With “Backs Against Wall” Rhode Island Approves LNG Facility
Do Rhode Island regulators read MDN? Maybe! On Monday we brought you a post about the coming natural gas outages like that experienced last January in the People’s Republic of Rhode Island, due to eco-socialist pressure to ban new natural gas infrastructure (see Rhode Island Eco-Socialists Threaten State with NatGas Outages). Yesterday the state’s Energy Facility Siting Board waived a licensing requirement for a “temporary” LNG storage facility in Portsmouth to prevent another January episode from happening again. Board members complained they had no choice, that “we have our backs against the wall” and “people’s lives could be in danger” if they don’t approve the LNG facility.
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Toby Rice, still relatively new in his role of CEO at EQT, spoke about changing the culture at the nation’s largest natural gas-producing company. At a Southpointe CEO Association event yesterday afternoon in Washington County, Rice said, “These past 100 days, I tell everybody, they’re on the happiness campaign, they just don’t know it.” Our summary of his comments: “All Aboard the Happy Train!”
Yesterday MDN brought you news about Chesapeake Energy and their third quarter update (see 
In June 2017, the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) won a case at the PA Supreme Court by the skin of their teeth (see 
The smart folks at IHS Markit, a global analytics company that tracks data in the oil and gas industry, are predicting a major slowdown in shale oil production in 2020, and essentially no growth in production for 2021. Although this prediction, based on evidence and the intuition of people who study this stuff is about shale oil, the prediction *does* relate to the Marcellus/Utica as well.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Natural gas forecast 2020: 6.2 trillion reasons to love Pennsylvania; ODNR issues 6 permits for Utica drilling; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: We Energies, Wisconsin Gas seek to spend $370 million on 2 plants to store natural gas; No natural gas? If that happens, California will dump Democrats; NATIONAL: Potential federal drilling bans ‘fraught with serious economic ramifications,’ says Devon CEO; Exxon slams NY AG’s ‘circular’ analysis in climate trial; Obama’s former EPA chief takes the helm of environmental group that’s sued Trump nearly 100 times; INTERNATIONAL: EIA projects energy consumption in air transportation to increase through 2050; Total-Adani deal signals robust investment appetite in gas ‘sweet spot’ India; OPEC sees flood of U.S. shale barrels hurting demand for its crude oil.
Chesapeake Energy, still with a sizable amount of acreage and shale wells in the Pennsylvania Marcellus, issued its third quarter update yesterday. Which happened to set off the chattering class buzzing about the possibility the company is close to declaring bankruptcy. This isn’t the first time “experts” have declared Chessy is close to bankruptcy (see this MDN post from 2016: 
The Big Injun is back in the news. In 2015 Cunningham Energy, a small oil driller based in West Virginia, struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see 
The Pittsburgh Business Times is reporting that EQT and Equitrans (formerly EQT Midstream) are “inching closer” to a renegotiated agreement for Equitrans to continue EQT’s natural gas gathering and shipping. During conference calls with analysts last week, both EQT CEO Toby Rice and Equitrans President Diana Charletta were said to be “optimistic” about the eventual outcome of those negotiations. Our interpretation is that EQT is hammering Equitrans to lower the cost of gathering and transporting their gas.
Consolidated Edison, the huge gas and electric utility that services much of New York City and its suburbs, recently said the company will cap its investment in the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. There is an amount beyond which they will not go. Con Ed is one of five investor/owners of MVP. The primary owner and builder of MVP is Equitrans (EQM Midstream Partners), the former EQT Midstream.
This is a huge disappointment. In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a precedent-setting decision that disallows PennEast Pipeline from using the federally-delegated power of eminent domain to cross properties either owned by, or with easements granted to, the state of New Jersey (see 
This is a rarity here on MDN. We’re awarding an MDN “attaboy” to northeastern Pennsylvania State Sen. John Yudichak–a Democrat! Yudichak has just stuck his neck waaaaay out by (a) voicing strong support for the Marcellus Shale gas industry, and (b) bashing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for his stance in blocking new gas pipelines.
We spotted an interesting op-ed column written by Anne Blakenship, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (WVONGA). The column is titled “WVONGA committed to fighting climate change.” In it, Anne not only reiterates our industry’s long-running stance of being good environmental stewards, she also stats flatly that “climate change is a real, substantial challenge,” by which she means man-caused global warming. Houston, we may have a problem.
Yesterday MDN reported on Dominion Energy’s third quarter update from last Friday, a session in which CEO Tom Farrell commented the company’s commitment to building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is “unwavering” (see 
For some time we have criticized the 100 year-old Jones Act that prevents LNG carriers built and/or crewed by other counties from transporting LNG from one U.S. port to another U.S. port (see