MARKETWIRE ALERTS

MARKETWIRE ALERTS 

MarketWire Afternoon News for December 8th

Updated at 5:00 PM ET 

HEADLINES:

— Deer Park Refinery Reports Flaring

— Infinity Buys Upstream, Midstream Utica Assets for $1.2B

— EIA: Power Price Surge Lifts Coal, Gas Plant Profitability

— Great Basin Gas Transmission Ends $1.7B Open Season

— Marathon Flaring at Los Angeles Refinery to End Dec. 9

NEWS:

Deer Park Refinery Reports Flaring

Deer Park Refining Limited Partner reported Monday (12/8) an unplanned two-hour flaring event at its 312,500 bpd Deer Park, Texas refinery triggered by a DU2 Unit upset.

The refinery said the upset at DU2 Unit occurred at around 11:30 p.m. CT on Sunday (12/7) due to its “debut level indicator going high, causing excess material being sent to its Central Processing Unit, resulting in flaring at its two key facility areas: the North Property Flare (NPF) and the West Property Flare (WPF).

The flaring began at 12:32 a.m. on Monday and ended 2:46 a.m. the same day, the refinery said.

Infinity Buys Upstream, Midstream Utica Assets for $1.2B

Infinity Natural Resources announced Monday (12/8) it had acquired upstream and midstream assets in the Ohio Utica Shale for a total of $1.2 billion from Antero Resources and Antero Midstream.

The deal, formalized on December 5, involves a partnership where Northern Oil and Gas will pay $588 million for a 49% stake in the assets and Infinity $612 million for the remaining 51%.

The purchase is expected to generate an estimated $25 million in cost savings in 2026 for Infinity, the company said.

EIA: Power Price Surge Lifts Coal, Gas Plant Profitability

Both natural gas and coal-fired power plants in the U.S. have seen significant increases in operational profitability over the last two years, driven by elevated average daily wholesale electricity prices, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report Monday (12/8).

The agency said it arrived at the conclusion after analyzing the spark spread for natural gas generators and the dark spread in coal in pricing data pulled from PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest wholesale electricity market.

Those spreads began increasing in 2023 and continued doing between January and November this year, the EIA said.

Specifically for the natural gas market, the improved spark spread provides a strong incentive for gas-fired units to run more often, creating powerful structural demand for Henry Hub futures and regional PJM gas contracts, which in turn establishes a firmer price floor for the commodity, according to the report.

In coal, the rising dark spread supports the domestic thermal coal sector by ensuring continued operational competitiveness for coal plants. That stabilizes demand for Appalachian and Illinois Basin coal supplies and aids in maintaining expectations for physical coal contract pricing, the EIA stated.

Widening gaps between fuel cost and electricity revenue directly impacts the underlying demand dynamics for energy commodities.

The spark spread for natural gas increased from a January-through-November average of $21/MWh in 2023 to $28/MWh in 2025.

The dark spread in coal soared nearly three times between January and November this year to average $21/MWh, even as the cost of coal increased by 5%, according to the EIA report.

With that, the EIA noted the operational economics of coal plants had improved significantly relative to gas-fired plants.

Great Basin Gas Transmission Ends $1.7B Open Season

Great Basin Gas Transmission Company announced Monday (12/08) it had successfully closed its second supplemental binding open season and executed associated binding precedent agreements for its natural gas expansion project in Northern Nevada.

The wholly owned unit of Southwest Gas said the action secured long-term transportation commitments for capacity requests totaling nearly 800 million cubic feet per day.

The second open season, which followed earlier rounds to accommodate strong and continued shipper interest, supports a planned expansion carrying an estimated capital investment of approximately $1.7 billion.

The company currently anticipates a phased capital spending schedule, with roughly 20% expected in 2026, 25% in 2027, and the remaining 55% in 2028, leading to an expected in-service date of November 1, 2028, provided the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission grants approval to construct and operate the Project.

Following the in-service date, the expansion is projected to generate potential annual incremental margin of approximately $215 million to $245 million, reinforcing the company’s existing 898-mile transmission system and enhancing the availability of reliable, on-demand energy in the growing Northern Nevada region.

Marathon Flaring at Los Angeles Refinery to End Dec. 9

Marathon Petroleum has reported a planned flaring at its 365,000 bpd Los Angeles refinery in Carson, California, that is expected to end Tuesday (12/9), according to an emission report sent to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The report said the flaring began at 10:04 p.m. PT on November 21 and was scheduled to stop at 11:59 p.m. PT on December 9.

Marathon listed the reason for the flaring as “start-up/shutdown”, which typically refers to a planned event.

The flaring occurs against a backdrop of diminishing refining capacity, heightened regulatory pressure, and concerns over fuel supply stability in the West Coast market.

Marathon reported a mechanical malfunction event at the Los Angeles refinery in early December, leading to multiple flaring episodes.