Down but not out. That’s the best way to describe a $346 million pipeline project in northeastern Virginia called the Header Improvement Project. On Dec. 1 the Virginia State Corporation Commission dismissed a request to approve the project. Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) said it will resubmit the project under a new docket/request.
Read More “State Board Rejects $346M Pipeline Expansion Project in NE Va.”
In 2016 REV LNG built a small-scale LNG facility near Towanda (Bradford County), PA (see REV LNG Building Small-Scale LNG Facility Near Towanda, PA). The plan was to build an initial 50,000-gallon-per-day production facility that could be expanded to 200,000 gallons per day–primarily for fueling trucks, but also for the E&P sector and “eventually for marine customers.” Eventually came this week when LNG from that facility was delivered via truck to the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority (in Ontario, Canada), filling up a cargo ship that uses LNG for fuel, otherwise known as LNG bunkering.
Read More “Northeast PA LNG Powers Cargo Ship from Canada to Detroit”
MDN has repeatedly read that Marcellus/Utica drillers (as well as drillers in other shale plays) must drill far less and produce far less in an effort to boost profits for shareholders. Just yesterday we published a story about M-U drillers overspending, by half a billion dollars, in 3Q20 (see 3Q Financial Health of Top Marcellus/Utica Drillers Troubling). Yet today we’re reading about a new report just published by the International Energy Forum (IEF) that says if the oil and gas industry doesn’t increase spending by 25% over the next three years, we face a supply shock (not enough oil and gas) of historic proportions.
Read More “Report: Oil & Gas Supply Shock Coming Unless Drillers Boost Spending”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Transco urges court to dismiss nuns’ religious freedom lawsuit over pipeline; Steel Nation announces the appointment of Alan Reid as President; NATIONAL: North America LNG export growth ambitions face test over emissions; The UN makes the case for the U.S. to stay out of the Paris Climate Accord; US working natural gas volumes in underground storage fall 91 Bcf; Biden under pressure to quickly regulate methane; INTERNATIONAL: Environment of dystopia: Germany plans to wipe out 1000-year old forest for wind parks.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Dec 11, 2020”
Miracles never cease! The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) met yesterday and voted to approve a 1,300-foot-long pier in Gibbstown, NJ to load LNG tankers. Reaction by anti-fossil fuel zealots was swift, predictable, and hilarious. They’re claiming loading LNG onto ships is somehow more dangerous than the old DuPont dynamite factory that used to exist at the same location. They’re also calling the leftist Democrat governors of PA, NJ and DE “climate deniers.” Too funny!
Read More “DRBC Does Right Thing, Approves NJ LNG Export Terminal”
Energy Transfer (ET) has had enough stonewalling from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) with regard to its Revolution Pipeline project. Last month the DEP told ET it could not restart the now-repaired Revolution until the DEP got good and ready to allow it, with no specific timeline offered (see PA DEP Blocks Revolution Pipe Restart Even Though Repair is Done). On Tuesday ET filed a lawsuit with the PA Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) requesting the board (a special court set up to hear appeals of DEP decisions) overturn the DEP edict and allow Revolution to restart. Now.
Read More “Energy Transfer Takes PA DEP to Court for Blocking Revolution Pipe”
It seems pretty certain at this point that Joe Biden will seize control of the White House come Jan. 20 (although we still hold out hope for a Supreme Court intervention against the blatant election illegalities in PA, GA, MI, WI). If Biden/Harris do occupy the White House come January, what will that mean for hotly-disputed pipeline projects, including the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from West Virginia into Virginia?
Read More “How Biden Administration Can Impact Mountain Valley Pipeline”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) continue to push a plan that will raise Pennsylvania residents’ electric rates by 50% or more, a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The DEP is in the midst of conducting virtual public hearings until Dec. 14. PA’s trade labor unions, dead set against RGGI, are participating to make sure Wolf knows of their opposition.
Read More “PA Labor Unions Continue to Fight Gov. Wolf’s RGGI Carbon Tax Plan”
Capital expense (capex) investments made by drillers in the Marcellus/Utica during the third quarter of 2020 were the lowest in at least six years according to a new report (full copy below) from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The report looks at nine of the top drillers in the M-U and finds collectively they cut capex investment by more than one-third in 3Q20 over 3Q19. And yet those same nine collectively spent a half-billion dollars more during 3Q on drilling and building projects than they earned in revenue from selling oil and gas. That’s troubling.
Read More “3Q Financial Health of Top Marcellus/Utica Drillers Troubling”
Over the years we’ve sometimes heard from readers, or read comments from trade associations, making the argument that by exporting our natural gas we are raising the price of natgas domestically. Shouldn’t we keep all the gas for ourselves and keep prices low (see Big Chemical Continues to Lobby Trump Admin to Limit LNG Exports)? The latest group to make that argument are propane retailers. They claim the Mariner East pipeline to Marcus Hook that flows propane to Marcus Hook where it gets exported is causing higher prices for propane dealers in PA. Is that true?
Read More “Shortsighted: Propane Dealers Complain About Marcus Hook Exports”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: New York state pension fund sets 2040 goal of net zero carbon emissions; Equinor hosts Toys for Tots event; NATIONAL: Williams appoints Rose Robeson to board of directors; Western states with big budget holes will bear the brunt of Biden fracking ban; Cheniere sees Biden following Trump in support of LNG industry; INTERNATIONAL: Natural gas, propane are early winners in quest for clean ship fuels.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Thu, Dec 10, 2020”
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the utility and midstream giant based in Buffalo, NY, remains committed to building it’s Northern Access Pipeline project, a $500 million project that includes building 97 miles of new pipeline along a power line corridor from northwestern Pennsylvania up to Erie County, NY. The project also calls for 3 miles of new pipeline further up, in Niagara County, along with a new compressor station in the Town of Pendleton.
Read More “FERC Denies Time Extension to Build PA to NY Northern Access Pipe”
Although in recent months a number of major Marcellus/Utica drillers have shut-in (or curtailed) some of their natural gas production, apparently those days are over. According to an analysis by S&P Global Platts, M-U gas production in December has (so far) averaged nearly 33.9 Bcf/d (billion cubic feet per day), making December’s month-to-date average the highest on record. In fact, on Dec. 7, two days ago, regional output in the M-U was estimated at 34 Bcf/d, less than 300 MMcf/d below its all-time, single-day record high. What’s going on?
Read More “Higher Regional Prices/Demand Leads to Record M-U Dec. Production”
On Monday MDN told you about a cool new website called LandGate that offers instant valuations for oil and gas rights sitting under a property, along with the location of wells drilled nearby (see Free Website Helps M-U Landowners Estimate O&G Values). MDN friend Tom Shepstone (Natural Gas Now) built on our discovery by using LandGate to calculate the value that has been destroyed by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and their ongoing “temporary” ban on fracking in northern Wayne County, PA.
Read More “DRBC has “Taken” $1.3B from Northern Wayne County, PA Landowners”
Last week MDN told you that the judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit signaled they will overturn, for a second time, a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that allows the 92% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from finishing its work by installing pipe under or through creeks and rivers (see 4th Circuit Clown Judges Signal They’ll Overturn MVP Permit, Again). We’ve just learned that the State of West Virginia is working to revise its environmental regulations to help MVP address the court’s objections.
Read More “WV Modifying Regulations to Allow MVP Project to Finish”
Although we shared the good news today that production in the Marcellus/Utica is up in December (see Higher Regional Prices/Demand Leads to Record M-U Dec. Production), we now share the not-so-good news that the number of permits issued in November in Pennsylvania, the biggest M-U producing state, dropped 57% year-over-year.
Read More “New Shale Well Permits Issued in PA Down in November”