The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette seems to be doing its best to tie what it calls a “cancer cluster” to local shale drilling in the region. We first noticed a developing story about a potential cluster of rare Ewing sarcoma cancer cases among children in the Pittsburgh region a few months ago, when Pittsburgh media first began to report on it.
Read More “Pittsburgh Media Attempts to Link Shale Drilling to Childhood Cancer”
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Carmichael says oil, natural gas industry has “friendly leadership” in Mountain State; New pipeline for natural gas makes sense — but just for now; De Blasio’s Green New Debacle; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Cameron LNG export facility starts up in Louisiana; Trump: American natural gas exports going global; Longmeadow voters pass new regulations for natural gas utilities; NATIONAL: The oil and gas situation: International tensions rise as U.S. shale costs fall; INTERNATIONAL: Prospects for expanding outlets for Western Canadian gas supply.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, May 15, 2019”
In the coming month, the U.S.’s seven major shale plays will produce a cumulative 80.7 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas, the first time shale production has passed that milestone. 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 second month in a row.
Read More “EIA May ’19 Drilling Report: Shale Gas Production Passes 80 Bcf/d”
The former Blue Ridge Mountain Resources (formerly Magnum Hunter Resources) and Eclipse Resources tied the knot and merged at the end of February, promptly renaming itself Montage Resources (see Blue Ridge Merges with Eclipse, Renamed to Montage Resources). The newly merged entity released its first quarter 2019 update last week. We found some fascinating details about Montage’s plans for 2019.
Read More “Montage Resources Drilling 33% of 2019 Wells in Ohio Marcellus!”
Guess we should have seen this one coming. Last week MDN told you that U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected an appeal by the rich snobs from Cooperstown that call themselves Otsego 2000, challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of Dominion Energy’s New Market Project to build two new compressor stations in Upstate NY (see Fed Court Rules Against NY Antis in “Landmark” Dominion Pipe Case). The snobs just won’t let it go–they hate being told “NO” by anyone…
Read More “Cooperstown Snobs Fighting Dominion Pipe Say “We’ll be Back””
You know who anti-vaxxers are, right? The parents who won’t give their children vaccines because they fear the vaccines may give their kids autism or allergies. Because of this anti-vaxxer movement, there’s been a recent resurgence in measles–particularly in New York City. A group calling themselves Physicians for Social Responsibility is trotting out scare tactics to oppose a pipeline compressor station in Weymouth, Massachusetts. One writer calls them the anti-vaxxers of energy. We love it!
Read More “Lib Doctors Opposing MA Compressor the “Anti-Vaxxers” of Energy”
Bray Cary, the EQT board member who refused to leave the administration of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice even though many said he had a conflict of interest by staying, is finally leaving the EQT board in July. We first told you about Cary’s exit last week (see EQT Issues List of Board Nominees; Adopts Universal Proxy Card). Cary had a few comments for the media about his departure.
Read More “WV Gov. Justice’s Top Adviser Bray Cary Leaving EQT Board in July”
The so-called trade war with China has just been ratcheted up a notch–by China. In a move to cut off their own nose to spite their face, the Chinese have hiked tariffs on LNG imports coming into their country from the United States–from a 10% tax to a 25% tax. Given only two LNG cargoes from the U.S. have landed in China this year, we suspect there won’t be any more LNG shipments from us to them for the foreseeable future. Depending on who you talk to, this is either no big deal, or a complete economic disaster for our shale gas industry.
Read More “Will New China Tariffs Hurt Marcellus/Utica LNG Exports?”
Several so-called environmental groups, including one calling itself the Sane Energy Project, converged on Albany, NY yesterday to protest two new natural gas pipeline projects. How many committed, dedicated, climate warriors showed up from these “several” groups? Thousands? Hundreds? How about two dozen. Nobody would have noticed the protest except sycophantic media outlets arrived to plaster the event all over the airwaves (and newsprint). Rather disheartening is that an 11-year-old boy who’s been brainwashed was among the protesters. Of course the media loved it.
Read More “Two Dozen Carbon Breathers Gather in Albany to Protest…Carbon”
OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Natural gas facility restrictions, renovation projects top Longmeadow Town Meeting warrant; Gulf Coast Express set to reshuffle some Permian gas outflows; NATIONAL: Greenhouse deception (video); The new green serfdom; INTERNATIONAL: Fabian Cancellara says criticism of Ineos cycling sponsorship ‘not fair’; Shale industry to be profitable in 2019 – IEA.
Read More “Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, May 14, 2019”
Is Summit Midstream teeing up their Marcellus pipeline gathering system for a sale? Late last week Summit Midstream, which has a meaningful presence in the Marcellus/Utica region, released its first quarter 2019 numbers and held a conference call to discuss the company’s performance. As was the case for fourth quarter and full year 2018 (see Summit Midstream Fires CEO; M-U Volumes, Profits Down in 2018), Summit’s volumes and profits continued a downward trend in 1Q19. However, interim CEO Leonard Mallett says things are about to turn around.
Read More “Summit Midstream: M-U Volumes Decrease; Marcellus for Sale?”
A landowner in Jessup Borough (Lackawanna County, PA, near Scranton) has filed a lawsuit against the Borough Council as a whole (and the individuals who serve on it), claiming they rezoned the landowner’s property, cutting them out of millions of dollars, as retribution because the landowner had the audacity to sell property to the Marcellus gas-fired Lackawanna Energy Center (LEC) power plant.
Read More “Lawsuit: Jessup Board Colluded to Punish Gas Plant Property Seller”
TransCanada, which recently changed its name to TC Energy, is on a mission to sell more natural gas produced in Western Canada to New England and the East Coast of Canada. TC Energy’s Mainline pipeline system, that pretty much spans the continent, has just won its third rate cut by the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB), making Western Canadian gas that much cheaper to cart over 1,000 miles away to markets in the east.
Read More “TC Energy Cuts Rates 3rd Time to Sell W. Canada Gas to New England”
Last week the Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held an informational meeting to hear from the regulated community, including the shale industry, on their experiences with Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) permit review processes. By all accounts legislators (and the DEP) got an earful.
Read More “Shale Industry Challenges PA DEP on Slow Permit Reviews”
Here’s a cool story: Energy Transfer, the company building the Mariner East 2 Pipeline in Pennsylvania, has just committed to funding the Pennsylvania Special Olympics to the tune of $450,000 over the next three years. MDN editor Jim Willis’ wife works with special needs kids, so he has a soft spot for programs like Special Olympics. Jim thought: “Hey, this is a good news story. Surely someone in the media will have picked up the Special Olympics press release by now and published an article about this, right?” Nope. Total media blackout. We couldn’t find a single news outlet that has covered this news, now four days old.
Read More “Energy Transfer Donates $450K to PA Special Olympics – Media Silent”
We’ve covered, extensively, the situation in Westchester County, NY (northern suburb of New York City), where Consolidated Edison has placed a moratorium on new natural gas customer hookups for the next 4+ years (see Moratorium on New Gas Hookups in Westchester County Begins Today). The moratorium has Westchester economic leaders and politicians in a panic (see Westchester County Soiling Itself re NatGas Moratorium). Said leaders and politicians have just formed a “Gas Moratorium Task Force” to search for solutions.
Read More “Westchester County Forms Gas Moratorium Task Force…To Do What?”