Mountain Valley Pipe Date Delayed to 2H21, Cost Rises to $6B
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.
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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.
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Pro-industry Republican holds lead in Texas oil commission race; Permian drilling slowdown fuels bullish turn for West Texas spot gas market; Mid-con is now a premium market for natural gas and NGLs; NATIONAL: December natural gas futures stumble amid higher temperatures, election uncertainty; Natural gas refuse trucks versus battery electric…what’s more green?; INTERNATIONAL: France’s Engie backs out of U.S. LNG deal; OPEC members’ net oil export revenue in 2020 expected to drop to lowest level since 2002; Natural gas demand will grow beyond 2035: Gazprom official.
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 
Southwestern Energy Company released its third-quarter 2020 update last Friday. The company previously announced it is buying out and merging in Marcellus/Utica driller Montage Resources. During the 3Q conference call, CEO Bill Way said the company expects to close on the deal immediately after Montage Resources shareholders vote on the deal November 12. Also from the 3Q update: Southwestern managed to reduce the cost of drilling for one of their PA Marcellus wells down to $491 per lateral foot!
In August Pennsylvania hiked its permit fee to drill a new shale well to be the most expensive of any state in the country, from $5,000 to $12,500 (see 
“It’s dangerous! It’s a killer! It will flow evil, nasty fracked gas! It’ll explode and kill everyone within a mile, and if it doesn’t explode, emissions from the plant will poison everyone around it anyway!” Those are the faux arguments used by radicals in Weymouth, Massachusetts to smear a compressor station built by Enbridge. All of those arguments have just magically disappeared. The price tag to make it happen? Enbridge will pay $10 million now, and $28 million later, for a grand total of $38 million.
The New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council (“Highlands Council”) is a regional planning agency that works in partnership with municipalities and counties in the Highlands Region to help them implement the state’s 2004 Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act (the Highlands Act). The Highlands Council has just given its blessing for a Tennesee Gas Pipeline (TGP) compressor station in Passaic County, NJ, near the border with Westchester, NY.
We’re speechless (which doesn’t happen often). The liberal, anti-shale Democrats who write and manage the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have endorsed Donald J. Trump for president! They had plenty of criticism for Trump in their lukewarm “endorsement,” but the fact they did endorse Trump is, well, big news. The Post-Gazette editors, who haven’t endorsed a Republican for president since 1972, say “Mr. Biden is too old for the job, and fragile.” We agree.
Dan Dinges, CEO of Cabot Oil & Gas, said last week: “2020 has proven to be the most challenging year for natural gas prices in the last 25 years, resulting from a multi-year trend of overcapitalization of both oil and natural gas assets across our industry.” Indeed. The company released its third-quarter 2020 update on Friday and reported a net loss of $15 million, compared to net income of $90.4 million in 3Q19. This is the first quarterly net loss for Cabot in recent memory. Still, there was plenty of good news coming from the 3Q update…
Range Resources issued its third-quarter 2020 update on Friday. The company, the very first driller to sink a well in the Marcellus, lost $680 million in 3Q. Most of the loss was a one-time charge called “exit and termination” related to the company’s sale of their Louisiana Haynesville Shale assets in August. The update didn’t state how many new wells were drilled in the Marcellus, but it does say Range connected 19 new wells to sales in 3Q with plans to add another 7 wells to sales by the end of the year.
While Gulfport Energy (big Ohio Utica driller) hasn’t officially filed for bankruptcy, it’s certainly a possibility (see