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf wants to force his state (against the will of a majority of residents) to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax, is that it will supposedly cut down the state’s emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is supposedly causing Mom Earth to toast (see 
Anti-fossil fuel zealots who irrationally hate all fossil energy, including natural gas, are beside themselves that three new electric power plants are planned for New Jersey. Two would use natural gas as their fuel source, while the third plant plans to use renewables of some kind. Yet antis are freaking out. Two of the planned plants would be for emergency/backup use only and will sit idle 99% of the time. Doesn’t matter: freak out. The remaining plant would produce 630 megawatts of electricity using Marcellus natgas, a relatively small plant (sitting next to an existing plant). Doesn’t matter: freak out. The solution proposed by the naysayers? Just go without electricity. Sit in the dark. Freeze in the winter and boil in the summer.
Europe wants to buy more American natural gas in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What does it mean for Pennsylvania? The Philadelphia Inquirer tackled that question in an article on Saturday. The answer to the question of what Europe’s desire for more U.S. natgas means for PA (and by extension West Virginia and Ohio) is, “not much.” Why? Because we don’t have enough pipelines built to carry our molecules to the Gulf Coast which is where most of the LNG export plants are either already pumping out LNG, or in the process of getting built to do so. Lack of pipelines constrains our gas and holds our region back. Lack of pipelines is a big problem for both the M-U and (now) for Europe.
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia are all scrambling to form intrastate working groups or other alliances in an attempt to be THE state chosen for one of four regional hydrogen hubs funded by the recently passed so-called Biden infrastructure bill (see 
Every now and again we find it helpful to raise our heads, take a step back, and look at the big energy picture. We in the Marcellus/Utica don’t live in a bubble, although sometimes it seems that way. What happens in other countries does, to some extent, have the ability to influence what happens in energy markets here in the northeast. The question is how much of an influence do world energy markets have on us? We spotted an article appearing in Abu Dhabi that got us thinking. We found the ideas in the article interesting. The thesis is that the world is currently in the beginning of a worldwide global natural gas crisis–and that the crisis is going to get “much worse” before it gets better. If that’s true, it has implications for us here in the M-U.
NATIONAL: U.S. gas storage emptied by exports to Europe and Asia; Price volatility and rising demand revive U.S. natural gas trading; Storing renewables in depleted oil and gas wells; Message to Biden: We need more oil, let companies produce more oil; The greatest energy mistake ever made; INTERNATIONAL: Most Brits now BACK fracking; Environmentalists are crushing Europe’s energy independence ambitions.
Last Friday the Utica Energy Alliance (UEA), which represents hundreds of landowners, businesses, community leaders and allies of the shale industry, sent a letter to the entire Ohio Congressional delegation asking the state’s Senators and Congresspeople to stand behind the U.S. initiative to support the European Union by promoting Ohio’s (and the entire Marcellus/Utica region’s) production of natural gas. The UEA says using American natgas is the only way for Europe to end reliance on Russian energy and put an end to funding Putin’s war machine. The group requested a written response from each member. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a response from U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.