Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island LNG Partially Down for Maintenance
The first of 10 LNG (liquefied natural gas) mini-trains at Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island, Georgia export facility went online in December of last year (see Elba Island Finally Exported First Marcellus LNG Cargo on Friday). Since that time, the other nine trains have come online one at a time, with the last unit going into service in August (see Final Elba Island LNG Train Goes into Service – All 10 Now Online). As happens with these facilities, each year the owner/operator will take units offline for maintenance. Some of Elba’s 10 trains are offline for maintenance right now, but not all of them.
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The clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (one of whom quotes from children’s books in her opinions) have signaled they will overturn, again (for the second or third 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. We have the Sierra Club to thank for the lawsuit, and colluding liberal Democrat judges to thank for continued obstruction of this legally-permitted project from finishing.
The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is in major butt-covering mode with the state’s conventional (non-shale) oil and gas industry. During an industry-led advisory committee meeting held yesterday, members of PA’s conventional oil and gas industry delivered some rather blunt comments to DEP Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management Scott Perry, accusing the DEP of “ramming the most punitive set of regulations on this industry to date.”
Mob rule now prevails in New York City under Mayor Bill de Blasio. In February we told you about a mob of anti-fossil fuelers attempting to block the final few feet of construction for a 6.8-mile natural gas pipeline stretching from Brownsville to North Brooklyn (see 
The Enverus U.S. rig count continues to rise. Two weeks ago the nationwide count was 382. As of Wednesday, the count stood at 396, up 14. Over the past week, the Marcellus shale play in northeastern PA lost a rig. The combined M-U rig count is now 32.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Summit Midstream regains compliance with NYSE minimum price continued listing standard; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Massachusetts AG tells Bloomberg group of plan to use its attorneys to enforce Paris climate treaty; NATIONAL: ‘Methane’ sounds worse than ‘natural gas’; INTERNATIONAL: NUS team invents ‘fast and safe’ way to convert natural gas to solid form; OPEC, allies agree to increase output by 500,000 barrels a day in January; More than 140 trucks, buses switch to natural gas in Vancouver; Making shipping cleaner – is LNG the answer?
Yesterday CNX CEO Nick Deluliis was one of the keynote speakers at the annual DUG (Developing Unconventional Gas) East event, held virtually this year. Normally DUG is held at the Convention Center in Pittsburgh. Deluliis’ talk was wide-ranging, but much of it concentrated on mergers and acquisitions, particularly M&A in the Marcellus/Utica. Deluliis is not much interested in horizontal M&A for CNX, but he is intrigued by vertical M&A.
In June 2019 the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Retirement System sued EQT claiming EQT’s executives had made false and misleading statements about their 2017 purchase of Rice Energy–claims about cost efficiencies that never materialized, and claims about the location of Rice leases that were not as close to EQT’s acreage as claimed (see 
Two years ago the Maryland Board of Public Works (BPW), which has three members (two leftwing Democrats and RINO Gov. Larry Hogan), rejected an 8-inch, 3.5-mile pipeline (tiny!) that would travel under the Potomac River, even though 12 other pipelines have previously been built under the Potomac in the same general vicinity (see 
Yesterday Hart Energy held its annual (always excellent) DUG (Developing Unconventional Gas) East event. Normally the event is held at the Convention Center in Pittsburgh. This year it was an all-virtual event. Among the speakers were CNX CEO Nick Deluliis, PennEnergy Resources CEO Rich Weber, and Ascent Resources CEO Jeff Fisher. While it’s not all blue skies and sunshine ahead, all three CEOs painted a picture of 2021 that’s better than 2020.
Each year East Daley Capital publishes its Midstream Guidance Outlook which looks at themes and trends affecting the midstream (pipeline) sector in the coming year. The latest version of Daley’s report has just been released and draws some interesting conclusions about the midstream in 2021. Namely, associated gas growth in the Permian and elsewhere will go down and result in rising gas demand from the Marcellus/Utica and Haynesville gas plays. The big winners will be M-U pipeline companies, including Williams, Antero Midstream, and Equitrans (EQT Midstream).
Ascent Resources has listed for sale two “packages” of its assets in the core of the Utica Shale in Ohio. One package contains a non-operated interest in 68 wells and 1,362 net leasehold acres. The second package includes a royalty interest in 10 wells and 106 net revenue interest acres. Details on where the assets are located (which counties) and other details are in the listing below.
Last week Pennsylvania issued 12 new shale well drilling permits with a mix of permits issued in both the southwest (wet gas) and northeast (dry gas) regions of the state. Ohio issued 7 new permits, all of them except one in the same county (Jefferson). West Virginia was a goose egg–no new permits issued last week.