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Williams Invests $4.5B on Midstream Plants in a Single WV County

bird in the handWilliams Partners–one of the largest midstream companies operating in both the Marcellus and Utica Shale–is investing a massive $4.5 billion on three processing facilities in Marshall County, WV. A single county! Pennsylvania is still hoping Shell will proceed with building an ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, PA and they’re gaga over the prospect of a $2 billion investment to build that plant. But right across the border in Marshall County, Williams is right now spending $4.5 billion ($2.2B of it on upgrades and new construction).

The three facilities are the Fort Beeler processing plant, the Oak Grove processing plant, and the Moundsville fractionation plant. Here is an update on those three plants and Williams’ massive investment:
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BHO Sacrifices Liberty and Freedom in the Name of Climate Change

On Tuesday, President Barack Hussein Obama delivered a speech at Georgetown University (full copy embedded below) in which he said, essentially, that he doesn’t have the patience for this messy thing called democracy and freedom and the will of the people when it comes to so-called Climate Change. Therefore he, BHO, in order to save the planet from itself, will charge forward with draconian measures that he’s sure will be unpopular, but according to him, necessary.
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Hess: Frackin’ and Flarin’ in Eastern Ohio

It looks like Hess has come alive in Ohio’s Utica Shale. According to the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook – Volume 1, Hess received 2 permits to drill in Belmont County for the period January – April, 2013. They also received 5 permits to drill in Guernsey County, and 8 permits to drill 3 wells in Harrison County for the same period. Hess recently completed drilling one of the Belmont wells and that well is now being flared.

From this news account, we get more insight into Hess’ recent Utica Shale drilling activities and production:
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EV Energy: Changing from Big Deals to Small for Utica Land Sale

In September last year, EV Energy Partners/EnerVest put more than a half million acres of Utica Shale acreage on the market. A deal for 104,000 of those acres seemed to be almost done, but in April of this year, the deal fell apart (see EV Energy Partners Deal to Sell 104K Utica Acres Dead, What Now?). According to EVEP’s president and CEO, Mark Houser, last year everyone wanted deals for large blocks of acreage. This year? People want small acreage deals. So EVEP is changing their strategy in order to dump some of their Utica Shale holdings.

Houser gave a presentation yesterday at the Credit Suisse MLP and Energy Logistics Conference. In his speech and the following Q&A, he gave a comprehensive update on EVEP’s Utica Shale program. MDN has extracted out his comments about the Utica (see below), and grabbed the slide deck he refers to (embedded below)…
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Maryland Releases Draft “Best Practices” in Shale Drilling Report

On Tuesday, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released a draft report (dated August 2013) of “best practices for drilling and production that should be required” if (really big if) horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas is permitted in the Marcellus shale in Maryland (full copy of the draft report is embedded below). At least one county official in one of the two Maryland counties that actually has Marcellus Shale under it is concerned that drillers will take one look at the proposed regulations and say “no thanks” to Maryland when it comes to drilling. He’s right to be concerned…
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New Utica Rail Transloading Facility Opens in Trumbull County, OH

MDN recently told you about a revitalization coming to the Lordstown rail yard in Trumbull County, OH thanks to Utica Shale drilling (see Revamped Trumbull County, OH Rail Yard Coming for Utica Shale). That effort has now borne fruit with the launch of a new bulk material handling and rail transloading service from Savage to handle oil and gas field products…
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