Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Jul 19, 2019
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Nine permits issued in Ohio Utica/Point Pleasant shale; Cuomo tilts with windmills; Wheeler hits Cuomo for blocking pipelines; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Berkeley approves $273,341 salary for new czar to enforce nation’s 1st natural gas ban; NATIONAL: Summer natural gas prices on track to be the lowest in more than 20 years; Working natural gas stocks are more than half full in all regions as the deficit to the five-year average declines; Ryan Zinke touts new career in the oil and gas industry during Houston visit; U.S. energy is hotspot in Trump’s economy; INTERNATIONAL: How to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
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This is a momentous occasion, nearly 13 years in the making. The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued permits on June 28 to drill two Utica Shale wells in Monroe County. Both wells begin on privately owned land, but then travel under sections of Wayne National Forest (WNF). As near as we can tell, these are the first two such wells to pass under WNF land. Below we tell you exactly where they’re located, and which company received the permits to drill them.
Columbia Transmission is on a mission to flow more Marcellus/Utica gas south–all the way to the Gulf Coast in Louisiana. Earlier this week Columbia filed a new application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the Louisiana XPress Project, a project to beef up flows along the existing Columbia pipeline system by an additional 850 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) by adding and expanding several compressor stations in Louisiana. Most, if not all of the M-U gas that will flow through it, is heading to Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG export facility in Lake Charles.
Kinder Morgan (KM), perhaps the largest pipeline company in the United States, was first out of the chute yesterday with a financial and operational update for the second quarter. While KM maintains a number of pipelines in the northeast, primarily the Tennessee Gas Pipeline, our main focus in reviewing yesterday’s update is for new information about the long-delayed Elba Island LNG export facility along the coast of Georgia. Elba Island will export Marcellus/Utica molecules.
A small cabal of 18 leftist Virginia state legislators sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulator Commission (FERC) last week trash talking the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) proposed by Dominion Energy. The odious Sierra Club “applauds these legislators for standing up to polluting corporations like Dominion Energy that are putting their profits over people.” Same old tripe the Clubbers always peddle. What the Sierra Club doesn’t tell you is that there are 140 Virginia legislators, meaning 122 legislators either support, or certainly don’t oppose, ACP. Translation: The vast majority of Virginia residents and their representatives are in favor of ACP.
Here’s a major scientific study that’s being suppressed and ignored by mainstream “news” (i.e. propaganda) outlets: A recently published study by Finnish researchers finds that human activity, specifically burning fossil fuels for energy, doesn’t even move the needle on global average temperatures. They point out a major flaw in climate modeling used by “mainstream” alarmists–in how they use a computer model that overestimates warming by a factor of 10.
Super secret sources are whispering to Bloomberg that Energy Transfer is seriously considering selling its 33% ownership stake in the 713-mile, 3.25 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas Rover Pipeline, a line that flows Utica Shale gas from Ohio into Michigan and all the way to Ontario, Canada. Such a sale would net ET somewhere around $2.5 billion. Yes, we’re shocked!
As of today Toby Rice has been on the job as EQT’s CEO for one week. According to an interview he granted the Pittsburgh Business Times, so far there have been “no major surprises.” Rice has begun meeting with all 800 EQT employees–some in groups via electronic town hall, others individually face-to-face. It appears his main focus has been to form and add people to an “Evolution Committee”–charged with executing Rice’s previously laid out 100-day plan. Toby also wants to EQT to be a “fun place to work.” He says right now, it’s not.
Invenergy’s 1,480 megawatt, $1 billion Marcellus gas-fired electric plant, called the Lackawanna Energy Center (located near Scranton, PA), is now 100% done with construction. Yesterday the company celebrated the end of construction with a special ceremony and tour.
It’s been some time since we’ve checked in on EnerVest, a private equity firm that owns a lot of acreage and wells (most of them conventional) in the Marcellus/Utica region. We spotted an update on the company’s holdings given by Steve Downey, EnerVest’s vice president of business development. Steve also happens to be president of the Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA).
American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, has just added a fourth subsidiary/division to the company. AEPT has agreed to acquire 100% of Hickman Geological Consulting, LLC in an all-stock deal. AEPT is giving owners Josh and Jessica Hickman 40.5 million shares of AEPT stock as payment. Josh Hickman is an AEPT board member. As of this morning AEPT shares are trading (on the Pink Sheets, over the counter) at $0.0055 per share (a little over half a penny per share). Doing the math, we peg the value of the deal at $222,750.