NATIONAL: Are parking lots the next target for anti-fracking activists?; E&Ps plot lean second-half investment after second-quarter capex retreat; Polling continues to show voters support fracking; DOJ urged to investigate US environmental NGOs for foreign influence; INTERNATIONAL: Shell to cut up to 9,000 jobs as oil demand slumps; Ontario’s green-energy catastrophe.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Wed, Sep 30, 2020”
It could have been avoided. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) has no one to blame but themselves for what happened at Marsh Creek Lake in Chester County, PA, when Energy Transfer (ET), drilling underground to install a pipeline for the Mariner East 2 project, experienced a drilling mud spill in August (see Mariner East 2X Construction Causes Another Drilling Mud Spill).
Read More “PA DEP at Fault for Marsh Creek Lake Drilling Mud Spill”
Two months ago PTT Global Chemical signed a contract with the Mountaineer NGL Storage project to use Mountaineer’s planned underground storage facility in Monroe County, OH to supply ethane to PTT’s cracker plant in neighboring Belmont County when/if the cracker gets built (see PTT Signs Contract with Mountaineer NGL Storage Hub for OH Cracker). However, Mountaineer has just asked Ohio to cancel key permits for their project. What’s going on?
Read More “Mountaineer Asks Ohio to Cancel NGL Storage Hub Permits”
Northeastern Pennsylvania landowners who are leased either with Equinor (formerly called Statoil) or Chesapeake Energy met last night in an open-air pavilion at the Wyoming County, PA Fairgrounds. They were there to discuss a lawsuit against Equinor for shorting landowners on royalties, and to discuss Chesapeake Energy’s bankruptcy.
Read More “NEPA Landowners Meet to Discuss Equinor Lawsuit, Chesapeake Ch. 11”
Here’s a story we haven’t written about in two years. American Water Management Services (AWMS) owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Actually there are two injection wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS. They were both “temporarily” shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources following the quake nobody could feel (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down Injection Wells After Low-Level Quake).
Read More “OH Supremes Say ODNR Guilty of Takings re Trumbull Injection Well”
Two researchers at West Virginia University (WVU) have received a $3 million grant to aid in their research to figure out how to use microwaves on flared natural gas to convert the flared gas into carbon nanomaterials and hydrogen–and do it all cheaply. Coincidentally, we spotted a second announcement from a company already using microwaves to convert flared gas into hydrogen and acetylene.
Read More “WVU Engineers Get $3M Grant to Microwave Flared M-U NatGas”
In the first half of 2020, the U.S. exported 5.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of petroleum products, a slight increase of 48,000 bpd (1%) from the first half of 2019. Wait, what? Exports went UP and not down? Even though the entire world shut down and used far less fossil fuels during 1H? That’s right. The reason we exported slightly more petroleum products is because NGLs (natural gas liquids) are part of those numbers, and the world kept using NGLs, like propane and ethane, even during the COVID shutdown.
Read More “U.S. Petroleum Exports Went UP in 1H20…Thanks to NGLs”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: CNX Resources and CNX Midstream Partners announce completion of merger; Energy and Policy Institute a case of projection on steroids; Encino Energy partners with wildlife education center; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Kayakers paddle to Murphy’s backyard to protest gas pipeline, fossil fuel projects; NATIONAL: Devon Energy and WPX Energy to combine in merger of equals; U.S. ethane exports rise with international steam cracker demand; INTERNATIONAL: Wood Mackenzie: LNG demand doubling over the next 20 years.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Tue, Sep 29, 2020”
Energy Transfer (ET), builder and operator of the Revolution Pipeline in southwestern Pennsylvania, last week received permission from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to reroute a section that “slipped” after record rainfall two years ago, resulting in an explosion in Beaver County.
Read More “2 Yrs After Explosion Revolution Pipe in Beaver Co. Begins Repairs”
Some fantastic news to share. Last Friday the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissued the second of three necessary permits required to finally finish the 92% complete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project in Virginia and West Virginia. The Army Corps reissued a permit they previously issued (but got overturned by Big Green groups in court), a Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12, allowing the project to cross over or under some 1,000 or so creeks, rivers, and wetlands.
Read More “Army Corps Reissues NWP12 for Mountain Valley Pipeline in VA, WV”
CNX Resources has applied for permits to drill up to seven new Utica shale gas wells on a single pad in Washington Township on the grounds of the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County. The reason it’s raising a few eyebrows is that the new pad is in the general vicinity of the company’s faulty Shaw 1G well.
Read More “CNX Files Permits to Drill 7 New Utica Wells in Westmoreland Co.”
Last week Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a racketeering lawsuit against FirstEnergy, former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, and four of Householder’s associates, all related to an alleged $60 million bribery scandal in passing the hugely unpopular House Bill 6 (see FirstEnergy Involved in Bribery Scheme to Pass $1B Nuke Bailout Law). HB 6 gives Energy Harbor, a FirstEnergy subsidiary, $150 million per year for seven years ($1.1 billion) in ratepayer funds to prop up the company’s uneconomic nuclear power plants.
Read More “Ohio AG Files Charges Against FirstEnergy in Nuke Bribery Case”
Last Friday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a “settlement” (with no admission of guilt) with MarkWest Energy, with MarkWest paying a $150,000 fine for failure to monitor for air emissions leaks at its Liberty Bluestone facility in Butler County, PA.
Read More “MarkWest Pays Fed EPA $150K for Clean Air Act Violations in SWPA”
Last week the extremely unpopular Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Wolf, vetoed a bill that would have given all citizens in the Keystone State, via their elected representatives in the state legislature, a say in whether or not the state should join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI is a huge new $2.4 billion tax on coal and gas-fired power plants that will drive up the cost of electricity dramatically across the state.
Read More “PA Gov Wolf Vetoes Bill Giving Citizens Say in Carbon Tax Scheme”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: POGLA Wyoming County meeting tonight – Sept. 28; Under President Trump, America is energy independent; Ohio farmers need natural gas now and in the future; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Cheniere Energy made big financial moves in September; Gavin Newsom’s energy hubris relates directly to “peak oil” predictions; NATIONAL: Devon Energy, WPX in talks to merge; Natural gas will rule the us energy market for decades; AEA supports U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett; Q&A with Harold Hamm on prices, politics, swing producers; INTERNATIONAL: Oil heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Russia look ready for a showdown.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Mon, Sep 28, 2020”
Two days ago MDN brought you news that natural gas prices in the Marcellus/Utica region are about to get really ugly, at least for the next couple of months (see Ugly Gas Prices Coming to M-U – Demand Falls More than Production). We now have the other side of the coin to share. M-U producers are shutting-in gas production like crazy. Last week M-U gas flows went down a huge 2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d)–from 32 to 30 Bcf/d.
Read More “PA & OH Natural Gas Production Nosedived Last Week, Down 2 Bcf/d”