Bradford County | CNG/LNG | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New Fortress Energy | Pennsylvania | Regulation
U.S. Gov’t Grants New Fortress Permit to Ship NEPA LNG by Rail!
As far as we can tell, MDN is exclusively breaking the following news: On December 5 (last Thursday), the PHMSA (Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration) granted a special permit to Energy Transport Solutions, LLC (i.e. New Fortress Energy) to transport LNG in DOT-113C120 rail tanker cars between Wyalusing, PA and Gibbstown, NJ. This is huge! There still is not a new regulation/law to allow shipment of LNG by rail across the country, but somehow New Fortress has gotten a special permit to do so anyway. Huge!
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This post catches you up on both some old and some new news. In February of this year Chevron signed a lease with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to lease 1,028.4 acres of land *under* the Monongahela River in Greene and Fayette counties (southwestern corner of the state). That’s the old news. The new news is that Chevron has just added another 235.6 acres to the original lease for a grand total of 1,264.3 acres. Chevron is paying DCNR just over $5 million in lease signing bonuses for the entire deal.
In September, Huntley Energy Exploration (HHEX), a conventional and shale driller headquartered in Southpointe (Washington County), PA that leases land and drills in the Pittsburgh suburbs, changed its name to Olympus Energy (see 
“Peaker plants” are small electric generating plants that produce electricity for brief periods during high demand. Older peakers were often powered by oil. Newer peakers are powered by natural gas. In early November Dominion Energy floated an RFP (request for proposal) for companies to build a series of peakers (no smaller than 50 megawatts) totaling a combined 1,500 MW to come online beginning 2022 in Virginia. A month later, following criticism from a competitor, Dominion has canceled the RFP…at least for now.
Once upon a time Carnegie Mellon University used to conduct real research and publish real scientific studies with respect to the PA Marcellus Shale (see 
Some anti fossil-fuel nutters are finally responding to the criticism they don’t eat their own dog food. They don’t practice what they preach. They don’t “walk the walk.” One of the most egregious examples is old, fat Al Gore who jets around the world every other week and maintains a palace he calls a house…and has a carbon footprint (the thing he preaches against) as big as a small city. Now, some “climate scientists” and “researchers” are trying to actually live the low carbon footprint lifestyle they demand the rest of us live–and they’re finding out they don’t much like it.
NATIONAL: U.S. oil and gas producers to slash spending for second straight year in 2020; U.S. oil drillers cut rigs for seventh consecutive week; How long-term contracts factor into U.S. LNG cargo destinations; INTERNATIONAL: OPEC left with limited options; Ending the Gulf Crisis: natural gas frames future Gulf relations.
Masquerading as a nonpartisan, independent nonprofit, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) reportedly “conducts research and analyses on financial and economic issues related to energy and the environment.” The Institute’s stated mission is “to accelerate the transition to a diverse, sustainable and profitable energy economy.” In other words, they’re anti-fossil fuels. We spotted an article appearing on OilPrice.com that quotes a new “study” issued by IEEFA. The article opens by saying, “drillers in Appalachia are in particularly bad shape.” Is it true? Is the end near? Is it a shalepocalypse?
Scrum master. Agile coach. Data scientist. Cloud architect. Those are jobs young people typically seek in Silicon Valley, working for companies like Google, Apple and Facebook. However, those are jobs available *right now* in the shale oil and gas industry. There is a perception that oil and gas does not use high tech. Not so!
Our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, brings us news that (so far) the lamestream press refuses to share. In September the United States exported 89,000 barrels per day (b/d) more petroleum (crude oil and petroleum products) than it imported. That’s the first month this has happened since monthly records began in 1973! The first time in recorded history! But not a peep from the press or their Big Green overlords. This is ALL due to the miracle of shale drilling.