Just when it seemed everything was going great to get all 10 mini-trains up and running at the Elba Island, Georgia LNG export facility (owned and operated by Kinder Morgan), a compressor fire earlier this week has caused the shutdown of three functioning units along with a fourth unit in the process of commissioning.
Read More “Compressor Fire Shuts Down Three Elba Island LNG Export Units”
Midstreamer Equitrans, the former EQT Midstream (before EQT split itself into two companies) posted its first-quarter 2020 update yesterday and held a conference call with analysts. Of primary concern and focus for us, and most observers was an update on the company’s 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project, which is 90% built and in the ground. The remaining portions of MVP are held up by various court cases and regulatory actions. According to officials on the call, there is a “narrow path” to completing the project by the end of this year at a cost of $5.4 billion. If the timeline slips, the cost goes up.
Read More “Equitrans: Narrow Path to Finish MVP in 2020; Hammerhead Ready 2Q”
The crash in the drilling rig count continued last week for the ninth straight week, although the decline slowed for a third week in a row. U.S. oil and gas rigs for land-based operations fell another 29 last week, to a total of 369 active rigs. Most of the decrease comes from oil-focused rigs. However, we’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the Marcellus rig count.
Read More “US Land Rig Count Falls to 369 – Marcellus Loses Another 2 Rigs”
Pennsylvania’s Pipeline Investment Program (or PIPE) grants cover part of the cost for building new natural gas pipelines to connect homes and businesses typically in rural parts of the state to homegrown Marcellus Shale gas supplies. We’ve written about many of the more-than-a-dozen (so far) PIPE grant projects in the past (see our PIPE stories here). Another PIPE grant has just been awarded–this one in the Wilkes-Barre area.
Read More “New PIPE Grant to Fund Gas for Homes, Biz Near Scranton Airport”
Virginia’s radially left Attorney General, Mark Herring (Democrat), was among 11 other radically left Democrat AGs who recently sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting the agency just stop doing its job in approving pipeline projects until the COVID-19 pandemic is over (see 11 Democrat AGs Ask FERC to Stop Approving Pipes During Pandemic). FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee just responded to Herring with his own letter (copy below).
Read More “FERC Tells Va. AG to Kiss-off on Request to Stop Pipe Approvals”
Virginia Natural Gas (VNG), a company that serves customers in northeastern Virginia, wants to build new natural gas infrastructure in Prince William and Fauquier counties. VNG is seeking state approval to build 24 miles of new pipeline and two new compressor stations (expanding a third compressor), connecting to the mighty Williams Transco pipeline system to flow Marcellus/Utica gas to the region. The Header Improvement Project will deliver natural gas to two new gas-fired power plants. A group of 12 Virginia state legislators, every one of them a Democrat, is trying to sink the project.
Read More “12 Va. Lawmakers, All Dems, Seek to Deny NatGas for Power Plants”
Not everyone in Canada is a liberal loon just like not everyone in New York State is a liberal loon. Case in point: the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), an independent public policy think tank, has just published a report pointing out the fallacy of Quebec believing it can electrify all of its energy supplies without using natural gas. In particular, the paper says Quebec’s Utica Shale layer can and should play a key role in Quebec’s so-called all-electric future.
Read More “New Report Says Canadian Utica Shale Key to Lower Emissions Future”
NATIONAL: EIA forecasts U.S. crude oil production to fall in 2020 and 2021; Could plugging orphan wells keep the suffering oil industry afloat?; INTERNATIONAL: Oil not alone as natural gas demand set for largest decline on record in 2020, IEA says; Asian LNG prices spike 20% as demand returns; Coronavirus and climate change: a tale of two hysterias.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, May 15, 2020”
Shell continues to ramp back up work being done at its mighty ethane cracker construction site in Beaver County, PA following a shutdown of activity due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company has announced plans to add 300 employees back each week until they are back up to full compliment.
Read More “Shell Adding Back 300 Workers a Week at Cracker Construction Site”
We have some exclusive news to share about a northeast PA LNG plant project. In August 2018, New Fortress Energy announced plans to build at least one LNG liquefying plant in Wyalusing, PA (see Big News! Marcellus LNG Export Plant Coming to Landlocked NEPA). The plant will cost $800 million to build and use some 500 workers to build it. Work began last year to clear the site in preparation for construction (see Work Continues to Clear Site for NEPA Landlocked LNG Export Plant). The big news is…
Read More “Work on New Fortress LNG Export Plant in Wyalusing Heats Up”
Earlier this week the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) held a promised hearing to consider its previous decision to approve a request by New Fortress Energy to build a $96 million 1,600-foot-long pier/dock on the Delaware River. The dock will be used for docking and loading two ships at a time with LNG. The only parties allowed to speak were DRBC, New Fortress, and THE Delaware Riverkeeper, the arrogant Big Green group trying to stop the dock and the LNG facility in northeast PA that would feed it.
Read More “DRBC, New Fortress Crush Antis’ Arguments Against LNG Export Dock”
From time to time we check in on Epsilon Energy, which concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA. Does Epsilon actually do any of its own drilling? No. They partner with (give money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other companies do the actual drilling. Epsilon, according to its website, owns ~4,000 net acres in the PA Marcellus. Epsilon issued its first-quarter 2020 update yesterday.
Read More “Epsilon Energy 1Q: Still Partners with Chesapeake in NEPA”
A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT, in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT has finally struck out, permanently, at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Read More “Penn Twp Frack Ban Case Strikes Out at PA Supreme Court”
ECA Marcellus Trust I announced yesterday that there will be no distribution (dividend) paid for investors for first-quarter 2020 because expenses exceeded net revenues. Who is ECA Marcellus?
Read More “ECA Marcellus Trust I Cancels 1Q20 Distribution to Investors”
Have Marcellus/Utica drillers learned their lesson about growth at any cost? It seems the answer to that is, YES! The price of natural gas has been low for a long time due to overproduction. You’ve often read here on MDN that gas prices will be “lower for longer.” And yet with the coronavirus pandemic and the crash in oil prices, the price of natgas has been (mostly) inching up–getting close to $2/Mcf (although it was down again yesterday, to $1.62/Mcf). Estimates for gas prices next year are trending to the $2.50-$2.75 range. Everyone is watching–will M-U and other gas-focused drillers restart big spending and more drilling?
Read More “M-U Drillers Promise Spending Restraint Even with Rosier Outlook”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Methane leaks much worse than previously thought, study says; Range Resources shareholders OK compensation plan at annual meeting; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Bakken gas supplies plunge as oil production pulls back; NATIONAL: EIA expects energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to fall 11% this year; Republicans urge Trump to bar banks from shunning fossil fuel loans, investments; FERC picks first-ever chief of LNG division.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, May 14, 2020”