Shell Cracker Construction “in the Home Stretch” – Ready in 2022

It’s been a long road, but we’re nearing the end. Shell’s $6 billion ethane cracker plant, officially called the Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex (PPC), is close to being done. It’s likely the PPC, located in Beaver County, PA, will be up and running sometime next year. When it is, the market for Marcellus/Utica NGLs will profoundly

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Antis Ask Gov. Wolf to Block PA DEP Permit for Plum Injection Well

Anti-fossil fuel zealots sent a letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf two days ago asking him to use dictatorial powers to overturn a permit issued by the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) that allows a wastewater injection well to be built in Penn Township. The radical group ProtectPT (funded by Heinz Endowments and Google’s former

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Enverus U.S. Rig Count Jumps by 18 to 424, Marcellus Adds 2 More

Over the past week, the Enverus U.S. rig count jumped by a big 18 additional active rigs. The Permian play in Texas and New Mexico saw the biggest increase, adding 14 new rigs (the most since before the pandemic). The Marcellus added two more rigs, bringing the combined Marcellus/Utica rig count to 42, the highest

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Driftwood LNG Export Facility to Begin Construction “This Summer”

click for larger version Driftwood LNG, a 27.6 million tonnes of LNG per year facility that will cost on the order of $16.8 billion to build, has not made an official final investment decision (FID) to proceed with building the FERC-approved project. However, Charif Souki, chairman of Tellurian (the builder) said yesterday he is targeting

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EIA: U.S. Oil & NatGas Production Will Fall in 2021, Rise in 2022

In its January 2021 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) just released, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts annual average production of U.S. oil will fall to 11.1 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2021 before rising to 11.5 million b/d in 2022. As for natural gas, EIA says U.S. marketed natural gas production will decline

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Discovery of New Catalyst Helps Natural Gas Burn Even Cleaner

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have developed a cutting edge catalyst made up of 10 different elements–each of which on its own has the ability to reduce the combustion temperature of methane–plus oxygen. This unique catalyst brings the combustion temperature of methane down by about half, from above 1400 degrees Kelvin down to

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Strong Support for PennEast Pipe During PA DEP Virtual Hearing

Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) held a virtual hearing to accept public comment on the topic of issuing water crossing and sediment/erosion permits for the PennEast Pipeline project. The hearing lasted over three hours with some 70+ people speaking (for up to 3 minutes each). Much to the consternation of anti-fossil fuelers,

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US Well Locks in Long-Term E-Fracking Contracts with Range, EQT

In a pair of announcements earlier this week, U.S. Well Services announced it has signed new long-term deals with both Range Resources and EQT to supply “electric fracking” services. We told you in February 2020 that Range had signed on with U.S. Well Services to continue using its electric fracking service (see Range Resources Converts

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K Petroleum Must Pay Penneco $511M for Gas Sales in SWPA

In November 2019 the U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania ruled that K. Petroleum Inc. (KPI), headquartered in Gahanna, OH, had breached a contract with Penneco Oil by not paying Penneco for gas flowing through KPI’s gathering pipeline system for wells owned and operated by Penneco. Yesterday the same court finally (after more than a year)

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3 Firms Merge to Form New Enviro/Engineering Consultant

Drillers and pipeline companies often need the services of environmental and engineering consultants as they plan their projects. There are a number of companies in this space operating in the Marcellus/Utica. Investment firm Round Table Capital (RTC) Partners recently purchased three companies and is merging them to create “a market leader in the Environmental Consulting

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Spoiled Kids Stage a “Die-in” at Connecticut Capitol re Gas Plant

(Credit: Hartford Courant/Kassi Jackson) Ever see a spoiled rotten child, say about two years old, who is told “NO” and proceeds to throw a temper tantrum and drop to the ground and lie there, not moving, pretending to be dead? That’s what the scene looked like yesterday in Hartford, Connecticut as a small group of

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Companies Eye M-U Region to Build New Factories, Leverage Shale

MDN is proud to once again partner with our friend Joe Barone from Shale Directories to help promote an important, upcoming conference. The 2nd Annual Appalachian Basin Real Estate Conference is slated for March 25 at the Oglebay Resort and Conference Center, in Wheeling, WV. This conference will attract businesses from outside the Marcellus/Utica region

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US Forest Service Issues Approval for MVP Thru Jefferson Forest

In mid-December, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) issued an environmental impact statement (EIS) that supports plans for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to run through 3.5 miles of woodlands, and under the Appalachian Trail, in the Jefferson National Forest in Monroe County in West Virginia, in and Giles and Montgomery counties in Virginia (see US Forest

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Dominion South, Tennessee Pipe Zn 4 Gas Prices Hit New 1-Yr Highs

click for larger version The spot price of natural gas selling at the benchmark Henry Hub in southern Louisiana has been creeping up ever so gradually, but it’s still nothing to write home about (closed at $2.75 yesterday). However, the spot price at two of our favorite M-U locations to track–Dominion South (in southwestern PA)

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