Facts & Rumors # 584
February 8, 2025
Trump Returns ‘Regular Order’ to LNG Exports. Trump Administration returns to ‘regular order’ on LNG exports, revokes ‘wrongful withdrawal’ of offshore drilling. Natural Gas Intelligence. The Trump administration’s Interior and Energy Department chiefs took steps this week to remove obstacles to expand natural gas and oil drilling by pulling the plug on Biden administration orders and pledging to approve permits for long-delayed energy infrastructure. Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum signed six secretarial orders on Monday that included removing the block on future natural gas and oil drilling off the East Coast, eastern Gulf of Mexico, Pacific Coast and a portion of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea.
Encino – IPO or Possible Sale. Thanks, MDN. We suppose we shouldn’t be shocked, but we are. Reuters is exclusively reporting that Canadian pension fund CPP Investments, the majority owner of Encino Acquisition Partners (aka Encino Energy), is considering either a sale of the company or possibly an initial public offering (IPO) that values the company at roughly $7 billion. Encino’s claim to fame is that after taking over Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica assets in 2018, it cracked the code on how to coax crude oil (condensate) out of the low-pressure Utica shale. The company quickly became the #1 producer of crude oil in the Utica (see Encino’s “Four Pillars” Transformed Co. into M-U’s Top Oil Producer).
Westlake Chemical Sued over Right to Operate Longview-Mont Belvieu Pipeline. Longview News-Journal. A Texas pipeline owner is asking an East Texas judge to declare that a chemical company doesn’t have legal rights to operate a major pipeline that goes through Longview because of easement conflicts. Attorneys for Express H20 Pipeline and ROW LLC have asked a judge in Angelina County to declare that Westlake Chemical OpCo. LP’s easements for its 200-mile ethylene pipeline from Longview to Mont Belvieu are void because they allegedly conflict with easements granted exclusively to Express’ predecessor for its 67-mile pipeline several decades earlier.
U.S. Permian Oil Output Growth to Slow in 2025 Despite Trump’s Plan, Executives Say. Reuters. Growth in oil output from the U.S. Permian basin, the country’s most prolific formation, is expected to slow by at least 25% this year despite President Donald Trump’s vow to maximize production, energy executives forecast on Thursday. At a conference in Houston, they said production is expected to rise in 2025 by about 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 300,000 bpd from the area spread across Texas and New Mexico. This compares to a 380,000 bpd increase last year.
Colombia’s President Halts Permian Basin Drilling Deal with Occidental. MRT. A $1.5 billion joint venture between Occidental Petroleum and Ecopetrol, Colombia’s state-run oil company, has been cast in doubt after the two companies agreed to an extension.
ONEOK and Marathon Petroleum Corp. are partnering to build a $1.4 billion export terminal. The Oklahoman. ONEOK, a Tulsa-based oil and gas company, has announced a partnership with Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum Corp. to build a $1.4 billion export terminal and a $350 million pipeline on the Gulf Coast. The joint ventures between the two companies will produce the Texas City Logistics LLC, a liquefied petroleum gas export terminal in Texas City, Texas, which will produce up to 400,000 barrels of low ethane propane and normal butane per day and a 24-inch pipeline connecting the new facility to ONEOK’s existing Mont Belvieu storage unit, according to a news release Tuesday.
Global Upstream M&A Forecast to Hit $150B in 2025. Global upstream M&A activity forecast to hit $150 billion in 2025 despite likely slowdown, says Rystad. Upstream Online. Global upstream merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is set to slow down this year, but the anticipated value still stands at $150 billion, with North America expected to continue dominating transactions in 2025, according to Rystad Energy. Several factors could potentially contribute to lower M&A activities this year, but the highest impact is likely from relatively fewer deals in the US shale market, which witnessed “two years of record-high transactions”, Rystad said in a commentary on Monday.
MVP Wants FERC Approval to Extend Pipeline. Thanks, MDN. In 2018, Equitrans Midstream, the builder of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), proposed to extend MVP by an extra 75 miles from the current terminus in Pittsylvania County, VA, to Alamance County, NC, to provide natural gas for heating and electric generation. The 75-mile extension is called MVP Southgate. In December 2023, MVP changed the Southgate plan by cutting the distance by more than half and bumping up the size (diameter) of the pipeline (see Equitrans Slices MVP Southgate Pipe Project From 75 to 31 Miles). MVP had intended to push forward with building under the previously issued FERC Southgate certificate. MVP (now owned by EQT) filed a request with FERC on Monday to amend the original approval.
Wright Confirmed 59-38. Wright confirmed to lead energy agency key to Trump’s plans. Bloomberg News. Wright is poised to help Trump make good on plans that include expanding of the power grid, building power plants and bringing more nuclear power online. He supports the president’s desire to unleash exports of liquefied natural gas amid a broader goal of promoting fossil fuel production and pulling back the fight against climate change. Wright, who was confirmed by a vote of 59 to 38, reassured Democrats during his confirmation hearing he supports renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower.
Chris Wright Details DOE ‘Energy Dominance’ Plans. E&E News. Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a broad plan Wednesday to “unleash energy dominance,” pledging to crack down on efficiency rules and increase energy production without “net-zero policies.” In his first secretarial order, Wright detailed nine principles that will guide his agenda, including increasing innovation, returning “regular order” to liquefied natural gas exports, promoting “consumer choice” in home appliances, refilling the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), modernizing America’s nuclear stockpile, unleashing nuclear power, strengthening grid reliability and streamlining permitting.
Burgum Pledges ‘Era of Abundance’ in First Email to Staff. E&E News. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in his first day on the job pledged to work closely with agency employees to implement President Donald Trump’s energy dominance agenda by tapping natural resources on federal lands “to harness versus constrain that incredible potential.” In a department-wide email, the former governor of North Dakota and tech entrepreneur called for a new approach at the department, one that isn’t “held back by regulation. Burgum made no mention of potential staff reductions in his note.
New England Burning More Oil than NatGas. Thanks, MDN. New England burned more oil than NatGas for power during cold snap. MDN. If it weren’t for burning oil and coal in New England, the lights would have gone out during the recent cold snap in January. We read a startling statement from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in a post from yesterday: “…on January 21, 2025, thermal plants that burn oil provided more electricity to the ISO-NE electricity grid than plants that burn natural gas.”
PA January 27, to February 6, 2025
County Township E&P Companies
1. Bradford Smithfield Chesapeake
2. Bradford Smithfield Chesapeake
3. Greene Whitely Rice
4. Greene Whitely Rice
5. Greene Whitely Rice
6. Greene Whitely Rice
7. Lycoming McNett EQT ARO
8. Westmoreland Penn Apex Energy
9. Westmoreland Penn Apex Energy
10. Westmoreland Penn Apex Energy
11. Westmoreland Penn Apex Energy
12. Westmoreland Penn Apex Energy
13. Westmoreland Penn Apex Energy
OH January 26, to February 1, 2025
County Township E&P Companies
1. NO NEW PERMITS
WV Permits January 20, to January 24, 2025
1. Ritchie Antero
2. Wetzel EQT
3. Wetzel EQT
4. Wetzel EQT
5. Wetzel EQ
6. Wetzel EQT
7. Wetzel EQT
8. Wetzel EQT
9. Wetzel EQT
