NYMEX NatGas Price Drops 20% in Single Day re Freeport LNG, Storage
Yesterday the NYMEX natural gas price lost 20% of its value in a single day for the second time in two weeks. When news broke on June 14 that the Freeport LNG plant would not likely return to full service before the end of this year, the NYMEX front-month contract lost $1.42 (19.75%) to close at $7.19/MMBtu (see NYMEX NatGas Down 20% in Single Day on Freeport LNG Bad News). Yesterday the NYMEX front-month contract lost $1.07 (19.8%) to settle at $5.42/MMBtu. What prompted the dramatic loss yesterday was the reaction of traders to two events: (1) a Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) report saying the agency found unsafe conditions at the Freeport LNG export terminal in Texas and will not allow the plant to restart until the completion of an outside analysis; and (2) a larger than expected volume of natural gas was injected into storage, meaning more supplies are now available with the same (or less) demand.
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National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) and its pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline have worked on a plan to build the Northern Access Pipeline since 2016. Northern Access is a 97-mile project from McKean County in Pennsylvania into and through Allegany, Cattaraugus and Erie counties in New York, that will flow Marcellus gas into New York State. The project was repeatedly delayed by the radicals of the Andrew Cuomo (now Kathy Hochul) administration. NFG says it still wants to build the project, but needs more time. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) just gave NFG an extra 35 months to get the project done.
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was in Marietta, OH on Thursday for a roundtable discussion regarding the oil and gas industry. The meeting was held at Artex Oil Company and included Energy Transfer, Nine Energy Service, Oil Well Shares (OWS), Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA), Reno Oil and Gas, DeepRock Disposal Solutions, Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP), and Marietta College. The meeting began as a closed-door session but opened to the public (and the press) after a half hour.
Wow, have the standards at Harvard University slipped! It used to be that Harvard was known for academic rigor–thoroughness and accuracy. Those days are long gone. Now Harvard is controlled by leftists who succumb to groupthink and political ideology instead of the scientific method. Case in point: Harvard recently published a study in Environmental Science & Technology that claims natural gas used for powering household stoves, furnaces, and water heaters “may contain” levels of “cancer-linked compounds” that are “toxic to residents when leaked.” In other words, the left has embarked on a mission to convince you that using natural gas will give you cancer. HORSE MANURE!
Last week, for June 20-26, the number of new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica decreased just a bit to 29 (from 34 the week prior). Pennsylvania issued 15 new permits, all but one in southwestern PA. Five of PA’s permits went to PennEnergy Resources in Butler County, four to Range Resources in Washington County, and three to Apex Energy in Westmoreland County. Ohio issued 10 new permits with five going to Encino Energy (EAP) in Carroll County and three going to Ascent Resources in Belmont County. Finally, West Virginia issued four new permits, all of them to Tug Hill Operating. In each case the permits were for multiple wells on single well pads.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Satellites show rising methane emissions in Appalachia; NATIONAL: Oil hits first monthly decline this year; Dark clouds on the horizon for electric vehicles; INTERNATIONAL: German vice chancellor warns Russia may totally cut off natgas; EU imports more US LNG than Russian pipeline gas first time ever.
Plum Boro (Allegheny County, PA) officials and environmental leftist groups (backed by Big Green foreign money) are gearing up to oppose Plum’s second wastewater injection well with smears and lies. A long-fought-over wastewater injection well in Plum finally opened for business in mid-2021, having overcome all sorts of smears and slanders and lawsuits by the enviro-left (see 
Using data from several government agencies, the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, Inc. (GO-WV) published its annual Gas Facts report earlier this week. Natural gas production in WV increased 6% to approximately 2.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 2021. The increase in production helped drive a 10% increase in state severance and local property taxes collected.
Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on developing Marcellus Shale wells in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon doesn’t typically do its own drilling. The company joint venture partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company typically does the drilling. In something of a shakeup, the company announced it is getting both a new CEO and a new CFO beginning tomorrow.
In March MDN brought you information from the Toronto Financial Post that said the Ukrainian crisis has put two East Coast Canada LNG export facilities “back on the map” (see 
Mike Rowe is a TV host, writer, narrator, producer, actor, and spokesman. He is perhaps best known for the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs, running for eight seasons, ending in 2012 (but recently revived in 2022). Rowe has a lot of fans. One of them wrote him a letter after seeing Rowe appear in a commercial for the Oklahoma Energy Resource Board (OERB). She proceeded to lecture him on his ignorance that we must dump fossil energy in the next 12 years or we’re all toast. Sound familiar? Rowe, in his inimitable style, writes back and kindly, gently, with his verbal hand around her shoulder, proceeds to obliterate her arguments.
S.T.L. Resources, LLC, an independent oil and gas company with headquarters outside of Pittsburgh, announced yesterday that the company has purchased the remaining assets of Tilden Marcellus for an undisclosed sum. Tilden filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February (see 
Equitrans and its Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, attacked by Big Green groups including the Sierra Club (rumored to be backed by Russian money), finally got some good news yesterday. As soon as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a certificate approving the MVP Southgate project, the FERC certificate was challenged by the Clubbers in federal court. Yesterday the court turned back the challenge by the Clubbers and said Southgate has a right to life.