Category Archives: Natural Gas Power Plants

Ohio Natural Gas Fired Power Plants

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This article over at Energy In Depth shows that Ohio will eventually be powered entirely by natural gas.  There are seven natural gas-fired power plants either under construction or in the planning stages.  Once they are complete, they will create 6,458 megawatts of electricity, enough for 5.85 million homes.  Ohio has 4.5 million homes.  Ohio will be sharing electricity with surrounding areas through the grid, of course.

West Virginia is a net producer of electricity, but it’s all coal-fired.  We have several gas-fired plants in the works, with one in particular up in Moundsville, WV that will be the first to come online.  Last we heard they were hoping to start construction on it this spring, but that was last fall and there doesn’t seem to be any activity at this time.

6,300 Megawatts of Natural Gas Fired Electricity Proposed for Ohio

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Dynegy Inc. has proposed to build 6,300 megawatts worth of electricity power generating plants in Ohio.  The plants would be fired by natural gas.  That natural gas would come, naturally, from the Utica and Marcellus shales.

Other details are scant, as the article is more about the competing bids by other power generating companies and the associated drama.

West Virginia could use a few more natural gas powered electric plants.  We have several in progress in the northern panhandle and Harrison County.

The Challenges of Converting Power Plants from Coal to Gas

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Here is an interesting article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  FirstEnergy closed down a coal-fired power plant in 2013, and had no plans to re-open it.  In the last few months, however, they have changed their minds.  At least, they have changed their minds about looking at the possibility of re-opening it.

The article states that market conditions have changed.  The price of electricity hasn’t gone up much, but the price of oil and gas has gone way, way down.  Who wants to bet that that one factor alone has reduced costs?

One other interesting point that was made in the article is that building a brand new gas-fired plant would (just a couple years ago) have been cheaper than converting the coal-fired plant to gas.

West Virginia has an Energy Export Problem

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This article from The Intelligencer out of Wheeling, WV says that West Virginia has a lot of gas in the ground.  While that’s not necessarily news, the estimated amount going up is.

It’s exciting that there’s that much gas in the ground, but West Virginia really needs to do more with the gas.  Right now we export most of it.  We would like to see West Virginia put more of it to use here.  The cracker plant in Parkersburg, WV and the gas-fired energy plants in Harrison County and the northern panhandle are the direction we need to go.  Exporting raw materials is OK, but refining and improving it so that we can keep more of the value in state will be better.  We exported coal for decades, and now we have a lot of coal mines and a lot of coal miners who are out of work.  If we can do more with the raw product we can keep more of the money here and develop more infrastructure so we don’t feel the hurt so badly when the economy tanks and changes.

Baby It’s Cold Outside…..No It’s Not

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huh_450Just a couple of weeks ago, Burleson LLP, a Houston law firm with Pittsburgh offices specializing in oil and gas shut it’s doors.  It was a sign that things were getting bad in the oil and gas industry.

This week, Frost Brown Todd, also an energy company, announced that it is opening an office in Pittsburgh and hiring 10 of the 30 lawyer that lost their jobs when Burleson shut down.

So, is it bad, or is it good?

We’ve seen an increase in the number of people calling the office about oil and gas leases in the last few months, with a drop off in the last week or two.  The amount that oil and gas companies are willing to offer for lease bonuses and royalties has just started to drop a little.  The price of oil and the price of natural gas continue to decline.  Sometime next year some pipeline projects are going to be completed, with more to come in 2017 and 2018.  There are natural gas energy plants being built in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  There are cracker plants being built in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and the one planned for Wood County, WV may not be on life support any more.  This winter, while expected to be snowy, is not expected to be cold.  Russia is getting in a fight with Turkey, but the rest of the Middle East is pretty much business as usual with the Saudis still producing as much oil as they want with no signs they will cut back.

So, it’s bad, and it’s good.

We’ve given up predicting where oil and gas prices are going, and where the oil and gas industry is going.  There’s always good news and there’s always bad news.  The more important question is, do you have a lease or a modification or a right of way agreement in hand that needs to be dealt with?  If so, give us a call.  We’re here to help.

The Future of Natural Gas Prices in West Virginia

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Here is an article in the Wheeling Intelligencer that explains why natural gas prices will go up in the next few years.  I’m sorry it’s behind a paywall, but I think they’ll give you a couple free articles before you have to pay.  If you want to keep up with oil and gas in West Virginia, the Intellgencer is the best publication for that at present.

There are also a bunch of pipelines going in, which we don’t have time to get into today.

Which brings us to an apology.  We apologize for not posting more articles lately.  There’s quite a bit going on at the office right now, and we’ll have a post up later this week announcing one of those things.