Electrical Generation | Energy Services | FirstEnergy | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH
OH Lawmakers Plan to Block Foreign Ownership of Power Plants
We’re still feeling the fallout of FirstEnergy’s sleazy campaign to keep their $1 billion ratepayer bailout in Ohio. Last week we told you about FirstEnergy’s Mafia-like tactics in attempting to block petitioners from gathering signatures to overturn House Bill 6 that hands FirstEnergy $1 billion (see FirstEnergy Uses Questionable Tactics Against Referendum Workers). Part of FirstEnergy’s strategy was to gather signatures on a competing petition–aimed at confusing residents. It is that petition that is the subject of this post.
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While on the surface the liquefied natural gas (LNG) marketplace may seem simple and straightforward, when you dig down you’ll find it is complex. There are different kinds of contracts between those who sell the gas, those who liquefy and ship it, and those who buy it. The LNG marketplace is, with the entrance of the U.S., changing rapidly. Our friends at RBN Energy recently posted an explanation for how it all works.
Quick, when we ask you how natural gas gets exported from the U.S. to other countries, what do you think of? LNG, right? That’s true. Yet while LNG grabs all the headlines, more than twice as much natural gas is exported to Canada and Mexico via pipeline every day than is exported to other countries via LNG ships. LNG is expanding and catching up–but it has a ways to go. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, during the first half of 2019 natural gas exports from the U.S. to other countries doubled–largely because of LNG.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Nation’s largest coal producer files Chapter 11 bankruptcy; 8 drilling permits awarded by ODNR; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Floating shale gas LNG producer moving ahead with build out plans; San Jose moves to boost electric use in homes, mayor touts electric cars as PG&E power shutdown continues; NATIONAL: BP bearish on natural gas prices, LNG exports to 2021; INTERNATIONAL: One of the Sustainable Buses of the Year runs on natural gas; More bad news for Canada’s crumbling oil industry.
We have, for years, brought you arguments about the superiority of an impact fee over a severance tax (see 
The State of Connecticut’s “Siting Council” changed its mind in July and approved NTE Energy’s proposed project to build a 650-megawatt natural gas-fired electric plant in Killingly (see 
One of the privileges of writing about the Marcellus/Utica industry is the occasional opportunity to attend worthwhile events and connect with the terrific people who work in this industry. Shale Insight (last week in Pittsburgh) was one of those events. MDN editor Jim Willis will attend another such event in a few weeks: 
Last year a hedge fund manager tried pitching a fund that would “bet against” shale drillers to investors. At the time he was “basically kicked out of every office in New York City.” Good! However, the now-former hedge fund manager has an advisory service that in a sense also disparages the shale industry, but perhaps performs a valuable service for the industry. The new company uses data that is number-crunched from state records, applying assumptions that are “more realistic” than numbers offered by companies in investor presentations when it comes to how much the wells they *will* drill will produce. That is, this new service provides a more realistic look at reserves–proven and otherwise.
Williams has temporarily withdrawn three of four applications with the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to build its Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project. Just last month NJDEP gave Williams an extra month with the permits (see 
Andrew Cuomo is a desperate man. There’s nothing as dangerous as a cornered leftist politician whose policies have been revealed to cause pain and suffering for the very people he’s supposed to serve. That’s what has happened to man-child Andy–and desperate politicians who have been exposed for all to see do crazy things. In Andy’s case, he goes berserk. Cuomo has instructed his own state Public Service Commission (PSC) to look for ways to revoke the operating license of utility company National Grid, which supplies natural gas to all of Long Island (and the NYC boroughs that sit on Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens). Why?
Spending went down, but natural gas production went up slightly (3%) at the very first Marcellus driller, Range Resources, in 3Q19. The company previously forecast it would spend $756 million in 3Q but spent $736 million instead. The savings came “as a result of continued efficiency gains, water savings, and service cost improvements.” The company connected 22 new wells in the Marcellus to production in 3Q19, the same number they connected in 3Q18. Our takeaway: the company is doing more, producing more, with less resources. Getting more efficient.
Cabot Oil & Gas, one of our favorite Marcellus drillers, continued to impress during 3Q19. The company reports free cash flow popped 150% higher than 3Q18–even though the price of natural gas was down 23% over the same period last year. Production was 2.3 billion cubic feet per day, all of it dry natural gas. They drilled 22 new Marcellus wells (in Susquehanna County, PA) and completed 29 wells, which means they’re drawing down their DUC (drilled but uncompleted) well inventory.
Southwestern Energy, now a pure play driller focused on the Marcellus/Utica since selling off their Fayetteville Shale assets in Sept. 2018, produced 2.2 billion cubic feet equivalent per day (Bcfe/d) of natural gas in 3Q19, up from 2.0 Bcfe/d in 3Q18. (Those numbers remove the Fayetteville to compare apples to apples.) Southwestern drilled 24 new Marcellus and/or Utica wells and completed 30 wells in 3Q, which means, like other drillers, they continue to draw down their DUC (drilled but uncompleted) well inventory. Unlike Cabot which produces 100% dry gas, some 22% of Southwestern’s production was natural gas liquids.