Most M-U Drillers “Welcome” New EPA Regulation of O&G Emissions
It is obvious MDN is out of step with the industry it supports and promotes. We think the federal EPA’s announcement on Tuesday that it will draft and adopt new emissions regulations aimed at reducing methane (i.e. natural gas) emissions is clearly unconstitutional (see EPA Launches Massive Power Grab, Targets O&G Methane Emissions). It is the individual states who retain the right to regulate oil and gas. EPA’s move is a backdoor way for the federal government to nationalize control of all oil and gas drilling. However, it seems we stand alone in our view. Most oil and gas drillers, even those in the Marcellus/Utica, are endorsing the Biden EPA’s aggressive new regulatory change.
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It is alarming and shocking how leftist ideology has infected the financial industry worldwide. Banks and asset managers representing 40% ($130 TRILLION) of the world’s financial assets have pledged to meet the goals set out in the Paris climate agreement. More than 450 firms, holding nearly half of the money that gets invested, now belong to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. Their aim? To defund all fossil fuel energy. We’re kind of speechless.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Maine voters reject $950 million power line for hydro imports; INTERNATIONAL: China made mistake skipping G-20 and COP26 summits, Biden says; Russia looks to capitalize on the global energy crisis; Brazil tops importers of US LNG cargoes in October as Spanish deliveries climb.
We suppose it takes a lot to surprise the CEO of one of the world’s biggest pipeline companies. Yet yesterday Williams CEO Alan Armstrong expressed his surprise that even with the dramatic increase in the price of natural gas during the third quarter, demand for natural gas was “inelastic” and remained high. Translation: Williams had all it could do to keep up with flowing natural gas through it’s extensive pipeline system, even with super-high prices. Much of the demand to flow gas came from the Marcellus/Utica.
Equitrans Midstream, formerly known as EQT Midstream, issued its third quarter update yesterday. The main focus (for us) of the update is new or updated information related to the company’s all-important Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project and those projects connected to MVP–including Hammerhead and Southgate. Yesterday we learned Equitrans still believes MVP, a 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia, is on track to start up in “summer 2022.” The company plans to begin construction of a related extension of MVP, called Southgate (from Virginia into North Carolina) in 2022 and bring it online in early 2023.
American Petroleum Institute (API) president and CEO, Mike Sommers, recently testified before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform to discuss the natural gas and oil industry’s priorities and API’s ludicrous support for so-called pricing carbon (i.e. a huge carbon tax), support for regulating methane (into oblivion), all while still trying to reliably produce American energy. Those priorities are irreconcilably impossible, but, whatever. The thing that really irked us was that Sommers obsequiously genuflected to the global warming gods during the hearing.
It was a pretty paltry week for new shale drilling permits in the Marcellus/Utica. Two weeks ago Pennsylvania issued 21 permits to drill new shale wells. They must have shot their wad because last week PA issued just two new permits–the lowest number in PA we’ve seen in…we can’t remember how long. Ohio issued no new permits for Utica drilling last week…zero…goose egg. Only West Virginia held out some promise, issuing seven new permits for shale drilling last week.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency, the left’s favorite tool to undermine the U.S. Constitution, is attempting to do just that–undermine the Constitution. Today the EPA is floating a massive new regulation that seizes control of oil and gas drilling (and pipelines) away from the individual states, as provided for under the Constitution, and centralizes control in Washington, D.C. under the EPA. How? By forcing a one-size-fits-all regulation on so-called fugitive methane emissions that all states must comply with.
Seems like everybody is getting “responsible” all of a sudden. Over the past year, we went from nobody hearing of “responsibly sourced gas” (RSG) to now almost everyone clamoring to hop onto the RSG bandwagon. At least that seems to be the case here in the Marcellus/Utica. The nascent RSG movement is rapidly developing. By our count, there are four independent organizations/programs that certify parts of the natural gas industry and provide a certification that gas is responsibly produced and/or sourced. So far there have been at least seven (maybe more) major M-U drillers and several M-U pipeline companies to sign on for RSG certification. We try to make sense of the RSG landscape below…