Equitrans Asks FERC to Allow MVP Construction Restart This Week
On Tuesday Equitrans Midstream sent the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) an official letter (called a filing) politely requesting FERC get off its collective rear end and grant permission to resume construction activities for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) so they can complete certain kinds of work before winter sets in. Equitrans requested an order allowing work to resume no later than…tomorrow!
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S&P Global analysts have been looking at natural gas production numbers for Pennsylvania. The most recently available data is from June (numbers are always delayed a few months). S&P found that shale gas production in PA dropped 2% in June from May, to 18.48 Bcf/d. June’s numbers were essentially flat to the same time in 2019.
Analysts at S&P Global are making a bold prediction: It will take a full ten years for the world to recover from the coronavirus and begin growing its demand for natural gas once again. Something about the prediction just seems “off” to us.
Each quarter the Dallas Federal Reserve conducts a survey of 150-200 oil and gas firms located or headquartered in the Eleventh District–Texas, southern New Mexico, and northern Louisiana. The energy company executives surveyed run companies that operate regionally, nationally, and some even internationally. The Dallas Fed released its latest quarterly Energy Survey results yesterday. We have a full copy below.
Bet you never thought you’d read about (or watch) a Justin Bieber video on MDN. We never thought we would write about or feature Bieber’s music. But then we watched a video of his newest song called Holy, a video that’s been watched (so far) over 32 million times since it was released to Youtube on Sunday! In the video Bieber plays the part of an oilfield worker who gets laid off. It’s poignant. Frankly, it brought tears to our eyes.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: PUC orders Sunoco Pipeline to conduct public education & awareness meeting in Cumberland County; Boilermakers, CNX share stage to back fracking, pipelines and Trump; Energy secretary sees region’s plastics industry as critical; Trump slams Biden on fracking and trade at Pennsylvania rally; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: California should ban oilfield fracturing by 2024 and move to zero-emission vehicles by 2035, says Newsom; Can gas-fired power plants coexist with a net-zero target? Yes, Southern Company insists; NATIONAL: U.S. fracking services won’t recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2025; So, we’re back to “peak oil” again; Natural gas market deficit over winter may exceed 5 Bcf/d this coming cold season; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC+ agreement to reduce production contributes to global oil market rebalancing.
Last week Ohio finally broke the drought of not issuing permits for new shale wells in the Buckeye State. Finally! Last week Pennsylvania issued 13 new permits for wells on three well pads. Ohio issued 4 new permits for wells on two well pads. And West Virginia issued 1 new permit.
On Sept. 10, a day after a meeting of the West Virginia Economic Development Authority meeting, we reported (based on media reports) that the Authority had voted to approve a $5.5 million loan guarantee for a proposed new shale gas-fired power plant planned for Brooke County, WV (see 
Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, a 200-mile greenfield pipeline from northeastern to southeastern PA where it joins the Transco Pipeline, went online in October 2018 (see 
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued modified permits for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in three southeast PA locations (Delaware and Chester counties). Each location has faced problems with underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD). The modifications allow a different type of installation method to be used–open trench.
Last year MDN shared with you the rumor that Exxon Mobil was sniffing around Pennsylvania, investigating the prospect of building a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker like the Shell cracker being built near Pittsburgh. Those rumors went on for a while and even included evaluation of the Philadelphia area, not just Pittsburgh. Last week Exxon said unequivocally they have no active plans for such a facility in the Keystone State. Bummer.
It’s that time of year again. Each fall Dominion Energy takes the Cove Point LNG export terminal offline for annual maintenance work. Every time it happens, the plant is offline for roughly three weeks. We expect the same this year.
We don’t know if PBS StateImpact Pennsylvania “reporters” are just sloppy in their reporting, or if they intentionally lie. Either way, it doesn’t look good for StateImpact. PBS reporter Jon Hurdle’s latest Big Green hit piece, published yesterday on StateImpact, is wholly manufactured out of nothing. He claims there are continuing problems with drilling for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project at Snitz Creek in Lebanon County, PA. There are not.