Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Nov 6, 2020
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: CNX supports area school districts as part of ongoing COVID-19 community response; Natural gas shouldn’t be a partisan issue; Dominion comes full circle as it works to offload remaining US gas pipeline assets; NATIONAL: U.S. LNG exports continue weekly rise; Sempra looking at strategic funding options to support North America LNG plans; Ditch Paris—and save America; INTERNATIONAL: Saudi Aramco reports increasing natural gas output, with earnings climbing in 3Q; A warning from the United Kingdom: renewable energy may not suffice.
Read More “Other Stories of Interest: Fri, Nov 6, 2020”
Energy Transfer (ET), builder of the Rover pipeline project and the Mariner East pipelines here in the M-U region (as well as many other projects across the country), issued its third-quarter update yesterday. The company lost $782 million in 3Q20 versus making a profit of $857 million in 3Q19. Some (most) of the loss was a paper loss. As part of the update, we learned that the “next phase” of the Mariner East project will be placed into service by the end of this year.
The Sierra Club, backed with money from Russia (see 
Last week we were jazzed when noticed the price of natural gas at the NYMEX Henry Hub had soared, up over $0.30 to $3.30/Mcf (see 
Here’s something we didn’t know (to further depress us): It’s not against the law for American-based nonprofits to accept big contributions from foreign entities. It should be against the law, but it’s not. We previously told you that the Sierra Club and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are funded, in part, by Russia (see 
During the Williams third-quarter 2020 update yesterday, CEO Alan Armstrong shared some very interesting, and relevant (to the Marcellus/Utica) comments. Armstrong said that two important pipeline projects to carry M-U gas to other markets, the Southeastern Trail expansion project and the Leidy South project, are both in the midst of coming online–ahead of schedule.
Equitrans Midstream, the lead partner and builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, announced yesterday it has (once again) pushed back the in-service date for the pipeline, from 1Q21 to the second half of 2021 (meaning by December), and pushed up the cost of the project, from $5.4 billion to as high as $6 billion. You can thank the jobs-and-economy-destroying Sierra Club for the delays and increase in cost.
We’ve 
An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal says there is a “split reality” emerging for U.S. shale drillers. Shale oil drillers are struggling to survive, while shale gas drillers, particularly in the Marcellus/Utica, are slowly seeing signs of financial recovery. The upshot is that you should consider investing in shale gas drillers (and not shale oil drillers).
Last week Pennsylvania issued 16 new shale well drilling permits, and West Virginia issued 7 new shale well permits. Ohio issued no new shale permits last week.
In July, when Dominion Energy announced it had decided to exit the natural gas pipeline business by selling it to Warren Buffett and cancel the much-needed Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, the company said it would retain a 50% ownership in its Cove Point LNG export facility and sell a 25% interest to Buffett’s company (see