Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Jul 18, 2019
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Marcellus Shale R&D test site continues advancements with NETL support; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Kinder Morgan receives FERC approval for Gulf LNG export project; Natural gas merely a ‘byproduct’ for producers in US shale oil plays; NATIONAL: Natural gas leads clean electricity production; How rising baseload demand for gas is reshaping seasonal patterns; Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff admits the Green New Deal is not about the climate.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Thu, Jul 18, 2019”
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.
In the coming month, the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce a cumulative 82 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas, a new record! All but one of those seven shale plays will increase its shale gas output. The Marcellus/Utica region, the “beast in the east” is about to roar in the next month, increasing natgas production *another* 396 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), to a new high of 33 Bcf/d. This is the fourth month in a row the M-U will have increased production by at least one-third of a Bcf.
Speaking of New Fortress Energy and their planned northeast Pennsylvania LNG liquefaction facility (see today’s story, Work Begins to Clear Site for NEPA Landlocked LNG Export Plant), in addition to chilling natural gas into LNG, you also need a way to load it onto ships and move it to other markets. New Fortress plans to build a $96 million, 1,600-foot-long pier on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River at the former DuPont dynamite factory site to dock and load two ships at a time.
Last week Shale Support, a frac sand producer and shipper headquartered in Louisiana, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company is not able to deal with $128 million in debt it has accumulated, hence the filing. Shale Support maintains three frac sand terminal facilities in the Marcellus/Utica region.
Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) finally broke ground and began to build a new Marcellus gas-fired power plant in Cambria County, PA in October 2017 (see 
LS Power, which owns a number of competitive power generation projects including the 700 megawatt dual-fuel simple cycle Troy Generating Facility located in Luckey, OH, is threatening to pull a $500 million plan to expand the Troy facility if Ohio proceeds to pass a new law subsidizing the state’s two nuclear plants. The subsidies would create an uneven playing field for natural gas-fired electric plants like the Troy facility.