A good crowd was on hand Saturday afternoon for the Creston Bingo game where folks said that they had a good time. In the morning some local folks had motored to Morristown for the delicious pancake breakfast there.
Denise put on a special spread for Mother’s Day at the Shade Tree Diner. The barbecue smoked ribs were great and then she made some cinnamon rolls.
The comely Kim was visiting with Wilma Mowrey for Mother’s Day.
The State Road crew was in Creston to mark the right-of-way limits for the new bridge across the Little Kanawha River.
Some local folks were consulting with their medical advisors, undergoing tests, etc.
The Wirt road crew mowed the berm on W. Va. 5.
There is a local good news dog story. Many remember Ziggy the brown dog that was seen going up & down W. Va. 5 raiding garbage cans and being very frightened after her elderly owner died. Then she was not seen but then a neighbor spotted her at a nearby home. Seems the woman there had worked for months to get the confidence of the poor puppy and now “Sandy” has a happy home, lays at her new human’s feet and sleeps under an outbuilding.
The Creston area received a little rain on Sunday although dry conditions continue. Drought has been declared for the eastern panhandle counties & Preston County along with counties in adjoining states. Peonies are blooming.
A local pipeliner stated that when they finished up the job in Cadiz Ohio the crew would be going to Mason County to lay a big line for the proposed data center there.
Williams Company, a firm that operates in the northern counties announced some new projects to fuel proposed data centers. It seems that the folks who were “against fracking” and opposed pipelines and were against fossil fuels are now leading the fight against data centers. Dictator Xi is, of course, opposed to America getting the lead on data centers & AI so they “fund” their “useful idiots” & have them badmouth what is real progress. All those who cell phones, deal in data or tell Alexa what to do are reliant on such centers, period.
The proposed facility at the mouth of Katy’s Run would be self contained with a gas fired power plant fueled by local gas wells tapping the Marcellus & Utica shales and a water system not linked to the stressed local water systems. There are no low paying jobs associated with the construction, operation & maintenance of data centers.
It was reported that Statoil/Norsk Hydro, a/k/a Equinor, won a $19 million suit in the West Virginia Supreme Court over calculation of severance tax. For local payers the rule is easy, pay 5% of the gross; perhaps rules are different for the “big boys”.
Jim Justice, the former governor who is now playing U. S. Senator continues to make news. After OMNI acquired just under $300 million of debt from the Carter Bank they made it clear, either pay up or we take over the Greenbrier. Seems the senator told the new owners of his debt, forbearance agreements, etc., “well fine take me to court, I own the judges.” That approach had worked for perhaps decades but now it would seem that “the worm has turned”.
The “Chamber of Commerce” sent out a flyer saying that Sen. Mike Azinger was a RINO even though he was rated the No.1 conservation (from his voting record) in the entire legislature. If the outfit ever had any credibility, it now has none.
Antero announced that several of their new wells are making 25 million cubic feet/day each along with 1,457 bbl. Of liquids/day. Antero wants folks to sign leases that do not pay for the liquids.
CNX, another operator in the state reported that one of their new wells is 4.4 miles long.
Hastings Station, the fractionation plant located at Pine Grove in Wetzel County that had been shut down for maintenance is back in operation. All local natural gas that goes into the DTI system goes there for the removal of natural gas liquids.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude is $94.42/bbl. With condensate fetching $76.42/bbl. & Marcellus & Utica light bringing $83.42/bbl. WTI (West Texas) was $95.42/bbl. and Brent (North Sea crude) was $101.29/bbl. The announced price (elsewhere) for natural gas is $2.76/MMBTU but for W. Va. It is $2.04 on TCO (Columbia Gas/TransCanada) or $1.75 on DTI (Dominion/Warren Buffett). It is reported that oil producers in West Texas are having to pay up to $9.60/mcf to have someone to take the gas away. One would think that there are smart folks there who could find quick uses for the gas and be able to pay for the resource.
