Certifiers Tell M-U Drillers: No RSG Cert, You Won’t Sell Gas
Last week MDN told you about two smaller, privately-owned Marcellus/Utica drillers (both with their own pipeline gathering operations) that have contracted with certification authorities to certify their natural gas as responsibly produced (see Olympus Using Proj Canary to Monitor Drilling & Pipes for Methane and Tug Hill and XcL Midstream Using Project Canary for RSG Cert in WV). At last week’s DUG East event in Pittsburgh, one of the organizations that perform RSG (responsibly sourced gas) certifications tried to sell the line that if all drillers don’t fall into line with certification, they may not be able to sell their gas.
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It’s a wrap on Hart Energy’s DUG East (Developing Unconventional Gas) conference, held in Pittsburgh last week. Overall the sentiment, from the reports we’ve read, was a positive “up” kind of attitude among those attending. However, some words of caution were shared as well. One analyst, with rig counting giant Enverus, said he thinks more natural gas production is returning to the Marcellus/Utica, but not as much as growth (percentage-wise) as the M-U’s chief competitor, the Haynesville Shale.
Each quarter NGI (Natural Gas Intelligence) runs the numbers and publishes a list of the 25 top natural gas marketers in the U.S. (or in the case of 3Q21, the top 24). These are not necessarily the top producers of natural gas, although in some cases they are, but the top sellers (vendors, jobbers) of natural gas. NGI’s latest quarterly report for third quarter 2021 shows overall the biggest sellers of natgas lost ground once again, which continues a four-year trend of year over year declines in the amount of gas sold.
The hypocrisy of Joe Biden and his administration continues. Biden has repeatedly begged Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ to increase oil production, while at the same time shutting down pipeline projects and disallowing new leases and drilling on public lands here at home. He then blames our domestic producers for not ramping up production! Here’s the latest: The Biden administration has *ordered* U.S. government agencies to *immediately* stop financing new “carbon-tensive fossil fuel projects” overseas and instead begin to push unreliable so-called renewable technology, like Chinese-manufactured solar and wind technology.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: W.Va. 2/I-68 Authority discusses proposed project; NATIONAL: Wegmans to steer a course toward natural gas truck fleet; New long-term contracts propel multiple LNG projects toward FID; INTERNATIONAL: UK urges allies to seek alternatives to Russia natural gas.
A natural gas pipeline project management company based in Canonsburg, PA, GW Ridge LLC, ceased all operations in November and filed for bankruptcy in a Texas federal court. Creditors owed money filed a competing Chapter 7 bankruptcy action against the company in Pittsburgh and GW Ridge withdrew its Texas filing and agreed to allow the Pittsburgh case to proceed. A Chapter 7 (as opposed to a Chapter 11) means the company has stopped all operations and its assets will be sold or auctioned and the money given to creditors. GW Ridge is no more.
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 
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.
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 