With all of this blather about ESG (environmental, social, governance) and net zero and so-called “renewable” natural gas (RNG), has anyone stepped back to ask the question, Will utility companies (and their ratepayers) actually pay more for green gas? Reuters has asked the question and it seems that right now, the answer is a resounding NO!
Read More “Drillers HOPE Customers Will Pay More for Green Gas…Will They?”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: NYC hates nuclear power and natural gas – now they have to turn off their air conditioners; NATIONAL: US weekly LNG exports and Henry Hub price rise; Shadow lenders take over in the U.S. shale patch; Video: China, Universities & Climate Change; INTERNATIONAL: Oil prices end trading day above $75; Global natural gas benchmarks to rise through 2023 amid supply deficit.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Jul 2, 2021”
More details have emerged from what has to be one of the oddest combinations in recent memory–the merger of Permian driller Cimarex Energy with Marcellus driller Cabot Oil & Gas (see HUGE NEWS: Permian Driller Cimarex Buying Out Cabot Oil & Gas). As we told you in a follow-up to the big news, many stock analysts and investors are baffled by the combo (see Markets “Baffled” by “Unexpected” Cabot Merger with Cimarex). Due to recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings, we now have more insight into what led to the odd combination. Cabot considered a three-way merger last year, and Cimarex held talks and considered five different potential merger partners before settling on Cabot.
Read More “Cabot & Cimarex Merger Explained: Love the One You’re With”
Earlier this month MDN brought you the sad news that Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) pipeline is being flow-restricted by the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA). Some 40% of the Marcellus/Utica molecules that flow through TETCO’s pipeline to destinations in the southeastern U.S. have disappeared and will stay that way until the end of September (see TETCO Pipe Throttling 40% of M-U Southbound Gas to Last All Summer). So do drillers just shut-in wells in the meantime? No! They find other markets–in this case in the Midwest.
Read More “M-U Molecules Head to Midwest with TETCO Throttling to Southeast”
Yesterday, National Grid issued its Natural Gas Long-Term Capacity Second Supplemental Report (full copy below). The report reaffirms the company’s commitment to achieving a mythical so-called “net zero carbon” future. Whatever. The report provides an update on the short- and long-term energy needs of downstate New York customers, reviews the status of targeted solutions identified by the company in 2020, and emphasizes the importance of ensuring that no customer is left behind during the transition to a magical net zero future. How will they accomplish it? According to this updated report, with *more* natural gas.
Read More “National Grid Sounds the Alarm – NYC Needs More NatGas, or Else”
Yesterday MDN brought you the news that the U.S. Supreme Court decided that yes, the PennEast Pipeline *can* use federally-delegated eminent domain in order to install a pipeline across New Jersey state-owned land after all (see PennEast Pipeline Squeaks Out 5-4 Supreme Court Victory Over NJ). While this is a victory for PennEast, it’s a bigger victory for all pipelines. In fact, another pipeline project (Columbia Gas) currently blocked by the State of Maryland may now move forward because of the PennEast decision.
Read More “PennEast Pipe Decision Makes Pipeline Under Potomac River Likely”
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has just published its 2020 Oil and Gas Annual Report. This is the fifth year in a row the DEP has published the report in an interactive, electronic (i.e.online) format ONLY. Don’t worry, we’ve turned it into a convenient PDF for MDN readers. What does the 2020 report show? While permits issued and the number of new wells drilled have both gone down (again), gas production has gone up (again)–to a new record high.
Read More “PA DEP 2020 Annual O&G Report: Highest NatGas Production Ever”
From the “mankind has gone collectively insane” file: Some two dozen utility companies, including Dominion Energy and Sempra Energy, are experimenting/dipping their toe in the water of mixing super-explosive hydrogen with methane (natural gas) in extremely small quantities on the theory that one day, hydrogen can replace natural gas in existing pipelines and infrastructure. H2 can’t and won’t replace CH4, but hey, these companies at least have to show they’re trying or risk being sued into oblivion by woke leftists who claim mankind is burning the earth by burning fossil fuels. Yes, collectively mankind has officially gone mad…
Read More “Utility Companies Dabble Mixing Hydrogen with Natural Gas”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Trucking opportunities get a boost with Cabot funding; Ohio Oil, Gas Association honors Don and Gene Huck; Finish the MVP – it helps Franklin County; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Natural gas to gasoline; NATIONAL: Biden admin fights another Canadian oil export pipeline; Two former energy secretaries say foreign demand for U.S. LNG “simply astounding”; Natural gas markets running out of steam?; INTERNATIONAL: Exxon faces embarrassing lobbyist comments in leaked video.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Jul 1, 2021”
As we previously predicted would happen, New Jersey lost its Supreme Court case to block PennEast Pipeline from using eminent domain to cross NJ-owned or controlled land. This was a critical case to prevent blue states like NJ, and New York, and California from blocking ALL new interstate pipelines aimed at crossing states to deliver product from other states. NJ’s lawless action was an overt attempt at blocking interstate commerce and a direct challenge to one of the purposes of the Natural Gas Act, passed in 1938. Disappointingly PennEast won by only one vote. Still, it’s a victory!
Read More “PennEast Pipeline Squeaks Out 5-4 Supreme Court Victory Over NJ”
Last October MDN told you that DTE Energy, a long-time pipeline builder and operator in the Marcellus/Utica region, was considering either selling or spinning off its pipeline business (see DTE Energy Explores Sale or Spin-Off of Pipeline Business). DTE, based in Detroit, is both a utility company and a midstream/pipeline company. The company’s season of pondering is over and the decision has been made. DTE will spin out the pipeline business into a new/separate company.
Read More “DTE Energy Spinning Off Pipeline Business into New Company”
Last week we brought you an article from S&P about the forward price of natural gas at the Dominion South (now called Eastern Gas Transmission) trading hub near Pittsburgh. The article indicates prices in the M-U will move higher this fall (see M-U Forward NatGas Prices Head Higher – Supply Can’t Keep Up). A week later S&P is back with another story on the same topic, this time to say those forward prices at Dominion South are up 60 cents per MMBtu over the past two weeks and are now near or at record highs.
Read More “M-U Forward Prices Near Record High with Flat Supply, Big Power Burn”
In May 2017, Murrysville Township (Westmoreland County) struck a zoning compromise with local drillers on the distance of setbacks (see Murrysville, PA Drilling Ordinance – Anatomy of a Compromise). The far-too-restrictive ordinance (in our opinion) allows drilling wells on only 5% of the land in the town. That wasn’t good enough for local antis who want to block all shale drilling. Antis appealed the ordinance and a county judge ruled against them and in favor of the town in May 2020 (see SWPA Judge Rejects Anti Lawsuit re Murrysville Fracking Ordinance).
Read More “Commonwealth Court Judge Bows to Fractivist Pressure to Recuse”
Yesterday EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., released its annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, outlining the company’s 2020 operational data and initiatives aimed at improving the way EQT produces “environmentally responsible,” reliable, and low-cost energy. Additionally, EQT announced targets to achieve net zero Scope 1 and 2 so-called greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its production operations by or before 2025–less than four years away.
Read More “EQT Issues 2020 ESG Report, Claims Net Zero by 2025 “or Sooner””
One of the driving forces behind the whole ESG (environmental, social, governance) push that aims to force oil and gas companies to foreswear using the very product they extract from the ground is what we called pimple-faced Millennial investors. Kids who grew up watching Captain Planet cartoons–and believing what they watched. A form of mind-control and brainwashing. A sharp investment expert has analyzed investing for ESG and proves it’s a sham. It’s a fraud. It’s the “Great Wall Street Money Heist”…
Read More “Biggest Modern Day Wall Street Money Heist? ESG Investing”
All three Marcellus/Utica states received permits to drill new shale wells last week. Pennsylvania issued 9 new permits, all but one of them for the same well pad in Greene County. Ohio issued 3 new permits, two on a single pad in Monroe County. And West Virginia issued just 1 new permit last week–to a company we had not previously heard of.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Jun 21-27”