Williams Update: LNG Exports Will “Grow Pretty Dramatically”
Appearing on a Barclay’s energy conference webcast yesterday, Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said his company plans to keep spending around $1.2 billion per year through 2026 to keep growing and expanding. One of the prime drivers of growth and expansion for Williams in the coming years is LNG exports. Feedgas to LNG plants continues to increase. According to S&P Global Platts, U.S. LNG feedgas demand will increase from 10.9 Bcf/d this year to 14.9 Bcf/d in 2026. Williams intends to deliver much of that increased demand to the plants that use it.
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Get ready, it’s coming this month. The completely radicalized Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Joe Biden and EPA Administrator Michael Regan (formerly the failed head of North Carolina’s environmental agency) will issue a new regulation targeting so-called methane emissions, a rule that is “expected to be stricter even than an Obama-era standard set in 2016” which was devastating at that time (later overturned by Trump).
Sometimes this happens with a story, but not often. We spotted two diametrically opposed views on the same issue–in this case on the status of mergers and acquisitions in the oil and gas sector. One article claims “the merger mania is back in North America’s oil patch.” A day later another article says “shale M&A flurries are clearing up – for now.” One says M&A is heating up, the other says it’s cooling down. Which view is right?
One of our favorite writers in the energy space is Paul Driessen, a senior policy advisor for CFACT (Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, a Washington, D.C. think tank), and author of Cracking Big Green and Eco-Imperialism: Green Power – Black Death. Driessen recently published an article on the CFACT website that rips the face off these silly ESG programs being blabbered on about everywhere, especially in the oil and gas sector.
NATIONAL: Number of drilled but uncompleted wells declines; The coming pipeline shortage; Until production settles, natural gas prices will continue their uptick; INTERNATIONAL: Shell weighs COVID-19 vaccine mandate, firing staff who resist.
Southwestern Energy, which is one of the biggest Marcellus/Utica drillers, previously applied for a conditional use permit from the City of Weirton, WV that would allow them to build a well pad and drill several wells on it all within the city limits of Weirton. The request came before the Weirton Zoning Board of Appeals in August but the board delayed a decision until this month, September. Following almost three hours of comments and testimony yesterday, the Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously voted down Southwestern’s request–a decidedly unfriendly gesture by the normally gas-friendly municipalities in WV.
Spire STL is a 65-mile pipeline that connects to and flows Marcellus/Utica gas from the Rockies Express (REX) pipeline to residents and businesses in the St. Louis, MO area. The pipeline began flowing gas in late 2019 (see 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) under current Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick has intentionally slammed the brakes on approving pipeline projects across the country, including those here in the northeast (something we predicted if Biden were to win the White House). Glick’s excuse for delaying new approvals is that FERC is trying to figure out how to account for mythical man-made global warming when evaluating whether or not to approve a new project. It’s pure horse manure, and a prominent Pennsylvania labor union is calling FERC out on its ongoing delay tactic.
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 planned for Charles City County (near Richmond, Va.) in June 2018 (see 
ExxonMobil is the latest big driller to sign on to a certification program called MiQ which aims to prove the natural gas it produces is “responsible.” We guess all the gas it’s produced for decades until now has been irresponsible, right? Anyway, Exxon plans to initially use the MiQ standard to certify some of the gas coming from its Permian Basin facilities at Poker Lake, New Mexico. Depending on how that goes, Exxon plans to expand the MiQ certification to other plays, including the Marcellus/Utica.
Last week only Pennsylvania issued new permits for new shale well drilling–14 of them scattered around the state. Both Ohio (for the seventh week in a row) and West Virginia did not issue new shale permits last week.
The price of natural gas futures (the NYMEX) continues to hit new post-pandemic highs. The NYMEX price is high and remains high, as we pointed out on Friday, due to low storage numbers and Hurricane Ida shutting down Gulf of Mexico natgas production (see 
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a notice in the September 4 Pennsylvania Bulletin for “final technical guidance” on Implementing the Area of Review Regulatory Requirement for Unconventional Well Permitting. This is a document to guide drillers as they evaluate where they will frack, instructing them in how they should evaluate and monitor other nearby wells (other fracked wells or conventional oil and gas wells) to ensure those wells don’t “communicate” oil and gas up to the surface. That is, to ensure oil and gas come out of the right borehole, the well it’s supposed to come out of.
Early last week MDN told you about a new/third well pad planned by Olympus Energy in Upper Burrell Township in Westmoreland County, PA (see