T.C. “Mike” Chung, a professor of materials science and engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State University has just received a three-year, $1.12 million federal grant to develop materials that allow natural gas to be stored at lower pressures, which in turn could lead to better fuel tanks for NG powered vehicles.
Read More “Penn State Gets $1.2M DOE Grant to Design Better NGV Fuel Tank”
According to our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the price of natural gas will, on average, remain below $4 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) for (gasp)–the next 30 years. You read that right. Lower for longer is, according to EIA, the reality for the next full generation. EIA recently released its “Annual Energy Outlook 2020” (full copy below). In addition to low gas prices, EIA predicts that so-called renewables will eclipse natural gas in electricity production by 2050. We say: When pigs fly.
Read More “EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2020 Says Gas Under $4/Mcf Thru 2050”
Vermont U.S. Senator “crazy” Bernie Sanders along with New York Congresswoman Alexandria “occasional-cortex” Ocasio-Cortez introduced a breathtakingly fascist bill last Friday meant to strip away personal freedom and property rights by banning ALL hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas everywhere. Some of the ban would happen immediately–on all federal lands. The ban is complete and total on all private land within five years–by Jan. 1, 2025. Need we say more about whether or not you should vote for *any* Democrat in 2020?
Read More “Crazy Bernie & AOC Intro Bill to Ban ALL Fracking in 5 Years”
Last Thursday MDN editor Jim Willis had the pleasure of pre-recording an appearance on the radio program Shale Gas News, co-hosted by Jim’s friend Bill desRosiers (from Cabot Oil & Gas). We have the recorded segment below. In the interview, Jim offers up the main “threats” that he sees for the Marcellus/Utica (indeed all shale drilling) in 2020.
Read More “MDN on the Radio! Jim’s Top Concerns for M-U Shale in 2020”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Philly refinery’s former owner, Sunoco, files formal objection ahead of bankruptcy sale; Sanders’ proposed fracking ban would cost him Pennsylvania and probably the election; Veolia Water Technologies may close Moon Township office; Cabot to provide lunch at Susquehanna County Ag Day; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Kean, Thompson slam Gov. Murphy’s energy master plan to shut off natural gas by 2050; Flurry of changes continue in Texas Gulf Coast gas markets; NATIONAL: U.S. crude oil and natural gas production increased in 2018, with 10% fewer wells; Elizabeth Warren’s gas royalties; US natural gas prices continue freefall this winter; Natural gas waits for spring; INTERNATIONAL: Natural gas won’t decarbonize shipping, but the fuel is here to stay; Cruise ships switching fuel to cleaner liquefied natural gas.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Feb 4, 2020”
EQT is working on a deal to sell an “overriding royalty interest” (future share of royalty revenues) generated from the company’s prolific Marcellus/Utica production in return for a cool $1 billion. That’s according to a Reuters article published on Friday.
Read More “EQT Looks to Raise $1B by Selling Royalty Interest”
Late last week National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the parent company of Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources, issued its first quarter (everyone else’s fourth quarter) financial and operational update. NFG CEO and President Dave Bauer proclaimed, “Our team has done a great job cracking the code on our Utica development program” in Tioga County, PA. However, because of the ongoing pricemageddon with natgas prices in the basement, Seneca President John McGinnis said the company will drop to running a single rig for the balance of 2020.
Read More “Seneca Resources “Cracks the Code” on PA Utica; Cuts Coming in ’20″
You always hear about Energy Transfer’s Mariner East pipeline projects (ME1, ME2, and ME2X), but you hardly ever hear about Mariner West. Did you know that ET’s Mariner West hauls ethane from shale processing and fractionation areas near Houston, Pennsylvania to Marysville, Michigan and all the way to Sarnia, Ontario? That’s right. They can flow up to 50,000 barrels a day!
Read More “Mariner West Seeks to Move Marcellus Ethane to Michigan & Canada”
The Hickory Run Energy Center–an electric generating plant being built at a former manufacturing site in New Castle (Lawrence County), PA–is close to being done and is on track to go online in April.
Read More “Marcellus-Fired Hickory Run Power Plant in W PA Online in April”
Last November MDN told you that Range Resources was testing an all-electric fracking fleet at the Ziolkowski Pad in Allegheny County (see Range Resources Fracking Program – Meticulous & Thirsty). The results are in and Range likes what it sees. The company has signed on with U.S. Well Services to continue using “electric fracking.”
Read More “Range Resources Converts to Electric Fracking with US Well Serv.”
Opposition from green extremists continues against a tiny 16-inch, 7.3-mile natural gas transmission pipeline in the Albany, NY area. The purpose of the new pipeline is to beef up supplies of natural gas in the Capitol region of the state. The thing is, the people protesting the pipeline (those who live in the area) heat their homes with natural gas. Will they be the first to give up their gas, as a demonstration of their own sacrifice to Save the Planet? Not on your life!
Read More “Opposition Continues to Tiny Pipeline in Albany, NY Region”
Jimmy Cramer was one of the last Democrats of national prominence we actually respected. No more. Cramer has succumbed to the Dark Side of the Force. In a recent CNBC interview Cramer blurted out: “I’m done with fossil fuels. They’re done. They’re just done.” Later in the interview he called fossil fuels, “tobacco.”
Read More “Jim Cramer Succumbs to the Dark Side – “Done with Fossil Fuels””
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Wolf makes nearly $6 billion in pre-budget address announcements; Pipeline projects create jobs, grow unions; Dominion submits request to plug 3 gas storage wells in Westmoreland County; Newly revealed restrictions challenge redevelopment of bankrupt Philly refinery’s land; Proposed fund to help spur WV investment; NATIONAL: EID investigation sheds light on activist-driven media platform; A battle of interference: New York attorney general seeks to block group’s effort to intervene; U.S. oil fields flared and vented more natural gas again in 2019.
Read More “Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Feb 3, 2020”
Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) handed the PennEast Pipeline project a huge victory in its fight to overturn a poor decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. FERC said the judges of the Third Circuit were wrong in their ruling that PennEast cannot use FERC’s delegated power of eminent domain to cross property owned or managed by the State of New Jersey. The FERC ruling bolsters PennEast’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, making it far more likely the high court will now hear the case.
Read More “FERC Gives PennEast Huge Boost – Pipeline CAN Cross NJ State Land”
With the big news about Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) support of the PennEast Pipeline project, FERC ruling the pipeline CAN cross New Jersey state-controlled lands using eminent domain (see today’s lead story), another important bit of PennEast news from yesterday seems to have gotten lost in the sauce. PennEast filed a request yesterday with FERC to build the pipeline project in two phases. Break the project in two.
Read More “PennEast Asks FERC to Break Pipeline Project into 2 Phases”
CNX Resources reports losing $271 million in the fourth quarter of 2019–but it wasn’t an actual money-out-of-pocket loss. The company wrote down the value of its Marcellus Shale assets (called an impairment). The company took a $327 million impairment charge for its Marcellus assets in PA, and a $119 impairment charge for unproved gas properties in the Marcellus. Below we have details on how many Marcellus wells CNX drilled and completed in 4Q and for the full year, and what company’s top brass says about what’s ahead for CNX in 2020 and beyond.
Read More “CNX Reports $271M Loss in 4Q19; Cutting Back on 2020 Drilling”