Schlumberger: profit more than doubles. Links everywhere.
- net income: $959 million
- EPS: 67 cents
- a year earlier: $431 million and 30 cents/share
- ups guidance
Switzerland: to release oil from its SPR
- refined products from Germany not reaching Switzerland due to Rhine low water level
Germany: trying to save itself; bails out Uniper at a cost of €15 billion; peanuts.
- government took 30% stake in Uniper
- credit line to Uniper upped to €9 billion (previously €2 billion)
Fed: I'm old enough to remember when the Fed was purposely trying to spur inflation.
They succeeded.
Nancy Pelosi: third in line.
*****************************
Back to the Bakken
Far Side: link here.
WTI: $95.50 but had been lower overnight.
Natural gas: $7.959 --- that's about as close to an 8-handle as one can get. Think ISO-NE, ISO-NY.
Active rigs: 45 or thereabouts
Sunday, July 24, 2022: 23 for the month, 23 for the quarter, 362 for the year
- 38675, conf, CLR, Bang 6-4H,
- 37498, conf, Petro-Hunt, State 159-94-25A-36-1HS,
Saturday, July 23, 2022: 21 for the month, 21 for the quarter, 360 for the year
- 32113, conf, Slawson, Armada Federal 1 SLH,
Friday, July 22, 2022: 20 for the month, 20 for the quarter, 359 for the year
- 38665, conf, Slawson, Armada Federal 8-14-13H,
- 32112, conf, Slawson, Armada Federal 9-14-13TFH,
RBN Energy: court decision helps supply access to LNG export facilities.
Europe is trying to wean itself off Russian natural gas, and few
things would help it more than an expansion of U.S. LNG export capacity.
But LNG projects don't just need long-term commitments for their
output, they also need pipelines to transport natural gas from the
Marcellus/Utica and other distant production areas to their coastal
liquefaction plants. And, in case you hadn't noticed, new interstate gas
pipelines face a lot of hurdles during the regulatory review process
these days — getting a pipeline approved is tougher than snagging a
Saturday morning tee time. Which brings us to, of all things, an
important court ruling. In today's RBN blog, we discuss the implications
of the DC Circuit's decision in City of Oberlin v. FERC.
On July 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit (a.k.a. the DC Circuit) updated a decision that could have a
significant impact on the supply of feedgas to LNG export facilities. In
the case of City of Oberlin, Ohio v. FERC, the DC Circuit
reversed an earlier finding that the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) had not explained why export volumes on a proposed
interstate pipeline project can be used to help justify approval of the
new pipe projects. The case involved the city of Oberlin's challenge to
FERC's approval of the NEXUS pipeline, carrying natural gas from the
Utica Shale in eastern Ohio to the gas hub in Dawn, ON (among other
destinations). The project sponsors had included the gas flows to Dawn
as support for approval of the pipeline, to help meet the requirements
of FERC’s “certificate policy” that a public benefit had to be shown for
pipeline construction to be authorized.
In what the DC Circuit now refers to as its "Oberlin I" decision,
the court, in 2019, found that FERC needed to explain why volumes on
NEXUS going to Canada were a benefit to the U.S. public. That decision
had been used by LNG opponents, such as Sierra Club, to claim that the
same issue affects feedgas pipelines built to serve LNG export
terminals. They argued that such pipelines shouldn’t receive
certificates to allow construction or the eminent domain rights that
automatically go with those certificates if they didn’t show a benefit
to the U.S. public. The DC Circuit's decision last month (“Oberlin II”) reversed Oberlin I,
finding that FERC has now explained itself well enough and that, yes,
natural gas exports can provide public benefits in the U.S. So, does
this reversal clear the way for LNG feedgas pipelines to be built
without running into legal roadblocks? Well, it pretty much knocks down
one potential roadblock, but that’s a start.
