Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Jun 24, 2021
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Natural gas company donates $10K to food bank; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Dallas Fed says E&P, OFS execs optimistic for higher Henry Hub, WTI prices; Exxon must face Massachusetts lawsuit alleging climate change deceit; NATIONAL: Oil prices finish higher amid overbought signs; Shale output flat despite 400% jump in frac crews; Mont Belvieu propane prices top $1 a gallon; how high will they need to go?; No plan ‘right now’ to permanently ban new oil and gas leasing, Haaland says; Climate policy by judicial decree; INTERNATIONAL: Power CEOs defend role for natgas in shift to climate-friendly grid; How Vladimir Putin uses natural gas to exert Russian influence and punish his enemies.
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Three far-left Democrat judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit have attacked the Marcellus/Utica by overturning a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval for a long-completed and flowing natural gas pipeline in the St. Louis, MO area–a pipeline that flows M-U gas to residents, businesses, and electric generating plants in the region. The Spire STL pipeline now faces closure. It is a 
The price of natural gas traded on “forward” contracts for the fall at what used to be called the Dominion South (now called Eastern Gas Transmission) trading hub near Pittsburgh is up 23 cents (14%) for contracts in September and October. Forward prices are based on current spot prices. Translation: The market is strongly indicating it thinks the price of M-U gas is heading higher in the coming fall months.
An interesting post by our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) about their latest predictions for the price of natural gas at the benchmark Henry Hub. EIA predicts the average price at HH this year, in 2021, will end up being around $3.07 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). The average in 2020 was $1.998 (round it up to $2.00). So this year the average price will be some 54% higher than last year. What about 2022?
We have published a number of posts about hydrogen (H2), the next “big thing” in energy (
Two of three Marcellus/Utica states received permits to drill new shale wells last week, and boy did they open the floodgates! Pennsylvania issued 30 new permits, the majority of which are located on three well pads operated by EQT, Chesapeake Energy, and Range Resources. Ohio issued no new permits. After getting skunked for two weeks in a row, West Virginia issued 16 new permits–to just two drillers: Antero Resources and EQT. All of the WV permits were issued in the same county.
The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) is moving forward with its constitutional duty to evaluate whether or not the state should issue a federal Clean Water Act permit allowing Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish crossing water bodies it hasn’t already crossed under a previous permit (which was overturned by the lefties of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit). WV DEP will hold an online, virtual hearing tonight at 6 pm to accept comments from the public.
Last week CenterPoint Energy filed a request with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) to replace portions of its coal-fired generation fleet with two natural gas combustion turbines. The two units would provide a combined 460 megawatts (MW) of electricity as a backup to CenterPoint’s wind, solar, and battery storage. The plants would not operate continuously (which is a shame). Where will the gas come from to feed these new gas-fired plants?
We spotted an article on OilPrice.com (no friend of the oil and gas industry, despite the name of the site) that makes the bold claim that “oilfield services companies are making a full comeback.” That’s music to our ears! Oilfield services companies including Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and National Oilwell Varco are reporting that prices for their services and equipment have “bottomed out” and they are now recruiting new workers. Since February some 27,000 OFS laid-off workers have returned to work.
In March we told you about House of Representatives (HR) Bill 1512, the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s Future Act (or CLEAN Future Act). The bill gives vast powers to the unelected bureaucrats at the EPA to set new regulatory demands before permits can be approved for facilities that produce plastics or the raw materials used to produce plastics, such as ethylene or propylene (see 
If you’ve been reading MDN over the past few months, no doubt you’ve detected our skepticism over the sudden rise of ESG (environmental, social, governance) programs that are now all the rage with oil and gas companies, including Marcellus/Utica companies. As we previously stated, “We’re approaching the point where we’ll puke if we hear much more about ESG. The problem, from our perspective, is that the term itself is nebulous. Anyone can define ESG any way they want. What does ESG really mean?” So when we spotted an article titled “How to tell a real oil and gas ESG program from a fake,” we just had to read it.
We finally come to the end of a saga that began nearly three years ago, in Sept. 2018 when six men were charged with conspiring to illegally alter emissions systems on 30+ trucks with heavy-duty diesel engines, trucks used to haul water and wastewater to and from Marcellus Shale wells (see