shale gas news
Bill desRosiers
External Affairs Coordinator, Coterra Energy
Host, Shale Gas News

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The Shale Gas News, heard every Saturday at 10 AM on 94.3 FM, 1510 AM, 1600 AM, 104.1 FM and Sundays on YesFM, talked about LNG exports, Rover Pipeline, Russia and much more last week.

The Shale Gas News has grown again to the Williamsport area on stations WEJS 1600 AM & 104.1 FM. The Shale Gas News is now broadcasting in Bradford, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga and Wayne Counties, as well as in greater central PA and now the Williamsport area. The Shale Gas News is aired on Saturday or Sunday depending on the station.

Every Saturday Rusty Fender, Matt Henderson and I host a morning radio show to discuss all things shale gas. This week, as a guest, we had Pennsylvania State Representative Aaron Kaufer.

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the February 5th show (click above), we covered the following new natural gas territory (see news excerpts below):

• Natural Gas Shipments, Mostly From U.S., Ease Europe’s Energy Crunch. Near the entrance to Rotterdam’s vast harbor in the Netherlands is a specialized port that is offering an alternative to the web of Russian pipelines that feed much of Europe’s hunger for natural gas.  The facility, called the Gate Terminal, is a critical entry point for liquefied natural gas, an increasingly vital fuel for Europe. This week a giant tanker ship, the GasLog Glasgow, sat at a jetty there, waiting for a winter storm to subside so it could unload liquefied natural gas from Egypt. Another vessel laden with gas waited its turn offshore.
• Exxon posts biggest profit in seven years on high oil prices. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) on Tuesday reported a fourth-quarter profit of $8.87 billion, its largest in seven years, as the top U.S. oil producer benefited from strong energy prices.  The company slashed spending after fuel demand cratered two years ago. Since then, earnings have topped pre-pandemic levels, helped by the rise in oil prices, with the global oil benchmark Brentalso at a seven-year high.
• Why Are Oil Prices So High and Will They Stay That Way? Oil prices are increasing, again, casting a shadow over the economy, driving up inflation and eroding consumer confidence.  Crude prices rose more than 15 percent in January alone, with the global benchmark price crossing $90 a barrel for the first time in more than seven years, as fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine grew.
• Why Is New England Paying The Equivalent Of $180 Oil For Natural Gas? Yesterday New Englanders had reason to feel a little more … European than usual. that’s because according to Department of Energy data they were paying a spot price of $30.5 per million British thermal units for natural gas.  This is an absurd price, in line with what Europeans, facing their worst energy crisis in a generation, have been suffering in recent months. To put it in context, $30.5 per mmBtu is the equivalent of paying $180 for a barrel of oil (double what it is today), or 20 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. In other words: nuts.
• Study Linking Health Risks to Kitchen Cooking Is Full of Flaws. Based on a study of a paltry 53 homes in California, researchers with Oakland-based Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSEHE) and Stanford University estimated that stoves emit between 0.8 and 1.3 percent of the natural gas they consume as unburned methane with three-quarters of these emissions occurring when the devices are shut off, suggesting leaky fittings and connections with gas service lines. The flawed research is to support banning natural gas appliances, as some cities in California and elsewhere have done for new buildings, as well as others debating converting existing buildings that consume natural gas to electricity, despite the extremely high costs to do so.
• Biden scours globe to send Europe gas if Russia hits Ukraine. The Biden administration and European allies are searching the world for surplus natural gas to send to Europe in the event conflict erupts over Ukraine, including approaching China about its supplies, according to people familiar with the matter. Talks with China have been limited and haven’t yet resulted in any agreement, two of the people said. US and European officials have also spoken to officials in Japan, South Korea and India about diverting supplies of gas to Europe, the people said.
• Rover Pipe Sues FERC Over $20M Fine for Demolishing This Old House. You have GOT to be kidding! In 2015 Energy Transfer’s Rover Pipeline purchased an old house in Ohio that was crumbling and falling down, intending to fix it up and use it for offices. The company later decided to demolish it. The old house was on a list to be considered as a National Historic Place, even though the local fire department considered burning it down as a training exercise it was so dilapidated. Because this particular old house was potentially considered “historic,” Rover went through all sorts of hell and ended up paying a $2.3 million fine. Then Richard “Dick” Glick took over at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and decided to drag that case out yet again, this time fining Rover $20 million for something long ago settled! Rover is now fighting back, taking FERC (and Glick) to court.

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation