EIA June ’19 Drilling Report: Shale Gas Production Passes 81 Bcf/d
In the coming month, the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce a cumulative 81.4 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas, the first time U.S. shale production has surpassed 81 Bcf/d. Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report. The DPR is a forecast of oil and gas production in the country’s major shale plays for the coming month, made by the expert number crunchers at EIA. The Marcellus/Utica is forecast to increase production an amazing 1/3 Bcf in the next 30 days, for a THIRD month in a row. Just incredible.
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Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile pipeline from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA (now 80% built), may have just found a way to eliminate one of the last remaining obstacles to completing the project. Although MVP’s solution will delay completion and cost more money. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made Monday, Equitrans (builder of MVP) announced a deal with the U.S. Department of the Interior to swap ownership of land over which some of the Appalachian Trail travels in return for the right to drill under the Trail.
As we chronicle today in another post, Marcellus/Utica gas continues to break new records for production. In July, the U.S. EIA says “Appalachia” gas production will hit a new all-time high of 32.4 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). Our region doesn’t use anywhere near that much gas, which means we have to find other markets that will use it. So where does all that gas go? And how does it get there? That’s the topic of a recent RBN Energy post that outlines the corridors and pipelines that flow our gas to other markets around the North American continent.
Ann Bristow, Professor Emeritus at Frostburg State University and resident of Garrett County, is once again trying to foment irrational fear of the fossil fuel industry. Bristow was one of the “experts” that kept fracking out of Garrett County (one of two Maryland counties with commercial shale deposits), harming its citizens economically. Now she’s trying to whip up opposition to a regional ethane storage hub that won’t even be located in Maryland.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Williams completes $3.8B strategic joint venture with CPPIB in Marcellus/Utica; Utica Shale Academy graduation ceremony; EdgeMarc energy gets nod for $108M bankruptcy loan; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: More on the changes coming to Texas Gulf Coast gas markets; NATIONAL: U.S. shale growth is decelerating; Debunking Democrats’ claims about fossil fuel tax breaks; INTERNATIONAL: Having a gas: Australia dominates China’s LNG supply; Russia to boost LNG output fivefold to supply Asia; A failure of OPEC+ could turn the U.S. oil boom into another bust.
Energy Transfer continues to squabble with the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) over the fate of the still-closed Revolution Pipeline in western PA. In May the DEP issued an order to Energy Transfer, builder of Revolution, to “identify and restore or mitigate all streams and wetlands that it illegally eliminated or altered during the construction” of the pipeline (see 
It’s time to smoke out irrational fossil fuel haters and use their own science against them. National Grid has just released a study (full copy below) commissioned with researchers from M.J. Bradley & Associates that shows there are FEWER so-called greenhouse gas emissions from using the proposed Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline to New York City than by using alternatives being pushed by New York State–alternatives like heat pumps. You read that right. LESS emissions by using a pipeline than the so-called “green” alternatives. If that doesn’t beat all.
Pennsylvania antis from the Philadelphia area who don’t want pipelines running through their neighborhoods (NIMBY types) have beat the drums of war so loud and for so long, they’ve finally begun to intimidate the non-partisan, shouldn’t-be-intimated PA Public Utility Commission (PUC). The PUC last Thursday launched a “major review of its safety regulations for hazardous liquids pipelines” in response to pressure from Mariner East 2 pipeline foes. It’s sad to see a government body cowed by a few loudmouthed troublemakers.
So-called environmentalists in the Albany, NY area are fine with a 333-mile underground electric cable that will pass through the area to bring hydro power from Quebec to New York City, but they object to a 7-mile underground natural gas pipeline that will increase supplies of natgas to the region–because natgas is vile and filthy “fracked gas” and these so-called environmentalists have an irrational (certifiably nuts) aversion to using fossil fuels as an energy source. It truly boggles the mind. Will anyone be left in New York State in another 20 years?
Somebody’s lying–and our money is that the North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) are the liars. The DEQ recently denied a federal Section 401 Water Quality Certification permit (issued under the federal Clean Water Act) for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate project, claiming MVP has not provided information it needs to properly evaluate the project. MVP says it’s bent over backward and forward to give DEQ everything it needs.
Appalachia Development Group is leading an effort to build a ~$10 billion (or $2.5B, or $3.4B, depending on your source) NGL storage hub in Appalachia–most likely in West Virginia (see 
A Pennsylvania landowner thought he could finagle extra payments from XTO Energy after his land was drilled under from a neighboring property. The landowner had signed a lease, and the lease contains language that says if XTO were to drill “on” his property (i.e. install a well pad) the landowner would receive an extra payment. The landowner sued saying “on” also means “under” when XTO drilled under his property. The Superior Court of Pennsylvania disagreed, saying “on” means “on the surface” and “under” does not mean “on”.