Hydrogen/Utica Gas Power Plant on Ohio River in Startup Phase
The country’s very first large-scale combined hydrogen and natural gas electric power generating plant, being built in Monroe County, OH, is undergoing startup now. The power plant in Hannibal, Ohio, will be “fully operational” in early September (running on Utica shale gas). Hydrogen will be introduced in November. Who owns it? Why is it necessary to combine hydrogen in the mix? We have the answers.
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In an effort to flow more Marcellus natural gas to a starving New York City, Kinder Morgan cut a deal with utility company Consolidated Edison in 2019 to provide more gas by beefing up capacity along its Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) that feeds NYC, allowing Con Ed to avoid cutting customers off from natgas hookups (see 
Somehow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) thinks it can tell the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) what it can and can’t do with respect to evaluating pipeline projects. EPA is “advising” FERC to begin incorporating the “social cost of carbon” into its environmental reviews, taking an added look at the climate change impacts of natural gas infrastructure projects. Who the heck does the EPA think it is? Climate God?
The latest weekly Enverus U.S. rig count shows total rigs in use hitting a new post-pandemic high. For the week ending August 12, the rig count stood at 617, up 14 rigs from the previous week. That’s the highest rig count since April 2020. The Marcellus play lost another rig from the previous week (second week in a row), while the Utica stayed even. Collectively the M-U is currently running 44 rigs, down one rig from the previous week.
The price of gasoline at the pump in the U.S. is up a full dollar over the past year. Even half-with-it politicians like Joe Biden knows high pump prices equal rebellion at the ballot box. Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office. Then he blocked new drilling on federal lands. Biden’s disastrous picks to run Interior, Energy, EPA, and FERC are killing the fossil fuel industry here at home. Oil production is tanking. So how does old dementia Joe propose to “fix” high prices at the pump? How will he fix the mess he’s made? Biden goes begging, hat in hand, to the vicious tyrants that run OPEC+ (America’s enemies), begging them to pump more oil to drive down gas prices. What a pathetic dope. Not even the weak, genuflecting American Petroleum Institute (API) can stomach Biden’s OPEC+ begging.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PJM Tracker: Warmer weather, higher gas prices boost power prices in July; New York’s pension fund to review oil holdings, axes more coal investments; For nation’s and West Virginia’s sake, natural gas must remain player in national energy policy; Oil and gas reps, Jefferson County, OH citizens to connect; NATIONAL: USA EIA reveals new oil price forecast; U.S. energy markets progress toward carbon capture solutions; EIA expects U.S. natural gas inventories to enter winter heating season below average; INTERNATIONAL: IEA is sleepwalking the world into an oil supply crisis; Europe could face a natural gas crisis this winter.
Chesapeake announced yesterday it will buy Haynesville driller Vine Energy for $2.2 billion–mostly by trading or issuing shares of stock (payment will be 92% in stock, 8% in cash). The Reuters rumors were right: interim CEO Mike Wichterich will either go big or go bust with his mission to expand Chesapeake. We hope it’s not the latter since Chesapeake still owns a huge amount of assets in the northeastern PA Marcellus. Is Chesapeake making the same mistake it made under the leadership of Doug Lawler when Lawler got a wandering eye and purchased WildHorse Resource Development Corp in the Eagle Ford Shale (see 
Two days ago Chesapeake Energy issued its second quarter 2021 update. Yesterday the company held a conference call with analysts to discuss financial and operational performance during 2Q. As you can imagine, most of the talk was about a surprise announcement (from yesterday) that Chesapeake is buying Haynesville driller Vine Energy for $2.2 billion (see today’s lead story). During 2Q the company lost $439 million, versus losing $276 million for the same quarter last year. However, Chessy generated $300 million in free cash flow. The company produced 433,000 boe (barrels of oil equivalent) per day, of which 77% was natural gas and 23% liquids. It plans to significantly increase production.
Some disturbing news out of Pennsylvania. You may recall that PennEast Pipeline, a 120-mile, primarily 36-inch pipeline that will cost $1 billion to build and run from Dallas, Luzerne County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and terminate at Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey, won a huge and important victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in June (see 
Yet another lawsuit brought by one landowner against the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) asks the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to block blasting and construction for the pipeline on his property, alleging it could “explode the headwaters of Bottom Creek.” The same landowner has been suing to block MVP since at least early 2019 by our quick check of the court records. This appears to be just one more attempt to use sketchy information to block the completion of a project that’s already 92% done and in the ground.
Yet another fine for Energy Transfer (ET), assessed by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP). This time the DEP has fined ET $140,000 for violations that occurred in 2019 and 2020 during the construction of ET’s B15 Well Connect Pipeline construction project located in Beaver County, PA. According to the consent order and agreement (COA), “sections of the pipeline project were not temporarily stabilized, areas of the site showed accelerated erosion and sedimentation, waterbars were not installed properly or not installed in the approved locations, and erosion and sedimentation best management practices (BMP) were inoperable or ineffective.”
The so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) lost a big court case in Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court last Friday, but you won’t have heard about it because no one in mainstream media is talking about it or reporting on it. We couldn’t even find a whisper about the defeat from PA Environmental Digest or StateImpact Pennsylvania. Huh. One would almost think there’s some sort of collusion going on. A wall of censorship and silence. Don’t worry, we’ll tell you about it…
You have to say one thing about environmentalist wacko zealots–they never give up. Ever. We’re talking about the Big Green money behind Appalachian Mountain Advocates, Southern Environmental Law Center, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (among 19 groups in total) which have filed a “request” (i.e. demand) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to expand an environmental review for Equitrans Midstream’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.