Shale Gas News – July 11, 2020

Bill desRosiers
External Affairs Coordinator, Cabot Oil & Gas

…

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 Jordan Cove, Atlantic Coast Pipeline, oil prices 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 natural gas. This week, as a guest, we had Tom Shepstone, Creator and Publisher of Natural Gas Now.

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the July 11th show (click above), we covered the following new territory (see news excerpts below):

The Next Energy Battle: Renewables vs. Natural Gas. Dominion Energy, one of the nation’s largest utilities, in late June erected wind turbines off the Virginia coast — only the second such installation in the United States — as part of a big bet on renewable energy. The company is also planning to build new power plants that burn natural gas. Utilities around the country are promoting their growing use of renewable energy like hydroelectric dams, wind turbines and solar panels, which collectively provided more power than coal-fired power plants for the first time last year. But even as they add more green sources of power, the industry remains deeply dependent on natural gas, a fossil fuel that emits greenhouse gases and is likely to remain a cornerstone of the electric grid for years or even decades.
Top Energy Analyst Sees Oil Prices Soaring To $66 In 2021. The recovery in oil demand and the less-than-feared demand destruction earlier this year will support oil prices next year when producers will be playing catch up with demand, and Brent oil prices could rise to $66 a barrel, according to Energy Aspects. Brent Crude prices are set to jump to $66 a barrel in 2021 and $83 a barrel in 2023, from $43 per barrel in 2020, Amrita Sen, co-founder, Director of Research, and Chief Oil Analyst at Energy Aspects, said in a presentation at a virtual energy conference, as carried by Bloomberg.
Feds approve exports from Jordan Cove facility. On Monday, the Trump Administration authorized exports from the proposed Jordan Cove oil and gas terminal in Coos Bay Oregon, moving the project forward. Mesa County Commissioner Rose Pugliese has supported the project for years. “Approval to export liquefied natural gas out of the Coos Bay Jordan Cove facility is a really exciting time for our community. It’ll help stabilize our economy with all the contracts that will be coming in for over 20 years,” Pugliese said.
Northeast PA Landowner Settles with Williams for Big Bucks. In 2016 MDN told you about the Holleran family who didn’t want the much-needed Constitution Pipeline to cross their land in Susquehanna County, PA . Hollywood actor James Cromwell and other anti-drillers heard about it and visited to add their shrill voices to the protest. The protesters tried to stop Williams from clearing trees on the property. A judge got tired of their shenanigans real quick.
Dominion Cancels Atlantic Coast Pipe, Sells Pipe Biz for $9.7B. Dominion Energy has decided to exit the natural gas pipeline and storage business, selling off its vast network of pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica (and beyond) to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion ($4 billion in cash, the rest in assumed debt). In a related announcement, Dominion said it is throwing in the towel and canceling the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project that would have stretched from West Virginia to North Carolina. We are in grieving. This is a tremendously sad day–not only for Marcellus/Utica drillers and landowners, but for the families of pipeline workers who will now remain out of high-paying jobs. You have the Sierra Club and other radicalized green groups to thank.
Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline Becomes Belle of the M-U Ball. On Monday MDN brought you the tremendously sad news that Dominion Energy has canceled plans to build the $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina (see Dominion Cancels Atlantic Coast Pipe, Sells Pipe Biz for $9.7B). However, there is a silver lining in that news and other news from this week for a somewhat competitive project, Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
Chesapeake Sues FERC in Bid to Break Pipeline Contracts. Earlier this week MDN brought you the news that Chesapeake Energy is asking a bankruptcy court in Texas for permission to break valid and legal contracts with several pipeline companies as part of its financial reorganization plan. Just coming to light (for us) is that as part of the bankruptcy filing, Chessy is challenging (suing) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to prevent FERC from making Chessy live up to its contractual agreements.