Shale Gas News – June 26, 2021

Bill desRosiers
External Affairs Coordinator, Cabot Oil & Gas

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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 Invenergy, Southwestern Energy, TETCO Pipeline 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 we replayed part of the May 29^th 2021 Shale Gas News.

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the June 26th show (click above), we covered the following new natural gas territory (see news excerpts below):

• Proposed Gas-Fired Plant Near Pittsburgh has Neighbors “Fired Up” – In January 2016, Invenergy announced its intention to build a natgas-powered electric plant in Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County near Pittsburgh. It took a few years, a lawsuit, and a new location, but eventually, Elizabeth commissioners approved Invenergy’s plan for the Allegheny Energy Center power plant in December 2018. The Allegheny County Health Department held a public hearing on the proposed plant yesterday, on a request for an air permit. Some area residents were “fired up” about the project.
• Southwestern No Longer M-U Pure-Play, Buys Haynesville Driller $2.7B. The trend is disturbing–at least for us. Increasingly companies that were formerly focused 100% on the Marcellus/Utica region are now expanding beyond–often in the Haynesville Shale of Louisiana. Let’s face it: Louisiana (and eastern Texas) where the gassy Haynesville is found has several advantages over the M-U, including closeness to Gulf Coast petrochemical plants, better (lower) taxes, and far more favorable (less burdensome) regulations than M-U states.
• PHMSA Forces TETCO Pipe to Throttle 40% of M-U Southbound Gas. Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) pipeline is a major conduit for Marcellus/Utica gas to flow southward, all the way to the Gulf Coast. It is a vital link south, especially since Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) won’t be ready until the middle of 2022. Unfortunately, the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) has denied TETCO approval to continue operating at its maximum allowable pressure, which means roughly 3/4 of a billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of capacity is now gone for the foreseeable future. That equals some 40% of the pipeline’s southbound capacity.
• FERC Just Declared War on 4 Marcellus/Utica Pipe Projects. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), now firmly under the jackboots of Chairman Richard “Dick” Glick, has just struck a major blow to five natural gas pipeline projects, four of them either located in the Marcellus/Utica or located elsewhere but will flow significant amounts of our gas.
• Another Sinkhole Appears Near Mariner East 2 Site in Chester Co. Another sinkhole has appeared in Chester County, PA at a Mariner East 2 (ME2) Pipeline construction site. This time it’s located near the Chester County Library. The sinkhole is approximately 23 feet long, 10 feet wide, and six feet deep. It runs between two existing (older) pipelines that actively carry petroleum products. Not good. This is not the first-time sinkholes have appeared in Chester County related to ME2 construction. Last summer the state Public Utility Commission conducted an investigation into sinkholes, plural, in the area.

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation