Shale Gas News – May 1, 2021

Shale Gas NewsBill 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 landfill gas, Hill Top Energy, Hydrogen 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 we replayed a webinar from Think About Energy titled An Energy Conversation with House Republican Whip Steve Scalise.

Shale Gas News

The Shale Gas News, typically, is broadcast live. On the May 1st show (click above), we covered the following new natural gas territory (see news excerpts below):

  • Despite Lower Demand, U.S. Natural Gas Market Expected to ‘Net Grow’ – Natural gas isn’t going anywhere soon and overall demand for U.S. gas will keep growing on the back of rising exports, according to Mercuria Energy Co.’s Charles Blanchard. Blanchard, head of North American natural gas research, recently published an exhaustive study on the history of natural gas in the United States called, “The Extraction State.” He spoke to NGI about the book, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, in the latest episode of NGI’s Hub & Flow podcast.
  • WV Sen. Manchin May Block Biden’s Disastrous “Infrastructure” Plan. We’re not big fans of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat). He hails from Republican-leaning West Virginia, so he has to pass himself off as a “moderate” Democrat. When push comes to shove, we’ve noticed Manchin falls into line and obsequiously obeys Chuck Schumer’s commands. Yet perhaps, hope against hope, Manchin will show some spine and refuse to sign on to the $2 trillion shale energy-killing “infrastructure” plan Biden is pushing.
  • SWPA Gas-fired Elec Plant Next to Pot Farm Ready This Summer. A project we’ve been tracking since 2017, a 625-megawatt Marcellus-fired electric plant in Greene County, PA called Hill Top Energy Center, is nearly complete. The developer of the project is Hill Top Energy LLC. The main financial sponsor is Ares Management. POWER Engineering magazine is reporting construction is nearly done and the plant will go online this summer.
  • Conf Speaker: Hydrogen the “Next Chapter for Natural Gas” in M-U. MDN editor Jim Willis attended (remotely) yesterday’s Appalachian Hydrogen & Carbon Capture Conference. The keynote speaker kicking things off was Nicholas Stork, CEO of Archaea Energy, the company Dan Rice is betting $1 billion on. In some ways, the conference was disturbing, with talk of “green” hydrogen in which shale gas plays no role. However, a number of the speakers predicted hydrogen would not be the end of, but instead the next chapter for, shale natural gas.
  • Antero Top Management Reshuffles with Departure of Co-Founder. Last week in our “best of the rest” links we included a note that one of the co-founders of Antero Resources, Glen Warren, is retiring effective the end of this month. Warren is currently President and Chief Financial Officer of Antero Resources and President of Antero Midstream. What we didn’t know at the time, but has since come to light, is a major reshuffling in top management that will happen following his departure.
  • Dan Rice Bets $1 Billion that Landfill Gas is the Next Big Thing. Dan Rice IV, former CEO of Rice Energy and a board member of EQT Corp. (where his younger brother is now the CEO), is making a big bet–we’d call it a gamble–of $1 billion on so-called renewable natural gas, mainly from landfills. Rice’s “blank-check” acquisition firm, called Rice Acquisition Corp., is acquiring and merging together Archaea Energy ($347 million) and Aria Energy ($680 million) into a single company focused on providing renewable natural gas (RNG) and “green” hydrogen.

The Shale Gas News sponsored by Linde Corporation

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