https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/us-drillers-add-oil-rigs-for-fifth-straight-month/
Friday, November 30, 2018
US Drillers Add Oil Rigs For Fifth Straight Month
U.S. energy firms this week added oil rigs for a third week in four and increased the rig count for the fifth month in a row, even though oil prices this week fell to their lowest since October 2017. Drillers added two oil rigs in the week to Nov. 30, bringing the total count to 887, Baker Hughes, a GE company (NYSE: BHGE) said in its weekly report. For the month, the rig count was up 12 in November, matching October and its fifth monthly increase in a row.
Mariner East Opponents Continue to Fight Finished Pipeline!
Kurt Knaus
Spokesman
Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance
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Mariner East opponents are fighting an already finished pipeline. One can only conclude they’re doing so to raise money for themselves and future endeavors.
Opponents of the Mariner East projects once again are appealing to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to shutdown both the existing Mariner East 1, which has been operating safely for years, and Mariner East 2, which is expected in service before the end of the year. Opponents claim communities do not have the information they need regarding pipeline safety — a point that has been proven false time and again.
This is a last-ditch effort by opponents to shut down the projects. Unfortunately, the hearing, which got under way this week, will be held before the very same PUC administrative law judge whose highly questionable ruling in May affected ME1, ME2 and ME2x, shutting down operations and construction for weeks until the decisions eventually were overruled and overturned by the full PUC.
Mariner East pipeline route – Lancaster County
If safety is at issue in this case, then the decision should be easy. Here are the facts:
- The pipeline builder annually offers awareness and emergency response training sessions with local responders, officials and excavators across its pipeline system. Last year, more than 2,100 attendees were at meetings in Pennsylvania. A supplemental training effort, the Mariner Emergency Responder Outreach (MERO) program, provided responders with additional guidance on hazardous materials and public safety sources. The MERO program has trained 2,350 individuals since 2013 across the pipeline’s entire footprint.
- Partly because of this work, several jurisdictions already have determined that the pipeline builder has ensured safe construction and community planning requirements.
- More than 29,000 formal comments were submitted and heard at five state hearings held across the pipeline path as part of a review process that stretched more than three years — and safety was a key element on the minds of everyone who testified. Residents and officials at every level have had ample opportunities to provide input on the pipeline — and their voices have been heard, whether about environmental, safety or any other issue.
- Study after study shows that pipelines are the safest, most efficient way to transport energy resources. According to data collected by the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the natural gas delivery system is actually the safest form of energy delivery in the country.
- Pipelines must adhere to strict state and federal regulation throughout pipeline construction, testing and infrastructure replacement to ensure system integrity. Additionally, the Mariner East 2 pipeline is being constructed by skilled union labor, which requires safety training and high-quality standards of performance for its work.
Visit the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance website for more details and background on this and other critical natural gas infrastructure projects.
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https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/mariner-east-opponents-continue-to-fight-finished-pipeline/
Facts & Rumors # 314
Save these 2019 for Shale Directories Seminars
Utica Midstream March 21, 2019 Walsh University North Canton, OH
Upstream PA 2019 April 17, 2019 Penn Stater Conference Center State College, PA
Latest facts and a rumor from the Marcellus, Utica, Permian, Eagle Ford, Bakken and Niobrara Shale Plays
Appalachian Storage Hub Location. I have heard from different sources that the Appalachian Storage Hub will be located in West Virginia. The Parsons Corporation was selected by the Appalachian Development Group to evaluate the five locations identified by the Benedum Study. The two West Virginia locations in the study are located in these counties: one site covers Tyler, Doddridge and Wetzel counties; the other site covers Roane, Jackson, Putnam and Kanawha counties. I’m betting my money on the Roane, Jackson, Putnam and Kanawha counties. (RUMOR) More Permian Consolidation. Multi-billion-dollar acquisitions have made headlines this year, as Concho Resources acquired RSP Permian, and Diamondback Energy is about to complete its purchase of Energen Resources. As the Permian’s unconventional shale play matures and shifts into manufacturing mode, experts said companies will need to scale up to continue their success. That’s an assessment agreed upon by panelists at the recent Executive Oil Conference presented by Hart Energy “Consolidation will continue for the next year, year and a half,” said Mike Marziani, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Tall City Exploration III. He said 10 or 15 names could disappear, “not just in the Permian Basin but across the E&P industry.” While he said that could sound like a negative, “those same dynamics offer opportunities for small companies like us” that can take advantage of the non-core assets shed by the larger companies. James Walter, co-chief executive officer of Colgate Energy LLC, said “the Permian Basin has always had an independent mind set. We’ll see the independents regroup and come back.” Chris Atherton, president, EnergyNet, said activist investors appear to be driving at least some activity in the mergers and acquisitions market. “Activist investors are sable rattling with the public companies, particularly Delaware Basin companies, to divest their lesser acreage,” he said. Added Walter, “Companies are starting to recognize the value of high-grading their portfolios.” Marziani said that some acreage doesn’t meet thresholds where they’re worth selling. His company recently launched its third iteration, backed by up to $500 million in equity financing from the private equity firm Warburg Pincus. “Our team is focused on the Permian Basin, east of the Midland Basin to west of the Delaware Basin and everywhere in between,” he said. “We’re dedicated to new play concepts. The first Tall City leased in Howard County, 60 miles from the Wolfcamp play. We say there are still places to explore.” He said with the Permian offering five to seven benches of drilling inventory, there will be opportunities in the churn of acreage as leases turn over because wells weren’t drilled in a timely manner. He said Tall City’s team also “doesn’t shy away from step outs. We’ll take the fairways; we’ll go places that aren’t leased. We also explore three-dimensionally. This basin has scale, and the fact it still has surprises, offers opportunities.” Walter said Colgate got its start in 2015 putting together a three-section block in Reeves County. As companies consolidate, said Atherton, “You have this behemoth of a company with inventory they won’t get to for 30 years. They can spin that off to other companies.” ETP Going to PA Government to Defend Mariner East 2 Service Date. Energy Transfer LP representatives are heading to Pennsylvania’s capital on Thursday for a hearing before utility regulators to defend the company’s plan to put the Sunoco Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipe into service by year end. Energy Transfer wants to temporarily connect an existing 1930s-era 12-inch (30.5 centimeter) pipe to the parts of its long-delayed 20-inch Mariner East 2 pipeline that it has already completed so it can start transporting liquids for customers. Those customers have been waiting for more than a year to ship liquids on Mariner East 2. When Energy Transfer first started working on the $2.5 billion project in February 2017, it had planned to put the 350-mile (563-kilometer) pipe into service in the third quarter of 2017. Mariner East 2 and another Energy Transfer project, the Rover natural gas pipe from Ohio to Michigan, were delayed over the past year in part because the projects together racked up more than 800 state and federal permit violations while the company raced to build them. Those opposed to Energy Transfer’s plans for Mariner East 2 asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to stop construction on Mariner East 2 and also stop the company from transporting liquids on the existing Mariner East 1 pipeline. The administrative law judge at the PUC scheduled to hear the case on Thursday is Elizabeth Barnes, the same judge who heard a case earlier this year that sought to stop the Mariner East project. In that case, Judge Barnes ordered Energy Transfer to stop transporting gas on Mariner East 1 and stop work on Mariner East 2 in West Whiteland Township after sinkholes were discovered near the pipeline. In the latest case, seven residents of Delaware and Chester Counties in southeast Pennsylvania argued Energy Transfer did “not provide adequate notice of procedures sufficient to ensure the safety of the public in the event of a leak or rupture.” In response, Energy Transfer spokeswoman Lisa Dillinger said in an email “We do not believe the claim is valid...The integrity of our Mariner East 1 and 2 pipelines has been verified in the last few months” by state and federal regulators. Mariner East transports liquids from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields in western Pennsylvania to customers in the state and elsewhere, including international exports from Energy Transfer’s Marcus Hook complex near Philadelphia. Cyber Security Importance. A hot topic of discussion in companies today is cyber security -- and the energy industry is not immune to all the issues that revolve around cyber security, according to Jim McGlone, chief marketing officer of Virginia-based Kenexis Consulting. Cyber security is a global issue that affects everyone, he said, addressing the audience at the all-day program entitled "Kallanish New Horizons: Appalachian Basin," presented Thursday at the Southpointe Business Park, south of Pittsburgh, presented by Kallanish Energy. “It’s complicated, changing, global and uncertain. Everyone has the problem. It’s a challenge,” McGlone said. “It’s ever-changing and there really isn’t an answer.” There are, he said, lots of "nasty" people in the world who are willing to "mess with you and your company for reasons that often cannot be explained," he said. McGlone, a certified industrial cybersecurity professional, suggested basic steps conference attendees could take to boost their own cyber security, and alternatives they might consider. That includes microprocessor-based switches and other non-hackable safeguards. And changing the password for their in-home router. He also questioned whether it is really necessary to connect everything via computer systems that could be hacked. Winter Gas Markets Rig Higher (Thank you, BTU Analytics) At the end of August 2018, the level of concern about the upcoming winter seemed muted as the December 2018 Henry Hub futures contract traded around $3 despite the fact that US gas storage levels were about 600 Bcf behind the 5-year average at the time. The consensus view could be summarized as new pipeline capacity was coming online in fall 2018 which would allow producers to grow supply to meet winter demand. Fast forward to November 14, 2018 and new pipelines are online (Nexus and Atlantic Sunrise, for example) and production has grown (Appalachia pipeline production receipt flow samples have consistently sustained over 30 plus Bcf/d this week). But, like the flick of a switch as the winter gas market rips higher, we are in a demand driven winter gas market where the Henry Hub prompt futures is up over $1.30 this week to $4.80 per MMBtu today. Gone is the summer 2018 gas market where pipeline constraints limited supply area growth, while supply area basis was weak and summer demand was met with futures not budging above $3 per MMBtu. In the current market, demand has grown faster than producers can respond with production gains. What has changed in the market going into winter 2018-2019? Supply, demand, and pipe capacity have all grown. As shown below, monthly modeled supply has grown across many supply basins year-over-year, with Appalachia leading the way at 4.0 Bcf/d thanks in part due to new pipe capacity. The challenge is demand has also structurally moved higher.
Looking at a demand sample (deliveries off of interstate pipelines) of regional demand by facility type, comparing November 2017 vs 2018, the 4.0 Bcf/d of Appalachian production growth is being soaked up by 3.4 Bcf/d of either Appalachian demand or adjacent regional demand to Appalachia, as shown in green below. The Southeast power, LDC and Atlantic Seaboard LNG (Cove Point) components represent the three largest year-over-year gains.
With Transco connecting Appalachia, the Atlantic Seaboard, and the Southeast, we can see below the impact on pipeline flows as winter demand has ramped up. Atlantic Sunrise started service October 6, 2018 and the increased volumes can be seen as flows south at the Virginia-North Carolina border approached 2 Bcf/d. As the recent ramp in demand has started (and note we are only talking about ‘November cold’ here) flows south on Transco have dropped by about 700 Mcf/d.
It seems the market finally cares about the 600 plus Bcf storage deficit to the five-year average and how much producers can ramp supply going into winter as the winter 2018-2019 strip is now priced over $4.50 per MMBtu, while the summer strip 2019 is below $2.80 per MMBtu. What does this mean as we roll into the peak winter months of January and February? How much inventory are producers carrying into winter? To access BTU Analytics’ view on Henry Hub and basis pricing, subscribe to the Northeast Gas Outlook service.
Important PA Supreme Court Ruling. Justices to decide whether rule of capture applies to fracking. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is set to determine whether the rule of capture, which precludes trespass liability for drillers where oil and gas drains from surrounding lands in the course of conventional extraction from an underground pool, applies where shale gas is extracted through hydraulic fracturing. In an apparent case of first impression, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled earlier this year that it does not. On Nov. 20, the high court issued a one-page order agreeing to consider a single question on appeal: “Does the rule of capture apply to oil and gas produced from wells that were completed using hydraulic fracturing and preclude trespass liability for allegedly draining oil or gas from under nearby property, where the well is drilled solely on and beneath the driller’s own property and the hydraulic fracturing fluids are injected solely on or beneath the driller’s own property? “The case has drawn heavy amicus interest from industry organizations including the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the American Exploration & Production Council, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association, the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the American Petroleum Institute.
Real Trouble for Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has suspended a national permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross more than 1,500 streams in three states, raising a potential new barrier for construction of the project through Virginia. About half of the 600-mile pipeline would be built in Virginia from West Virginia to North Carolina, but Dominion Energy and its partners are still waiting for federal regulators to allow them to proceed with construction here. The Army Corps’ offices in Norfolk, Wilmington, N.C., and Pittsburgh issued orders late Tuesday to suspend the Nationwide 12 permit’s use for the project’s stream crossings. Dominion spokeswoman Jen Kostyniuk said the company had voluntarily offered to suspend the permit for all three states while attempting to resolve issues from a decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month. In that decision, the court issued a temporary stay of the permit for stream and river crossings in West Virginia.
ExxonMobil Using Renewables for Electricity in the Permian. Exxon has inked a 12-year deal with Danish renewable energy company Orsted to buy 500 MW of electricity produced by solar and wind farms to power its oil production in the Permian, Bloomberg reports.
Although the terms of the contract remained undisclosed, it is the largest such contract featuring an oil company as a party, Bloomberg new Energy Finance commented.
“We frequently evaluate opportunities to diversify our power supply and ensure competitive costs,” Exxon spokeswoman Julie King told Bloomberg in a statement. The company has been the target of a lot of criticism—and lawsuits—regarding its attitude to climate change and renewable energy use. Yet now that solar and wind power is becoming cheaper and demand for the commodity in the Permian is soaring, the time is apparently right for Exxon to start changing.
The electricity Exxon will be buying from Orsted will be produced at two farms, one solar and one wind—both which are still under construction. The Sage Draw wind farm will be completed in 2020 and the Permian Solar farm will be launched in 2021.
The Permian is the shale play where production is growing the fastest and with it demand for electricity is growing, too. Bloomberg reports that just one part of the Permian, the Delaware Basin, consumed 350 MW of electricity this summer, which was triple the consumption three years ago. This amount is enough to power almost 300,000 households and it is set for another triple increase, according to utilities, in the next four years.
New FERC Commissioner. A Senate committee has voted to confirm fossil fuel advocate and Department of Energy staffer Bernard McNamee to a vacancy on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Kallanish Energy reports.
On Tuesday, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 13-10 to approve McNamee’s nomination by President Trump.
McNamee’s nomination was approved by the committee’s 12 Republicans plus U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, Democrat-West Virginia.
The nomination now goes to the full U.S. Senate and a vote is possible before Dec. 31.
McNamee is a former anti-renewables activist who did pro-fossil fuel work at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank that has opposed wind power projects.
He also worked on the Department of Energy’s controversial coal and nuclear bailout plan that was rejected by Ferc last January. That plan has strong support within the Trump administration.
OH EPA Seeking Input on PTTGC Permit. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public input on a second permit for the proposed ethane cracker plant at Shadyside in Eastern Ohio’s Belmont County.
The agency will hold a public information session Dec. 12 on draft modifications to the wastewater discharge permit for the $6 billion petrochemical complex proposed by PTT Global Chemical America. A public hearing will immediately follow the first session that night.
The Epa said the modifications to the wastewater permit would decrease the levels of pollutants released into the Ohio River, change the locations from which storm water will be discharged and modifies the limits at an internal monitoring station that does not directly discharge to the surface water.
The Ohio draft permit is available for public review at the agency’s district office in Logan, Ohio. The Epa will accept comment on the draft wastewater permit through Dec. 19. They may be submitted at epa.dswcomments@epa.ohio.gov.
Thailand-based PTT has not yet made a final investment decision on the Ohio ethane cracker.
It is also seeking an air permit from the Ohio Epa. A public hearing was held last night (Nov. 27) in Shadyside.
The plant, if approved and if built, annually would produce 1.5 million tons of ethylene and other materials. The plant would use six ethane cracking furnaces and manufacture ethylene, high-quality polyethylene and linear low-density polyethylene.
The EPA will accept public comment on the draft air permit through Dec. 11. Comments may be sent to Kimbra.reinbold@epa.ohio.gov.
Earlier this year, PTT approved an agreement with a subsidiary of Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd., a leading Korean construction and chemical company, to conduct a feasibility study and to secure funding for the Ohio petrochemical complex.
PTT Global Chemical America is a subsidiary of PTT Global Chemical, Thailand’s largest integrated petrochemical company.
Royal Dutch Shell is building a similar ethane cracker in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh.
The plants would take ethane from drilling in the Utica and Marcellus shales and turn it into ethylene and polyethylene for making plastics.
Permian NatGas at $0. Permian natural gas markets felt a cold shiver this week, but not a meteorologically induced one of the type running through other regional markets. Gas marketers braced as prices for Permian natural gas skidded toward a new threshold: zero! That's not basis, but absolute price, a long-anticipated possibility that became a reality on Monday. The cause is very likely driven, in our view, by continued associated gas production growth poured into a region that won't see new greenfield pipeline capacity for at least 10 months. What happens next isn't clear, but expect Permian gas market participants to be a little excitable or jittery the next few months. In today's blog, "Keep Breathin' - Sky Falls For Permian Gas Prices on Cyber Monday," Jason Ferguson reviews this latest complication for Permian natural gas markets.
Mountain Valley Completion Still 4th Qtr. 2019. EQM Midstream Partners LP said on Wednesday it still expected to complete the $4.6 billion Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia in the fourth quarter of 2019 despite a legal opinion explaining why an appeals court vacated a water permit for the project.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued the opinion late Tuesday explaining why it sided with environmental groups in October and decided to vacate the so-called Nationwide Permit 12 that allows the pipeline to cross rivers in West Virginia.
In the opinion, the court said the project’s proposed construction methods violated a special condition put forward by West Virginia, requiring stream crossings to be completed within 72 hours.
The court also pointed to another special condition requiring projects to obtain state water quality certification for pipelines bigger than 36 inches (91.4 centimeters) in diameter. Mountain Valley has a 42-inch pipeline.
West Virginia is in the process of modifying the special conditions to allow Mountain Valley and another gas pipe, Dominion Energy Inc.’s Atlantic Coast, to move forward.
Analysts at Height Capital Markets in Washington said they expect West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection to issue the modified special conditions by the end of year, allowing Mountain Valley to seek a new permit from the Army Corps.
Joe Barone jbarone@shaledirectories.com
610.764.1232
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Recent Reports Are Clear: U.S. Air Quality is Improving
Air quality in the United States is improving at the same time U.S. oil and natural gas production has skyrocketed, according to two reports issued this month. As one of the reports from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) summed it up:
“Over the past 50 years, the U.S. has achieved robust economic growth while dramatically reducing emissions of harmful air pollutants.”
Read the full post on EIDClimate.org.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/recent-reports-are-clear-u-s-air-quality-is-improving/
Marcellus Shale Gas Is the Leverage Needed to Curb Russian Aggression
Flaster Greenberg PC
Our Marcellus Shale gas from Pennsylvania and West Virginia provides the LNG leverage needed by Europeans to curb Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The simmering dispute over waterway rights between Ukraine and Russia broke into armed conflict this week. Its implications are enormous both for the energy world as a whole and especially for us in the Marcellus Shale region. But some background is required to appreciate the connection.
New bridge over Kerch Strait
Briefly, when Vladimir Putin seized the Crimea in 2014 he gained control of the Kerch Strat, which cuts off the sea lanes from Southeastern Ukraine between the Azov Sea and the Black Sea. Until 2014, Russia had controlled the eastern shore of the Kerch Strait but Ukraine had controlled the west. The two countries had reached an agreement in 2003 allowing for shared access of the Kerch Strait and the Azov Sea. However, Russia’s military and political moves in Crimea in 2014 changed that.
Eager to connect the Crimea to the Russian mainland, Putin ordered the building of a 12 mile bridge over the Kerch Strait after the annexation, which he formally opened himself this year in May by driving a truck across it. Russia then placed more armed vessels in the waters around the bridge. The Russians claimed they needed better security. In practice, the extra traffic increased delays to ships trying to access and use the Ukrainian ports on the Azov Sea, increasing the costs of doing business there and undermining the utility of these ports in international trade.
Ukraine responded with a military show of force, but this was overwhelmed by Russian naval power. Russia then used the supports of the bridge, which had been built at a strategic distance, to permit its own warships to blockade the Ukrainian ports. Weaker militarily, Ukraine has few cards left to play and access to its Azov Sea ports is now very much under Russian de facto control.
As I noted in July, during the controversy over the Nord Stream II pipeline that Germany is building with Russia and which will bypass Ukraine and Poland, Ukraine currently gets over 2% of its GDP from transfer payments for the trans-shipments of Russian gas and oil to Western Europe. Thanks to Angela Merkel, that transport route may become irrelevant. Nord Stream II brings Putin’s dreams of Russia once again dominating Eastern Europe one step closer.
However, more than just Ukraine’s loss of access to its ports and its lost revenue from diverted oil and gas trans-shipments, thanks to this new pipeline Russia can cut off energy supplies to Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic States any time it wishes, without worrying that Western Europe will react harshly as their supplies are also cut off. While economically in the short term this direct pipeline access to Russian gas and oil may be better for Germany, Nord Stream II is a geo-political disaster due to its implications for further expansion of Russian power and influence over former Soviet states, if not more globally.
For these reasons, President Trump was right in calling the Germans out on the new pipeline at the NATO summit in July. However, the President has not been forthcoming with an appropriate condemnation of Russia’s actions, leaving our allies confused and leaving UN Secretary Nikki Haley to act as the lone Voice of America while the President – inexplicably but not unexpectedly – dithers on calling Putin out for what is obviously going on.
Meanwhile, with Putin again showing his aggressive nature, the rest of the West is scrambling. Cyprus, Israel, Greece and Italy agreed this week to build a $7B pipeline for the Eastern Mediterranean from the Leviathan Field in the Mediterranean Sea. Germany, perhaps belatedly realizing the folly of putting all of its energy eggs in Putin’s basket, now is partnering with Dow Chemical also to build a liquefied natural gas import facility in the German city of Strade, near Hamburg.
Who will supply the gas to feed Western Europe should Russia turn out to be unreliable or if Nord Stream II becomes another pawn on Putin’s chess board to regained Soviet dominance?
It could and should be us from right here in the Marcellus.
By building out our pipeline system in the US, we can supply Strade and other future European gas import terminals, thereby helping thwart Putin’s aggression, and projecting American “soft power” – which is what critics of an aggressive American foreign policy often demand. At the very least, this will help keep American troops out of harm’s way, but it could also serve as a geopolitical foil to Russia’s attempts to use its energy largesse for political, military, and evident expansion purposes.
Will we have the political will to do it?
In order to do so, the natural gas industry in this country must first recognize the strategic reasons why this is important which, in turn, requires understanding the interconnections between domestic energy policy, international trade, and political, military, and diplomatic events in far away places.
Few Americans presently understand how Russian moves in the Azov Sea could eventually end up causing young men and women in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and elsewhere to be sent overseas in military uniforms. Fewer still comprehend how the pipeline build out and export terminals in this country can help (1) secure our future militarily while simultaneously (2) creating good jobs for people in our region and (3) decreasing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. None will understand if they are not told.
Tom Wolf just won reelection handily as Governor of Pennsylvania. He is no friend of the natural gas industry. Unlike his counterparts in New York and Maryland, however, he hasn’t moved to try to shut it down. There will be more pressure on him to do so now that the National Climate Assessment has been released.
Wolf, though, lives in the real world. He must perform for Pennsylvanians. Strange as it sounds, the Governor and the industry need each other. The gas industry has to provide him with the explanation as to why working with the it not only is in Wolf’s own best interests politically but is also in the best interests of all Pennsylvanians, and indeed all Americans. Somehow this message has not gotten through as forcefully as it should.
Further, our newly elected representatives from the Marcellus States in their state legislatures and in the United States Congress must understand – and not be hesitant to educate the public about – the international dynamic. Some, like Chrissy Houlahan of my home district in Southeastern Pennsylvania, are military veterans who have dealt with the intricacies of international relations. Others are untested. It will be up to all of them to work to keep American men and women safe. It will be up to all of us involved with the industry to explain how it can be instrumental – indeed, strategically essential – in doing so.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin will be watching, waiting, and planning his next chess move.
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Daniel B. Markind has over 35 years of experience as a real estate and corporate transactional attorney. During that time, he has represented some of the largest companies in the United States in sophisticated purchase, sale, financing, leasing, zoning and land use, workout and development matters. .
The post Marcellus Shale Gas Is the Leverage Needed to Curb Russian Aggression appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
NFG Asks FERC for Extra 3 Yrs to Build Northern Access Pipe in NY
The Crocodile Turns: Rockefeller 350 Gang Goes Full Extremist on Cuomo
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
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Bill McKibben’s 350 gang has been a Rockefeller deal from the start. Andy Cuomo fed the crocodile but his usefulness is over and it has turned on him.
Bill McKibben is always identified as the founder of 350.org, now often simply referred to as 350. The reality is that it’s a Rockefeller enterprise with a little help from the Park Foundation. Jay Halfon, the Fractivist Rasputin, is on the boards of not only 350 but also the Park and Sustainable Markets Foundation.
McKibben is simply a crafty figurehead who knows how to talk in circles and impress dunderheads; a great front man. He’s also always appealed to what some might naively call reason in a superficial preachy sort of a way, while encouraging a little violence on the side. Now, he’s dropping all pretense and going after Andrew Cuomo. Andy’s Rockefeller paymasters have turned on the guy. He tried feeding the crocodile with a fracking ban and pipeline kills but his usefulness is more or less over and the croc has now turned toward him.
Photo from 350 site bragging about their arrests
All you need to do to understand what I’m talking about is to visit two websites brought to my attention by a regular reader. They’re both 350 sites. The official 350.org site is increasingly radical but it’s the gofossilfree.org site where things go full extremist and, especially so, at the New York chapter site. Check it out and you’ll find this (emphasis added):
In September, we shut down Third Avenue in front of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s NYC office to send a clear message: we demand a Fossil Free New York. Here’s how you can join the fight. By, Lindsay Meiman, native New Yorker and US Communications Coordinator with 350.org…
That’s why on September 7, I once again put my body on the line to risk arrest and shut down Third Avenue outside Governor Cuomo’s office. In the absence of federal leadership, it’s up to our cities and states to step up to the plate with bold climate solutions. I took action because Governor Cuomo’s half-measures and lip service will lead to inevitable chaos and destruction for my generation and our future…
Today, we had our day in court, and the work ahead has never been more clear: New Yorkers need Governor Andrew Cuomo to walk the talk on climate, and take action at scale with the crisis. That means: (1) no fossil fuel projects, especially fracking infrastructure; (2) a just transition to 100% renewables; and (3) make corporate polluters and divest from fossil fuels.
New Yorkers know the destruction of climate change all too well. Six years after Superstorm Sandy too many of us are still recovering and rebuilding — while still vulnerable to inevitable future storms.
Governor Cuomo has said “you are what you build,” and we agree. Yet despite heeding the calls of New Yorkers to ban fracking and supporting our pension funds divesting from fossil fuels, Cuomo continues to allow fracked gas pipelines and power plants to wreak havoc on our communities. Under his watch, New York has less than 5% of our energy coming from safe and renewable sources like solar and wind. And despite opposing offshore drilling and investing in offshore wind, Cuomo has failed make climate justice a priority, allowing fossil fuel cronies to keep a stranglehold over our politics and economy…
Each one of us has a role to play in building a New York that works for all. The fight ahead in 2019 will require more escalation, more arrests, more picketing and more direct action to have our voices break through and get Cuomo to act.
This whole thing could be nothing more than political orchestration to give cover to Cuomo, but I suspect not. Bill McKibben and his fake 350 group have ramped things up in a way that tells me they know Corruptocrat’s usefulness is nearing an end and, so, they’ve turned on him and are in the process of making him the enemy.
He fed the croc by putting NRDC/Rockefeller gang member Joe Martens in as DEC Commissioner to kill fracking and faithfully following gang instructions to squelch pipeline projects. But, they know what they’re dealing with; a corrupt politician more interested in graft than their special interest politics and they’re not about to pay him. They’ll eat him instead.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Ensign Energy Tender Gets Over 50% Of Trinidad Shares, Precision Ends Bid
Canada’s oilfield services provider Ensign Energy Services Inc. said on Nov. 27 about 56% of Trinidad Drilling Ltd.’s shares have been tendered in its hostile offer, with rival bidder Precision Drilling Corp. walking away. Precision and Trinidad’s shares both closed up more than 2.5%, while Ensign ended down 8.8%. Ensign said the tendered shares helped meet the statutory minimum condition for its C$947-million hostile offer. The company now owns 66.18% of Trinidad shares, including stock in the company it previously owned.
The Failures of Corporatism on Display as Amazon Deals and Volt Dies
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
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There seems to be ever more corporatism these days—the use if government to advance special interests—and its failures are becoming ever more evident.
The Chevy Volt is dead and the Amazon deal is already in deep political trouble. Corporatism invariably fails because government is lousy picking winners and losers compared to the market. There is a great lesson in these two seemingly unrelated developments. It is that every big investment in corporatism is a likely future fiasco and it is always better to simply let markets work. That doesn’t generate graft, though, and so it continues, especially in the world of energy and environment.
Carrying taxpayer cash to Jeff Bezos, world’s richest man, courtesy of Andrew Cuomo?
No one can be blamed for imagining Andrew Cuomo should have learned something from the Buffalo Billion boondoggle and the SolarCity/Tesla hucksterism. Most people don’t know Andrew Cuomo, though. He’s arrogant, he’s greedy and he’s not especially smart. He supposes he can get away with anything and ever more so now following the election. He’s doubling down on the corporatism with the Amazon deal but it’s gone over like a lead balloon, as my father liked to say. Check out this aol.com story:
After Amazon announced Queens, New York and Arlington, Virginia as the locations for its HQ2, many residents in both cities have voiced their opposition to the decision.
The announcement came after months of bidding wars between U.S. cities, with multiple locations offering billion-dollar tax-breaks and the ability to potentially dodge strenuous land-review processes. In New York, specifically, officials agreed upon giving the tech giant $1.525 billion in direct incentives. In addition to the tax-breaks and special privileges the company will receive, the deal would give away multiple sites slated to provide 1,500 units of affordable housing in Queens — and New Yorkers are not pleased.
Amid growing backlash against what residents are calling the #HQ2Scam and #NoAmazonNYC, prominent community-based organizations across the city have come together to hold a day of action against Amazon.
This picking of a downstate winner over fracking, which would have been an upstate winner, is already looking like a loser unless you’re Andrew Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo knew the natural gas industry didn’t need any subsidies so there was nothing in it for him—no graft of either the honest or dishonest sort and nothing with which to pander.
Amazon, of course, wanted to be in New York City anyway, but it conned both him and his mortal enemy, the thrice-named commie Mayor, into giving away the store. The price will be revealed later in some form of graft and will amount to nothing in comparison to the New York taxpayer money they gave away to Amazon. Meanwhile, the Southern Tier continues to die for lack of an industry that required nothing but a semi-reasonable set of regulations.
The demise of the Volt provides another poignant example of corporatism. Here are the basics via UberGizmo:
As sales struggle to pick up, General Motors today announced that it’s ending production of the Chevy Volt, its plug-in hybrid vehicle. Production of the car will cease on March 1st, 2019. It’s part of a wider plan by the auto giant to reduce production in North America…
General Motors is executing its plan to stop production of a few brands that are not selling well…
This is the biggest restructuring that General Motors has performed in North America ever since its bankruptcy about a decade ago. Investors seemed to like the decisions announced as the company’s shares rose 7.6 percent soon after the news became public.
The Volt was heavily subsidized and featured as a highlight of the government bailout of GM, but trying to sell something the government pushed but customers didn’t proved too difficult even under these favored conditions. Moreover, savvy folks realized an electric car is still a car powered by whatever fuel is used to generate the electricity, namely coal, nuclear, hydroelectric facilities (dams) or, more often than not, natural gas, so why spend the money only making it more complicated.
I was reminded of this yesterday when visiting a government office a couple of miles away from the newly operating CPV Valley Energy power plant in Orange County, New York. I parked alongside an electric vehicle. I think, in retrospect, it was a Volt but didn’t notice at the time. It was plugged into an electric charging station. That energy, in other words, was almost certainly produced by natural gas made next door.
That’s a good thing in many respects, but why go through the hassle and subsidize it just to make a few people feel good about themselves? The charging station could only handle one vehicle at a time and there were 50+/- other cars in the parking lot. It turns out most of us simply aren’t interested in paying extra for a car that is over-priced, subsidized by our friends and generally inconvenient. The Volt turned out to be a corporatist lemon.
Parody advertisement created by Ed Driscoll
Such is the nature of so much of the renewable “green energy” economy. It is pure corporatism everywhere you look. The Simons family, hedge-funders all, is financing the Energy Foundation and every other major fractivist group out of charity. They’re invested in this corporatism, just as so many other fractivist enablers. They want government to reward them the way New York is rewarding Amazon and the Federal government rewarded GM. This is dead-end economic policy compared to natural gas development that continues, without government help, to lift up economies everywhere.
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The post The Failures of Corporatism on Display as Amazon Deals and Volt Dies appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
Monday, November 26, 2018
San Francisco and Oakland Fire #ExxonKnew Attorney, Hire His Rivals
In a news dump the day before Thanksgiving, the cities of San Francisco and Oakland appeared to drop the plaintiffs’ attorney firm representing them in their lawsuits against energy companies and replaced them with the rival law firm of Sher Edling. The decision comes after multiple losses in federal court for the litigation team that helped the cities bring these suits.
Continue reading at EID Climate.
Making the Environmental Case for Natural Gas Is Simply Imperative
Flaster Greenberg PC
Dan Markind says the natural gas industry has a good hand environmentally, but needs to do a better job of making the environmental case for natural gas.
On Black Friday, the Trump Administration released Volume II of the National Climate Assessment. Running 1,600 pages, the report is the second volume of the fourth National Climate Assessment, which was mandated by Congress in the late 1980’s and is required to be prepared every four years by scientists from 13 designated government agencies. It is being referred to as NCA4 Vol. II.
According to initial press headlines, the warnings contained in NCA4 Vol. II are dire. They include:
- The “earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities.”
- Average sea levels along the United States coast have increased by about 10 inches since the early 20th century as the oceans have warmed and land ice has melted.
- More than 100 million people in the United States live in places with poor air quality – and climate change will “worsen existing air pollution levels.”
- Climate change will “disrupt many areas of life” by affecting trade and exacerbating overseas conflicts.
It is conceivable the initial press reports will turn out to be exaggerated and the actual language in NCA4 Vol. II is more nuanced than what has been reported. This Update specifically is being written before full examination of the 1,600 pages can be made, although we will certainly correct any errors or omissions in what the press has written about the Assessment as soon as a more fulsome review of the report is possible.
However, for most members of the public, the press reports may be the only information that they will ever receive about the Assessment because it is unlikely that most people will take the time to pore over 1,600 pages of dense text. They will only remember headlines like those listed above.
Whether fair or not, this is the environment that the natural gas industry finds itself in during 2018. It must adapt to that reality. While the industry can, and should, pick apart reports and assessments, including NCA4 Vol. II, to the extent that they contain erroneous data or jump to conclusions unwarranted by the evidence, the industry must realize the impact that the overall public mindset has on national, state, and local energy policy and initiatives.
To that end, the industry needs to recalibrate its message. For too long, what little public relations the industry as a whole has engaged in has concentrated almost only on the economic benefits of natural gas to consumers. While certainly not inaccurate, that overly simple message no longer will carry the day. The economic argument now is framed as: “We all can spend $X for energy which will destroy our planet, or we can spend $X time Y and save our planet. Nobody likes paying higher costs for anything, but if it will save our children’s futures, why shouldn’t we do it?”
It is imperative for the industry now to do two things. First, it must concentrate on the environmental case for natural gas, both over other fossil fuels and until so-called renewable energy becomes more universally available. The natural gas industry has a terrific story to tell, but it needs to tell it. The public does not know what the industry has not told it. America leads the world in greenhouse gas reductions since the fracking revolution. We’re producing massive new quantities of oil and gas, yet our greenhouse gas emissions have dropped over 10% to levels not seen since the 1980’s.
There is no harm in admitting that natural gas may not be the be all and end all of energy use to save the planet, but as a bridge fuel it is unsurpassed. If, as NCA4 Vol II states, we must do something positive fast for the environment to lessen any climate change impacts, there is no better way than to build out the natural gas pipeline infrastructure. This will allow the massive switch from coal to natural gas to occur as quickly as possible.
Second, the industry must point out, gently, that currently there is no feasible alternative. All proposals to power our economy via renewables still are speculative at best. Even if it can be done, we are decades away from a realistic plan to power the world with net neutral sources. Germany is a great example of this. In 2010 it refined its renewable energy policy to limit most, if not all, power projects not involving renewables.
Despite this, over the last few years, German carbon emissions have increased, not decreased. Now, desperate for energy, Germany is helping the Russians build a new pipeline directly to Germany and it is involved with Dow Chemical to erect a new liquefied natural gas power plant in Strade. Good intentions are one thing. NCA4 Vol. II makes it clear they are not enough.
If the industry truly believes in itself and what it’s doing, it should take up the challenge. Engage on the playing field where the battle is taking place. Target our message to the mindset of the audience, and don’t be afraid to amid there are things we don’t know. Despite NCA4 Vol. II’s warnings, fossil fuels will be with us for decades more, at least. Wishful thinking about promoting more renewables will not change that stark reality.
Until such time as renewables can effectively and completely power our modern economy, we all will benefit from clear headed policies that encourage increased natural gas development, transportation and usage while simultaneously establishing a priority to develop and implement a nationwide renewable energy strategy. Isn’t that really what we all should want?
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Daniel B. Markind has over 35 years of experience as a real estate and corporate transactional attorney. During that time, he has represented some of the largest companies in the United States in sophisticated purchase, sale, financing, leasing, zoning and land use, workout and development matters. .
The post Making the Environmental Case for Natural Gas Is Simply Imperative appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Clashing With Trump, US Government Report Says Climate Change Will Batter Economy
Climate change will cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century, hitting everything from health to infrastructure, according to a government report issued on Nov. 23 that the White House called inaccurate. The congressionally mandated report, written with the help of more than a dozen U.S. government agencies and departments, outlined the projected impact of global warming on every corner of American society in a dire warning that is at odds with the Trump administration's pro-fossil-fuels agenda.
Mariner East Opponents and Usual Suspects Do Hail Mary Pass Attempt
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)
Mariner East opponents are trying one last time, with a Hail Mary pass attempt, to stop pipeline development with the aid of Clean Air Council friends.
Seven antis from Greater Philadelphia, with money and lawyers from Big Green groups backing them, on Monday asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to shut down Mariner East 1 pipeline (which has operating for more than a year), and to block the startup of Mariner East 2 pipeline. The chutzpah of these people is breathtaking.
To put it in perspective, Chester and Delaware Counties, which is where the seven antis hail from, has a combined population of 1,083,989 people (as of 2017). Seven people represents .0006% of the population. Meaning 99.999% of the population either don’t care, or are not against these pipeline projects.
Both ME1 and ME2 carry natural gas liquids (NGLs)–meaning ethane and propane–from the western side of PA across the state to Delaware County and the Marcus Hook refinery. From the very beginning there have been a committed few (with the help of Big Green) fighting the ME2 project every inch of the way.
They’ve thrown everything they have at it–multiple lawsuits, pleas to regulatory agencies, legislative hearings, illegal protests–you name it, they’ve done it. This latest action appears to be a last gasp, “Hail Mary” attempt at convincing a regulatory agency to stop both pipelines. Which isn’t going to happen. Here’s the story from StateImpactPA:
Seven residents of Chester and Delaware Counties are asking the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to stop Sunoco operating its controversial Mariner East pipelines, saying the company has failed to give the public enough information about what to do in the event of a leak of volatile natural gas liquids.
The residents filed a petition for emergency relief on Monday, seeking to immediately shut down Mariner East 1, which is already carrying NGLs, and to block the startup of a new pipeline that the company calls the Mariner East 2, and plans to begin operating by the end of this year.
The emergency petition urges the PUC to stop operations of both pipelines until it holds a hearing on the matter. An accompanying “Notice to Defend” asks the PUC to permanently prevent operation of the pipelines, saying the project violates three state laws on the safe operation of utilities, and arguing that the PUC has a legal obligation to ensure pipeline safety.
Complainants say “workaround pipeline” puts them at risk
The complainants argue that the new pipelines threaten public safety because of the highly explosive nature of the materials they will carry, and that Sunoco has not adequately warned the public on how to respond to any escape of NGLs.
They use the term “workaround pipeline” to refer to Sunoco’s current Mariner East 2 line, which will consist of sections of 20-inch and 16-inch pipe plus a temporarily repurposed 12-inch pipe. The 12-inch line was built in the 1930s and has a history of leaks including the escape of 33,000 gallons of gasoline into Darby Creek near Philadelphia in June this year.
Sunoco and its parent company, Energy Transfer, had to utilize other sections of pipe to complete the Mariner East 2 after safety and environmental accidents delayed completion of the line through the Philadelphia suburbs.
“ME1 is being operated, and the workaround pipeline is about to be operated, without an adequate emergency notification system or legally adequate emergency management plan,” the petition says, adding that the residents are “at imminent risk of catastrophic and irreparable loss, including loss of life, serious injury to life, and damage to their homes and property.”
The complainants, four from Delaware County and three from Chester County, say they have standing to file the petition because they live within a few hundred feet of either ME1 or the “workaround” sections of the ME2 pipeline; have children who attend schools near the pipeline; live close enough that they might have to be evacuated in the event of a leak, and regularly travel on roads near both pipelines.
Here’s a copy of the PUC filing.
Editor’s Note: What’s especially interesting about this filing is the name of the lawyer representing the petitioners in this case. His name is Michael Bomstein. He has a very cozy relationship with the Clean Air Council. Indeed, his son Alex is Senior Litigator with the group, as Jim pointed out in this earlier post. Here’s a clip of him talking about some of his work for Mariner East opponents (he’s one of them, too, being a local NIMBY himself).
So, what we have here is a family affair. The Clean Air Council has been a vicious opponent of the Mariner East projects and Michael Bomstein’s son just happens to work for them. They’ve launched lawsuits together, in fact, against Mariner East. The latest lawsuit is just a continuation of that battle.
And, look whose promoting it; StateImpactPA with the article excerpted above. Jon Hurdle, in fact, put out a 1,600 word piece embellishing the lawsuit every way he could on November 20 and, as of this morning, it’s still at the top of the heap on the StateImpactPA website.
StateImpactPA, of course, is funded by two Haas family foundations and the Heinz Endowments. The Haas and Heinz families are Pennsylvania’s twin pillars of plutocracy; one representing Philadelphia and the other Pittsburgh. Not so coincidentally, they both also fund the Clean Air Council and Alex Bomstein’s job, as well as Jon Hurdle’s. And, Jon Hurdle just happens to decide he ought to pen 1,600 words extolling Alex’s father’s lawsuit.
This is corruption in one its many low-level forms. StateImpactPA and the Clean Air Council are both shills for the Pennsylvania’s gentry class. It is also revealing how incredibly stupid these folks imagine the rest of us are. Following my remarks several weeks ago to the Pennsylvania Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, the record shows the committee apparently received a complaint about my testimony from StateImpactPA. I addressed it here and noted the grants made by the Haas family to them to hype “threats to water quality.”
StateImpactPA.in fact, went so far as to say “Neither Heinz, nor any of StateImpact Pennsylvania’s other funders, nor any groups or organizations funded by the foundations Mr. Shepstone cites, have any say or influence over our news coverage.” That’s like running a store and wanting the gullible to believe you don’t pay any attention to the needs and wants of your best customer. It’s ludicrous on its face. What we see with this latest effort is one last coordinated effort by the shills for Haas and Heinz to squelch Mariner East projects.
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The post Mariner East Opponents and Usual Suspects Do Hail Mary Pass Attempt appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Asian LNG Prices Dragged Down By Oil Slide, Heavy Supply
Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) tumbled nearly 10% this week to a more than three-month low, knocked lower by a slide in oil prices, forecasts for a warmer than average winter and ample supply onshore and in tankers. Spot prices for January delivery in North Asia were estimated at $10 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), 90 cents lower than last week, according to traders.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/asian-lng-prices-dragged-down-by-oil-slide-heavy-supply/
Natural Gas NOW Picks of the Week – November 24, 2018
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
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Natural Gas NOW readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy. As usual, emphasis is added.
Elon Musk is the world’s most successful con man, it appears:
Tesla’s efforts in solar, recounted here based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former employees familiar with the company’s energy business and workers at its New York factory, have followed a familiar playbook. Start with wild promises, followed by product delays, production hell, shareholder anger, and finally, hopefully, redemption…
New York had gone all-in on the SolarCity factory in 2014, initially hoping the partnership would generate 1,460 manufacturing jobs at the plant, a goal the state cut to 500 in 2015, with the remaining workers in support roles within the city of Buffalo. It was a risky investment: SolarCity was an installation-and-financing company with little track record in manufacturing…
Where so much of the Buffalo Billion went; to this SolarCity (now Tesla) plant as Elon Musk now struggles to clean up his cousin’s mess and defend his corporatist subsidies
Workers for Tesla’s own Solar Roof production line, which was set up at the end of 2017, were warned there might be days when they would have nothing to do. When VIPs would come by in early 2018, a source says, the company would map out a tour that put the facility in its best light, which often included focusing on the Panasonic side of the operation. For the factory tour Tesla gave Bloomberg Businessweek in mid-November, a knowledgeable source says the company erected a wall inside the building to block much of its idle machinery from view. Tesla says certain parts of the factory contain confidential operations and that the new wall is part of a storage area for unused equipment…
Across the street from Gigafactory 2 is a tidy, gable-front home owned by Carol and Gerry Grandy. They’ve been in the neighborhood for 26 years and say they were excited for what Tesla would mean for the community. But it hasn’t worked out. A nearby fish-and-chips shop opened but soon shuttered, and they say there are few other signs of economic improvement. Gerry called Tesla to inquire about getting solar installed on their roof but was told their home wasn’t in a service area. “I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I could throw a rock and hit your factory,’ ” he recalls.
It particularly irks the Grandys that Musk still hasn’t been to Buffalo after all these years.
Perhaps there’s a reason musk hasn’t been to Buffalo. Has that occurred to anyone?
Will the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Straighten Out This Mess?
As our friend Jim Willis, at the invaluable Marcellus Drilling News notes, the case of Briggs vs. Southwestern, horribly decided by the Pennsylvania Superior Court, is now on its way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. What happens there, he says “opens the door to a myriad of frivolous lawsuits claiming that a fracture, a crack created during fracking, is draining gas from a neighbor’s property without justly compensating the neighbor for the gas.” The issue before the court is, by its own interpretation, as follows:
”Does the rule of capture apply to oil and gas produced from wells that were completed using hydraulic fracturing and preclude trespass liability for allegedly draining oil or gas from under nearby property, where the well is drilled solely on and beneath the driller’s own property and the hydraulic fracturing fluids are injected solely on or beneath the driller’s own property?”
The PA Environment Digest Blog concisely explains the background:
The PA Superior Court ruling overturned the rule of capture practice that has been in place for as long as companies have been drilling for oil and gas and developing natural resources.
Members of the Briggs family own about 11 acres of land adjacent to an unconventional natural gas well operated by Southwestern Energy since 2011 in Harford Township, Susquehanna County.
The Briggs family did not lease their mineral rights to Southwestern for development.
Southwestern Energy argued and a lower court agreed there was no trespass because of the “rule of capture.” Rule of capture means the first person to capture a natural resources owns that resource under English common law. It can be applied to groundwater or natural resources like oil and gas.
The Court ruled prior cases involving the rule of capture do not apply to unconventional natural gas drilling because hydraulic fracturing is not the same as oil and natural gas freely migrating from a reservoir and across property lines.
The importance of this case cannot be overstated and that’s the reason, of course, the Supreme Court took it. The rule of capture is what allows a company and landowners who leased to it the ability to harvest the value in their resources with the security of knowing that if they stay on their own land they won’t be harassed by lawsuits claiming they stole some else’s gas. The Superior Court was out of its depth on this one and we can only hope the Supremes clean up the mess. Meanwhile, Southwestern says this:
“We appreciate the court’s thoughtful decision to review this ruling, especially given the case’s potential to negatively impact Pennsylvanians who depend on natural gas for royalty payments, jobs and affordable energy. Bringing legal clarity and certainty to this potentially far-reaching matter – while avoiding pitting neighbor against neighbor in costly and speculative legal disputes that could unnecessarily overburden our courts – are top priorities for Southwestern Energy.”
Amen to that!
Ireland Going Green? Yes, Except That It’s 95% Off-Target!
Ireland banned fracking last year in an attempt to make their neighbors green with envy over their political correctness. Now, we learn this:
“Ireland had agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent below 2005 levels. While Ireland has jointly the most demanding targets (the EU average is 10 per cent), Ireland is far off course. Current projections suggest we might achieve a 1 per cent reduction, meaning we would be 95 per cent off target.”
Irish blarney; it’s not just for Leprechauns.
During the recession, when output in the economy collapsed, Ireland was meeting its climate targets, he said. However, “once economic growth resumed, growth in carbon resumed, highlighting the very significant structural issues which still exist within the economy in terms of reliance on carbon”.
“Ireland will need to purchase compliance in order to meet the 2020 targets.
Have the Irish gone mad? It appears so. It seems they were happier when they were miserable and experiencing no growth. Now that their best laid plans to reduce carbon have failed, in contrast with the US where fracking has delivered the lowest carbon emissions per capita in decades, they are going to resort to blarney and pay someone else to do compliance for them. Amazing…just amazing. The next time I’m stopped for a traffic ticket, I think I’ll offer to buy compliance from a slower driver.
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The post Natural Gas NOW Picks of the Week – November 24, 2018 appeared first on Natural Gas Now.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/natural-gas-now-picks-of-the-week-november-24-2018/
Friday, November 23, 2018
Awaiting The Digital Oil Field
Think of the digital oil field as a weather analog. Everyone talks about it but, at the end of the day, little is done. That may surprise anyone who has attended an industry conference lately or listened in on earnings calls where it seems talk is partially digital a lot of the time.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/awaiting-the-digital-oil-field/
Seeding Sovereignty: Millennial Ignorance and Arrogance
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
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A group known as Seeding Sovereignty is a perfect demonstration of Millennial ignorance combined with an arrogance so stunning as to be almost unbelievable.
One of our especially astute readers sent me a copy of Tweet by a group known as Seeding Sovereignty. It’s apparently an organization catering to Millennials in an attempt to mobilize them for gentry class causes. One look at the video clip is enough to convey the unique blend of condescension and idiocy involved. Be sure to watch it.
Yes, watch the video in full. Notice the somber looks intended to convey seriousness from a group of spoiled kids too drunk on self-esteem to do anything worthwhile. Notice the arrogance and condescension. Notice the blinding ignorance as they repeat shibboleths spoon-fed to them by the likes of the lecherous Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who happens to sit on their board and “Millennial filmmaker” Lee Ziesche who served as the grassroots coordinator for the Gasland films.
Seeding Sovereignty is a project of the Earth Island Institute, according to its website. The Earth Island Institute, as I’m sure most of the kids appearing in the video have no idea, is a special interest shill group for the Center for Public Interest Research, which, in turn, is funded by the usual suspects. These include the Energy Foundation (plaything of hedge-fund guy Nat Simons), the Simons Foundation by father Jim, the Park Foundation, the Rockefeller Family Foundation, the Tides Foundation, the Open Society Foundations (George Soros) and several other wealthy fractivist funders. It’s the gentry class on growth hormones.
What’s especially interesting about the video is the sheer idiocy of the message as speakers solemnly proclaim for the umpteenth time that there are only 12 years to save the planet, blissfully unaware of the long list of such wolf cries over several decades now, issued by one self-interested charlatan after another. They’re likewise blind to the reality of natural gas contributions to lowering CO2 emissions as well as numerous others immensely harmful to to human health. Finally, they’ve got not the slightest realization how they’re being used by special interests angling for corporatist windfalls, research grants, political power and socialist utopias where they are the sovereigns. Perhaps that’s what seeding sovereignty means.
If it weren’t so insane and such a profound threat to civil society, some of us might be inclined to give them what they want and let them learn where their ideas would invariably lead. They obviously need an education. None of them of them appear to have considered their ideas can only lead to more Venezuelas. It’s a safe bet none have even heard of, let along read, Solzhenitsyn.
No, it seems the only things they learned are what is not so. They’ve learned New York City is at risk due to “dirty fracked gas” when, in fact, air quality has dramatically improved due to natural gas produced via fracking. They’ve learned fracking is a climate change threat when, in fact, it’s the one thing that’s made a meaningful contribution to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. They’ve learned it’s not safe to have children when, in fact, children are the only thing ensuring a future. They’ve learned they’re intellectually superior and, therefore, entitled to impose their will when, in fact, they’re imbeciles too proud to learn anything from others.
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https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/seeding-sovereignty-millennial-ignorance-and-arrogance/
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Oil Falls On Rising US Inventories, OPEC Talk Of Cut Limits Loss
Oil prices dipped on Nov. 22 after U.S. inventories swelled to their highest level since December adding to concerns about a global crude glut but OPEC talk of an output cut limited losses. Benchmark Brent had fallen 10 cents to $63.32 a barrel by 1447 GMT, partially recovering from a more than $1 drop in early European trading. U.S. WTI fell more than a $1 before easing back to trade down 28 cents at $54.35. Trading was thin due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.
Happy Thanksgiving! Thank Natural Gas and Other Fossil Fuels!
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
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Natural gas and other fossil fuels have made modern life and the celebration of Thanksgiving possible. It’s worth thinking about as we give thanks this year.
Mark Mathis, over at the Clear Energy Alliance, sent me a wonderful video the other day that’s just perfect as the subject of today’s blog post. It’s called “Thank Fossil Fuels” and, as is Mark’s habit, tells his story in a concise, practical way that appeals to common sense.
And, here’s the script:
Here’s an unexpected twist on Thanksgiving. While we’re expressing our gratitude for family, friends, food, jobs and other good stuff, let’s include something extremely important that we mostly take for granted. This Thanksgiving let’s acknowledge oil, natural gas, and coal, for without them life would be much shorter, way harder and a lot less fun.
Let’s get real here. By historical standards, most of us are living in amazing, exciting future-land. We could spend hours, days really, talking about all the ways that fossil fuels make our lives healthy, productive, comfortable, safe and generally pretty great.
But, for the sake of brevity, let’s just take a quick look at look at how we enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday.
For starters, very few of us actually have to work on Thanksgiving or the day after, or Saturday and Sunday. It’s a four-day holiday! For about 99.9 percent of human existence, four days of doing nothing but eating, shopping and goofing off would have been unthinkable. The only reason we can take such a long break is that we invented all kinds of machines to do our work for us and all of those machines were manufactured and are powered by fossil fuels.
Just imagine all the cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships that were used to bring all that good food to your home, as well as all those important people in your life. Most of the meat, vegetables, breads, beverages, and sweet confections came from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. And don’t forget about the big machines that produced all that food in the first place. Fossil fuels aided by some strong hands did that work. And, by the way, natural gas and oil were used as feedstocks for all the plastics, rubber, lubricants and a multitude of petrochemicals used to package your Thanksgiving feast.
Don’t forget about the natural gas range and the electric oven that are used to cook the food and keep it warm. Fossil fuel electricity also powers the lights, the air conditioning, furnace, the TV, phones, and tablets. The water heater is there for everything from meal prep through the clean-up, as is the refrigerator and the dishwasher is pretty handy, too.
Ok. I know. You get it. I don’t need to mention that oil, natural gas, and coal were used to bring you the seemingly countless football, basketball and hockey games…. or that lots of fossil fuel will be used when buying up everything under the sun on Black Friday. Although… I guess I just did.
Yes… let’s recognize it’s not just fossil fuels that are deserving of our gratitude. Nuclear, hydropower and other renewables deserve some credit as well. But, since fossil fuels pull 80 percent of our energy load, which includes manufacturing all other energy technologies, that’s why fossil fuels should get the bulk of our praise.
Of course, be thankful for your family and friends, your faith, your country, your job, and even your favorite beer. But while you’re feeling grateful, give thanks to those hard-working people that produced the fossil fuels that work so hard for you on Thanksgiving and every other day of the year.
Happy Thanksgiving. For the Clear Energy Alliance, I’m Mark Mathis. Power On.
Sign up to receive and view Mark’s videos automatically here and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! And, as a token of that thanks, here’s another Clear Energy Alliance video:
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Wednesday, November 21, 2018
US Drillers Cut Rig For First Time In Three Weeks
U.S. energy firms this week cut oil rigs for the first time in the three weeks as crude prices have fallen to their lowest in over a year. Drillers cut three oil rigs in the week to Nov. 21, bringing the total count down to 885, Baker Hughes, a GE Company, said in its closely followed report on Nov. 21. After the rig additions stalled at five during the third-quarter, drillers have added 22 rigs so far this quarter.
https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/us-drillers-cut-rig-for-first-time-in-three-weeks/
Susquehanna County Pulling Away from New York Economically
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.
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Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania is leaving nearby Delaware County, New York behind economically thanks to natural gas development impossible in New York.
Earlier this month, I did a post on the contributions of natural gas development to fighting poverty. It brought a protest from serial protester and malcontent Vera Scroggins who, as usual, made an evidence deprived assertion Susquehanna County had “more food banks” since gas had arrived. One of our other readers encouraged me to check the data and, so I did. Vera will not be happy.
There are no statistics to verify Vera’s claim but there is hard-core evidence of the economic impact of natural gas development on Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. The easiest way to assess those impacts is to compare Susquehanna County with a similar sized county in New York, where fracking has been banned. Delaware County, New York is separated from Susquehanna County by a mere four miles in vicinity of Deposit, a location most geologists think could be a sweet spot for natural gas development.
XTO Energy, in fact, paid as much as $6,500 per acre to lease acreage there but that was too close for comfort for the NRDC gang, so they conspired with Andrew Cuomo in full daylight to kill the industry. They desperately needed to avoid further raising of land prices on wilderness they hoped to create around themselves. They put their man Joe Martens temporarily in place at DEC to do the dirty deed and he did it. Delaware County was thrown to the wind as Susquehanna natural gas development moved ahead.
The result is that, according to Census data, the median earnings of workers, which slightly favored Delaware County in 2010 (by 1.3%) now favor Susquehanna County by a full 14.0%. Delaware County earnings grew but 1.5%, as Susquehanna county put 17.2% more in their pockets. This happened over a mere seven years.
This, of course, translated into higher household incomes in Susquehanna County, as the following chart demonstrates:
Susquehanna County average incomes were only 0.8% higher than Delaware County’s in 2010 but were 9.6% higher in 2016 — a $5,554 difference. That’s real money delivered by natural gas development, Susquehanna County having gained at more than twice the rate as Delaware County.
But, what about poorer households. Well, we don’t know how many people rely upon food banks, but we do know how many households received Food Stamp/SNAP benefits:
Yes, the number of such recipients in Susquehanna County has been declining since 2012 and, overall, well below (less than a third) the 45.1% rate of increase at the national level due to liberalization of benefit rules. Meanwhile, Delaware County numbers exploded by 87.2%. This is what Cuomo carnage looks like in the real world; what Corruptocrat hath wrought. Sorry, Vera, you lose.
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