Richmond Gas-Fired Plant Reaches Out to Landowners re 83-Mile Pipe
MDN first told you about plans to build the Chickahominy Power Station, a 1,650 megawatt state-of-the-art natural gas-fired power plant in Charles City County, VA, in June 2018 (see Huge New Marcellus-Fired Power Plant Coming Near Richmond, VA). Although the application for the project said an existing 16-inch gas pipeline owned by Virginia Natural Gas crosses through the site (implying the project would use that line to feed the plant), earlier this year a subsidiary of the same company formed to explore building a 24-inch gas pipeline that would traverse five counties in the region to connect to an interstate pipeline that would feed Marcellus/Utica gas to the plant (see Richmond Gas-Fired Plant Explores Building Pipeline Thru 5 Counties). Public outreach to landowners has begun for building the 83-mile pipeline to feed the plant.
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Diversified Energy, which owns close to 8 million acres of leases with some 67,000 (mostly) conventional oil and gas wells (with over 400 Marcellus/Utica shale wells), made 2021 the year to expand–outside the M-U region. The company purchased major assets in the Cotton Valley/Haynesville region of Lousiana, the Barnett play in Texas, and most recently, in the Mid-Continent in Oklahoma. Diversified announced it has closed on its fourth purchase for 2021 in the Mid-Continent.
Southwestern Energy announced in early November it had struck a deal to buy GEP Haynesville, a subsidiary of GeoSouthern (see 
Speakers on a panel at the recent 23rd World Petroleum Congress, held in Houston, TX, made a strong case for natural gas as the only legitimate “green” alternative to power the world. At least for the next couple of decades. The panel was called “Can Natural Gas, Including LNG, Deliver on the Promise of a Clean & Affordable Transition Fuel?” Charif Souki, Chairman of Tellurian and founder of Cheniere Energy, along with Jim Teague, Chief Executive of Enterprise Products Partners, made some great points. Souki asked the question, why in the world would we “trade” dealing with OPEC for dealing with (subjugation to) China?
An issue we’ve written about over the years is the problem of some (certainly not all) so-called climate activists (those who believe in man-made global warming) tipping over from being boisterous and loud and making silly asses of themselves into something more: becoming violent. Thankfully such violent/terroristic episodes have been few and far between. But something is changing. Some leaders of the modern environmental left are beginning to advocate for violence–like blowing up pipelines. They justify their calls for terrorism as somehow heroic or necessary to save the planet.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: NC governor vetoes bill that would keep local governments from banning natural gas; NATIONAL: Democrats asking Biden not to ban oil exports; Catalyst technology converts methane greenhouse gas into useful, valuable chemicals; The stealth gas-heating tax; INTERNATIONAL: Russian gas is a climate and security disaster.
Project Canary, a program that certifies natural gas drillers and pipeline companies as producing responsibly sourced gas (RSG), continues to make big inroads in the Marcellus/Utica. Earlier this week MDN told you that Olympus Energy will use Project Canary to certify both its drilling and (believed to be a first in the country) its gathering pipeline system (see 
The DUG East (Developing Unconventional Gas) was held this week in Pittsburgh, PA. A number of big names–CEOs of major Marcellus/Utica companies–gave talks to those who attended. Two of the biggest names on the platform were Toby Rice, CEO of EQT Corporation (the largest natural gas producer in the United States), and Nick DeIuliis, CEO of CNX Resources, the separated arm of what used to be CONSOL Energy, a coal company. Both men are evangelists for natural gas, but both have a distinctly different style and way of going about their advocacy. It’s like apples and oranges.
Even though U.S. LNG exports help the U.S. by providing more jobs and economic prosperity, and even though U.S. LNG exports help the world by providing a green alternative to coal and other forms of environmentally destructive fuels, some Democrats continue to bash away at natural gas and are actively trying to kill the industry in our country. Legislation introduced Dec. 7 by Representative Jan Schakowsky (Democrat-Illinois), and Nanette Diaz Barragán (Democrat-California), would bar the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) from approving new LNG terminals.
Underinvestment in oil and gas development extended into a second year in 2021 even as global energy demand rebounded, raising the prospect of price shocks, scarcity, and growing energy poverty, according to a new report by the International Energy Forum (IEF) and IHS Markit. Oil and gas investment will need to return to pre-COVID levels and stay there through 2030 to restore market balance, the report states. If more investment doesn’t happen quickly, the world will experience more price gyrations and it will lead to “adverse economic consequences,” such as wider energy poverty, more frequent scarcity, and fuel switching to more polluting energy sources such as wood and coal.
Hart Energy’s DUG (Developing Unconventional Gas) East event was held this week in Pittsburgh, wrapping up this morning. Unfortunately, MDN could not attend the event this year. Some major news is coming from the event. One of the headline speakers from yesterday was CNX Resources CEO Nick DeIuliis who said he thinks it’s high time to seriously look at revising the now-ten-year-old impact fee that drillers pay (PA’s equivalent of a severance tax), a fee created as part of the Act 13 law. What would Nick change about the impact fee/tax?