Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Feb 25, 2020
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Construction workers on the Mariner East paid dearly for DEP delays; Slate takes shape for Utica Midstream Conference; Following attacks from challenger, Lamb weighs in on fracking ban; CNX names chief accounting officer; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Activists continue to fight flaring-reducing infrastructure; Tellurian builds Driftwood LNG momentum; Ducey signs bill banning local bans on natural gas; NATIONAL: Natural gas is crushing wind and solar power – Why isn’t anyone talking about it?; CenterPoint Energy to sell natural gas retail business for $400m; Natural gas recovery – dead cat bounce; Tech’s green pose gets less and less convincing; Banning gas stoves is not a serious way to fight climate change; INTERNATIONAL: Kosmos says won’t expand in new oil basins, unveils climate change-focused strategy; The EIB’s attack on gas is counter-productive.
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By the end of this year, Chevron will have eliminated 320 jobs in its Marcellus/Utica operation. Some 288 of those positions will be gone from the company’s regional headquarters in Moon Township (Allegheny County, PA), and another 32 will be gone from the company’s Mount Braddock location (Fayette County, PA). The company says it will try to find new assignments for as many people as possible. The layoffs begin on April 6.
Last Friday Cabot Oil & Gas, one of the most prolific Marcellus drillers, released its fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 update, with a look ahead at 2020. During the conference call with analysts, Cabot CEO Dan Dinges began his prepared remarks talking about tests the company has done in the Upper Marcellus. Very exciting results. He also said, near the end of the call, that Cabot has positioned itself to be “the last man standing” in the Marcellus. Hmmm, that’s an intriguing comment! What does he mean?
Last week we told you the good news that Williams recently re-filed an application with the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection to build one of two critical northeastern pipeline projects–called the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project (see 
The companies behind PennEast Pipeline, a $1.2 billion greenfield pipeline project from Luzerne County, PA to Mercer County, NJ, have not given up on the long-delayed project–delayed mostly due to opposition from Big Green groups and their abuse of our court system to block the project. PennEast recently filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court over the issue of using eminent domain powers to cross land owned or controlled by the State of New Jersey. Since the original Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) certificate authorizing construction of the project expired on Jan. 19, 2020, PennEast asked FERC to extend it another two years (see 
Oral arguments will be heard this morning beginning at 10 am at the U.S. Supreme Court on a case to decide whether or not the Appalachian Trail will, from now on, block all future pipelines from being installed under it. The case, U.S. Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, will determine whether or not Big Green wins the right to block Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project from crossing under the Appalachian Trail.
It’s election (i.e. silly) season all year long, until November. One of the key issues shaping up to influence the presidential election this year is, yes, FRACKING. The term fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, has been bastardized to the point it now means (in the public’s mind) “fossil fuels.” All of the Democrat presidential hopefuls are in favor of severely limiting, or outright banning, fracking. By which they mean the production of new oil and natural gas from shale deposits. It is a losing platform on which to run–yet that’s what they’re doing. We spotted an article on the Forbes website that uses simple arithmetic to calculate the impact fracking has (so far) had on Americans.
In early December when Williams withdrew their fourth and final permit application to build the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project with the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), we feared that maybe Williams had given up on the project (see 
Williams issued its fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 update yesterday. Among the gems shared, the company reported gathering 13.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas and equivalents during 4Q19, up 10% from 4Q18. Just to put that in perspective, there was 85.5 Bcf/d of shale natural gas production in December 2019, according to the EIA. Williams gathered 15% of all the shale gas produced. That is an amazing statistic! Here’s an even more amazing stat: Although Williams gathered 13.3 Bcf/d during 4Q, their pipeline networks moved/flowed gas gathered by other companies too, to the tune of 21.8 Bcf/d (up 8% from 4Q18). That means the Williams pipe network moves fully 25% of all the shale natural gas that moves throughout the country.
In January the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) lifted a moratorium (in place for more than a year) on new construction permits for the Mariner East 2 pipeline project (see 
Energy Transfer, a huge pipeline company that builds and maintains Marcellus/Utica pipelines including Rover and the Mariner projects, released its fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 update earlier this week. The company reports making the most profit it has ever made in its 25-year history–$3.6 billion in profit for 2019 (more than triple the $1.1 billion made in 2018). Although ET’s financial performance is impressive, it was comments made during the quarterly conference call with analysts about the Mariner East pipeline project that caught our attention.
The Pennsylvania Democrat Party is about to get politically fracked–i.e., underground explosions that create large fractures, breaking it apart. Ironically, the Dems are getting fracked over fracking. As we have been reporting, all of the Democrat presidential candidates have signed on to either severely limit, or outright ban, hydraulic fracturing. Some of the more extreme elements, like crazy Bernie Sanders, want all fracking banned within five years–on public AND private land (see 
The former Chester County District Attorney, Tom Hogan, is guilty of politicizing his office (we’d call it legal malpractice) by charging a couple of off-duty constables (peace officers) with a crime–just because they moonlighted by working as security guards to protect anti-pipeline nuts from hurting themselves at Mariner East 2 pipeline construction sites (see