Rover Pipeline $40M FERC Fine Could be an Episode of “Dallas”
The ongoing tiff between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Energy Transfer (ET) over a drilling mud spill in Ohio back in 2017 (five years ago!) has become a steamy, cheesy plotline for an episode of the TV series Dallas. We’re talking about the original Dallas series from the 1980s with Larry Hagman and storylines of “who’s jumping into bed with whom.” FERC is faulting ET for creating a company culture of drill and build fast that led to a contract worker adding diesel fuel to a stuck drill bit in an effort to work it free, fining the company a staggering $40 million for the presence of diesel in a drilling mud spill. ET says the diesel situation was the result of a rogue contract worker (a foreman) under pressure and distracted by rumors of another foreman sleeping with the wife of one of his workers. No, we’re not kidding. You can’t make this stuff up.
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In what one industry watcher calls an “abrupt about-face,” yesterday all five Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioners voted to pull back onerous new regulations to use global warming considerations when approving pipelines. Three Democrat FERC commissioners voted to adopt the new guidelines just one month ago (see 
The Iroquois Gas Transmission pipeline project called the Enhancement by Compression (ExC) increases horsepower at three compression stations–two in New York and one in Connecticut–by an extra 125 MMcf/d, flowing more Marcellus/Utica gas into New York City and New England (see 
Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the country. A new poll from Pittsburgh Works Together, a coalition of business and labor groups in Western PA, says Pennsylvanians want to keep PA at the top of the natural gas heap. A poll conducted of 600 PA voters in February finds 73% strongly or somewhat supported the idea that Pennsylvania should ensure that natural gas remains a part of the state’s energy use. That is an overwhelming majority of PA citizens who think natural gas (and natural gas drilling) should continue in the Keystone State.
While yesterday’s news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), under the thumb of the Biden administration, has made a major about-face with respect to using global warming factors when evaluating pipeline projects (at least for now) is good, there is much more than can and should happen. On Wednesday four of the largest trade groups representing natural gas–the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the Natural Gas Supply Association, the American Gas Association, and the Independent Petroleum Association of America–sent a letter to President Biden requesting that he push his various agencies (like FERC) to go ahead and approve more LNG export plants and more pipelines.
NATIONAL: US weekly LNG exports up by one; US energy cos. ready to defend pipelines from Russian cyberthreats; Manchin restarts talks with other Democrats on climate, social spending bill; INTERNATIONAL: Here’s what may happen if Russian oil and gas stops flowing into the EU.
Last August, PTT Global Chemical finally came clean and admitted there will be no final investment decision (FID) to build a $10 billion ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH, until they secure a partner to help finance the project (see 
The Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, chaired by State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (Republican from Butler County) is scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday, March 28 to consider two proposed bills. One is a bill that would give the legislature authority to participate in any decision about adopting the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme. The other bill is a resolution that would be sent to the leftist governors of New York and New Jersey asking them to allow new pipelines to be built into and through their states, to flow more fracked PA gas.
Bitcoin “mining” is a rapidly expanding new customer for natural gas across the country, including in Pennsylvania. Gigantic computer server farms run complex mathematical computations and the result of those computations is a blockchain. When a blockchain is formed, the server farm doing the computations gets compensated with bitcoins, a form of digital money. Bitcoin (the generic term is cryptocurrency) mining uses huge amounts of electricity to run all of those computers. That’s where natural gas comes in. In PA the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has applied different standards to different requests from bitcoin miners to set up shop. A new bill aims to fix the problem of inconsistent treatment of these requests.
We’re still snickering. It wasn’t all that long ago that European leaders turned their arrogant noses up at “fracked” American natural gas, preferring to buy Vlad Putin’s natural gas instead, even though Russia’s natural gas drilling is FAR more polluting to the environment than U.S. drilling with our strict environmental controls. Europe now can’t get enough of our natural gas. While the volume of U.S. LNG exports has remained pretty constant, the destination of those exports has changed dramatically. Two months ago some 30% of the LNG exported from the U.S. went to European countries. Roughly 70% of our LNG exports now head to Europe. All in just the past two months.
Coterra Energy (formerly Cabot Oil & Gas) remains one of our favorite Marcellus/Utica drillers. We personally know some of the great people who work there. We’ll never forget having a private tour of a drill site in Susquehanna County, PA by Coterra’s chief Marcellus driller, Buddy Wylie. During the tour, Buddy waxed eloquent on mud logging, showing us rock chips under a microscope. Seeing a drilling operation up close, understanding how wells are planned a year or more in advance, coordinating all of the logistics (when the sand needs to arrive, pipe inventory, trucks to move equipment, backhoes to get the pad ready, etc.) it dawned on us, this stuff really is rocket science! The smart folks at Coterra have done it again–more rocket science. This time they’ve developed a new method for predicting natural gas and oil reservoirs.
If an upstream (drilling) company with a long-term pipeline contract files for bankruptcy, does that give the company the right to break its pipeline contract? A major shipper on the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline, Ultra Resources, filed for bankruptcy with the express plan to skip out on its obligations to REX (see 
In October 2020 Nick DeIuliis, President and CEO of CNX Resources Corporation, announced the forthcoming publication of a new book he authored (see