Enbridge’s Weymouth compressor station project, the final piece of the $452 million Atlantic Bridge expansion project, has begun testing in preparation to go online. As part of the testing, the station will, on occasion, release a small amount of (gasp!) natural gas into the air. Run for the hills! Get out while you can!
Read More “Weymouth, MA Compressor Stn Begins Testing, Coming Online Soon”
Justice (with a small “j”) has prevailed in West Virginia. We’ve covered the issue of a proposed new shale gas-fired power plant planned for Brooke County, WV for years. We are down to the wire on some of the final bits needed for this project to advance. One of those bits, the last major hurdle, is a loan guarantee for $5.5 million, covering a tiny part of the financing required to build this nearly $1 billion project. Yesterday the WV Economic Development Authority unanimously approved the loan guarantee.
Read More “WV Approves Loan Guarantee for Brooke County Power Plant”
Many energy-related conferences and events have gone virtual this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. One of them is the Barclays CEO Energy-Power 2020 Conference. Yesterday Williams CEO Alan Armstrong participated in the event virtually–via conference call. Christine Cho from Barclays interviewed Armstrong. She had some great questions and Armstrong had some interesting answers. Among them was Armstrong’s assertion that the Williams Transco pipeline can meet gas demands for customers shafted by Dominion when the company suddenly canceled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project.
Read More “Williams CEO Says Transco Can Serve Canceled ACP Customers in South”
Yesterday the full Pennsylvania Senate passed House Bill (HB) 2025, a bill already passed by the House previously. The bill now goes to Democrat leftist Gov. Tom Wolf, who says he will veto it. The bill restores democracy to the Commonwealth by giving the legislature–the very people elected to be the voice of PA citizens–a role in deciding whether or not PA should join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)–which is nothing more than an obscenely high tax on carbon meant to kill coal and natural gas-fired power plants in the state–a major customer of Marcellus gas.
Read More “PA Senate Passes Bill Giving Legislators Say in RGGI Carbon Tax”
Behaving like the petulant children they are, anti-fossil fuelers in New Jersey are demanding a face-to-face meeting with the board of NJ Transit so they can make a case (i.e. bully the board) against building a small, clean-burning natural gas-fired power plant NJ Transit will be used to power trains in cases of emergency. It’s a backup plant–not even running all the time. Yet antis, so corrupted by their own hatred of “fossil fuels,” are demanding NJ Transit use unreliable solar instead.
Read More “Petulant Antis Demand Meeting with NJ Transit re Gas Power Plant”
Eagle LNG’s Jacksonville, Florida “bunkering” operation (used to fuel ships that run on LNG) recently celebrated its 100th bunkering, filling up ships owned by Crowley (see Eagle LNG Celebrates 100th LNG Bunkering at Port of Jacksonville). Eagle LNG has something else to celebrate. The company just completed its first foreign-flagged vessel LNG bunkering–filling up a ship from Sweden.
Read More “Eagle LNG Fuels Up Swedish Ship at Port of Jacksonsville”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Three things to know about Charleston, S.C.’s new climate lawsuit; Cheniere resumes normal operations at Sabine Pass LNG; NATIONAL: Energy industry warns of dire consequences if natural gas, oil development banned on public lands; U.S. natural gas prices to average $3.40 in January, says EIA; Fossil fuel-conscious financing decisions add wrinkle to North American LNG market; As renewables falter, environmentalists stand up for nuclear; US will need 280-300 rigs to maintain tight oil output once DUC wells run out; Trump to ban oil, gas drilling off US Florida, Georgia, South Carolina coasts; Baker Hughes to sell SPC flow unit to Pelican Energy Partners; INTERNATIONAL: Carbon-neutral LNG to increase costs of natural gas production, consumption; Did the Russian poison meant for Alexei Navalny kill Nord Stream 2 instead?; PTT reveals ambitious plan to make Thailand an LNG hub.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Sep 10, 2020”
For the second week in a row, both Pennsylvania and West Virginia issued permits to drill new shale wells last week, and Ohio did not. PA issued 12 new permits for wells on three well pads. WV issued 3 new permits, all for the same well pad. PA’s new permits were split between Bradford County in the northeastern part of the state, and Washington County in the southwestern part of the state. The WV permits were issued in Brooke County, located in the northern panhandle of the state.
Read More “Weekly Shale Drilling Permits for PA, OH, WV: Aug 31 – Sep 4”
S&P Global Market Intelligence has done some forensic analysis of permits issued to drill new shale wells in Pennsylvania during August 2020. They compared last month’s permit numbers with the numbers from a year ago and found that PA issued 77 new permits last month, down 24% from August 2019.
Read More “PA Shale Drilling Permits Down 24% in August, but EQT Roars Back”
Anti-fossil fuel zealots like the nutty Sierra Club have successfully delayed completion of Equitrans Midstream’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline from West Virginia to southern Virginia with lawsuits. The project is now 92% done and in the ground. The zealots successfully convinced Democrat federal judges to overturn key permits issued by several government agencies. One of those overturned permits, issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for endangered species, has just been reissued. Score a victory for the good guys.
Read More “Fish & Wildlife Service Reissues Permit for Mountain Valley Pipe”
The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature continues its quest to stop Gov. Tom Wolf from illegally assuming powers he does not have to force the state into a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Last Thursday the state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee voted to report out two bills for a full Senate vote that will block Wolf’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) from joining RGGI without legislative approval.
Read More “PA Senate Advances Bills to Stop Wolf RGGI Carbon Tax”
In late 2018 a fringe environmental group called the Coalition to Reroute NEXUS (CORN), along with the City of Oberlin, Ohio, filed yet another lawsuit (with the D.C. Court of Appeals) to nullify the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) original decision to approve the NEXUS Pipeline project that runs through Ohio (see CORNballs Return, Ask DC Court to Shut Down NEXUS Pipe). Their argument is that if any of the gas flowing through a pipeline gets exported (to Canada, in this case), the project is not in the (American) public interest and therefore it should not get approved.
Read More “FERC Says NEXUS Approval in Public Interest re Exports to Canada”
It’s not unusual for companies in the business of delivering methane molecules to customers (the local gas utility company) to invest in the long-haul gas pipelines that deliver gas into their system. Consolidated Edison (ConEd), which serves much of New York City and its suburbs with natural gas, is one such company.
Read More “ConEd Caves to Enviro Pressure, Considers Selling Gas Pipes”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Supreme Court of Ohio to decide three cases regarding subsurface rights; CNX Resources announces pricing of $200 million of senior notes; First natural gas terminal for tanker ships may get final vote; Labor union supports Danskammer energy project; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: More natural gas options coming to Botetourt County, Va.; NATIONAL: Natural gas price differentials to Henry Hub narrowed at most hubs in first half of 2020; McNamee leaves FERC; INTERNATIONAL: Shell sees natural gas as ‘destination fuel’; Mexico to present projects open to private capital as it moves to undo energy reform.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Sep 9, 2020”
Officials with the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) are investigating a claim that shale wastewater pumped into an injection well in Washington County, OH is migrating and coming out of producing conventional natural gas wells some five miles away.
Read More “OH Injection Well Said to Leak Wastewater into Wells 5 Miles Away”
In 2010 gigantic Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp. bought a 30% stake (joint venture) in Rex Energy’s Marcellus drilling operation in Bulter County, PA for $150.7 million. Sumitomo wrote down much of the value for that purchase in 2015. In 2018 Rex went bankrupt and now PennEnergy Resources owns and operates the Butler assets (see Rex Energy Sells Itself to PennEnergy Resources for $600M). PennEnergy is getting a new JV partner. Yesterday Sumitomo announced the sale of their 30% share of the action.
Read More “Sumitomo Corp Sells JV Stake in Butler County, PA Marcellus”