Appalachia natural gas production and use is foundational to keeping energy affordable and reliable here at home while achieving key climate goals, company leaders and panelists said during the Shale Insight 2022 conference.
More than 700 people from across the industry, labor and business communities gathered in Erie to chart the future of natural gas in our region and beyond.
“One of the fallacies out there is people have been misled to believe they can live in a world without fossil fuels and that wind and solar can meet energy demand. What they’re missing I think is that people don’t understand what energy demand there is in this world,” EQT CEO Toby Rice told attendees.
In order to address that demand and provide natural gas to consumers there must be a way to transport it, however oftentimes the critical infrastructure required to do this, ends up blocked by local policymakers.
“A clear example is MVP, a company does all the right things, follows the rules, expects a standard to be held to, regardless of changes in administration or politics, and all of a sudden, the rug is pulled out from under,” Greg Floerke, COO of MPLX also noted.
Europe and coastal states in the US are seeing the challenges resulting from poor energy policy choices that choke back production and limit pipeline access. Infrastructure constraints in New England are burdening consumers with nearly highest in the nation pricing, for example.
“The oil and gas industry has a responsibility to the world to help people get out of energy poverty and to better lives. We have the ability to do that, we have the ability to do that uniquely from the United States, and we have the ability to do that even more uniquely from Pennsylvania,” Chesapeake Energy CEO Nick Dell’Osso explained at Shale Insight.
A region blessed with abundant energy that’s produced more sustainably than anywhere else, Appalachia’s energy developers are stepping up to meet this global challenge using homegrown natural gas.
“The Appalachian Basin is uniquely positioned to serve major nearby US population centers. Our local natural gas is low-CO2 intense, but high energy dense—providing unmatched greenhouse gas efficiency,” said Nick Deiuliis, CEO of CNX Resources.
According to the latest Environmental Partnership report, those members, which include many MSC companies, completed more than 345 million component inspections in 2021 that determined an exceedingly low 0.05% leak occurrence rate.
“Appalachia has an opportunity to lead the way in the energy transition, and believes Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia all have a role to play. We see opportunity for pieces of this entire value chain … for all three states,” said Matt Magnum of Shell.
Highlighting a key point agreed upon this year at Shale Insight: the Appalachia Basin, and natural gas, will play a lead role in whatever is to come in U.S. and global energy.
Issues involving the energy industry “are not only kitchen-table issues in the campaign, but matters of international concern. Because the actions of Pennsylvania voters will influence critical energy policies at both the state and federal levels of government,” MSC President Dave Callahan said, referencing the spotlight that has been on the Marcellus and Utica shales this past year in a way like never before.
