Sounding like North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday “ordered” National Grid to connect 1,157 new natural gas customers previously denied service because National Grid won’t have enough natural gas on the coldest days in winter to service everyone. New York has descended into a police state, with our Dear Leader ordering around companies in contravention of established law. Yet not a peep from mainstream news organizations about Cuomo’s excessive abuse of power.
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Fed Court Suspends Mountain Valley Pipe Permits; $2.15M Fine
We’ve seen this movie before. The radical fringe leftists from the Sierra Club (disgusting organization) convinced the clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e. Circus) to block construction of Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) pipeline by getting the court to toss U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permits that allow the project to kill a couple of bats along a few miles of the project (see 4th Circus Blocks Permit, Stops All Work on Atlantic Coast Pipe). The Clubbers have done it again, this time with Equitrans’ Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project.
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Corrupt NJ DEP Again Denies PennEast Pipeline Fed Water Permit
How would you like to find out that your billion dollar pipeline project has just been denied another permit–by getting a tweet? That’s what happened to PennEast Pipeline on Friday. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy tweeted that NJ’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is, once again, denying a federal Clean Water Act Section 401 stream crossing permit for the project. The putz delivered the news to PennEast via a tweet–can you believe that? The NJ DEP is rejecting the permit not for any scientific reasons, which is what the law stipulates, but because of politics.
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Proposed New PA Pipeline to Connect Rover Pipe to WV Power Plant
It’s not often a new pipeline project crops up and slips by us. On May 31, Equitrans (formerly EQT Midstream) filed an official request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build a 16.7-mile pipeline from southwest Pennsylvania into West Virginia in order to feed what will become WV’s very first natural gas-fired electric power plant (see WV NatGas Power Plant Gets Final Permits, Construction Begins Soon). The pipeline will connect to and feed gas from the mighty Rover Pipeline.
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PA DEP Reaches $1.48M Settlement with CNX to Plug Abandoned Wells
Last year the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued administrative orders requiring three oil and gas companies–Alliance Petroleum Corporation (a subsidiary of Diversified Gas & Oil), XTO Energy, and CNX Resources–to plug 1,058 abandoned oil and gas wells across Pennsylvania (see PA DEP Orders CNX, XTO & Diversified to Plug 1,058 Abandoned Wells). All three appealed the DEP’s order to the state Environmental Hearing Board. In March of this year the DEP cut a deal with Diversified (see DEP and Diversified Gas & Oil Compromise on Plugging Old PA Wells). As of last week, the DEP has now cut a deal with CNX, relaxing their earlier edict.
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Revised Ohio Regulations Reduce Utica Well Spacing Distance
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) recently revised its regulations governing the spacing of horizontal oil and gas production wells. The revised regs, which became effective on Oct. 10, loosen spacing requirements and “will bring Ohio’s horizontal well spacing regulations in line with what accepted science and drilling data indicates is a more efficient and productive spacing for horizontal wells in Ohio.” The setback (from boundary lines) was reduced from a previous 500 feet to 400 feet in some cases, and down to 150 feet in other cases.
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Conflict-of-Interest Delays Vote on SWPA Beech Hollow Power Plant
What happens when two of three elected town supervisors either have a lease with a pipeline company, or have close family members who have leases with the pipeline company, and they must vote to approve a new power plant project that would use shale gas from that pipeline to power it? It’s called a conflict of interest, and we’re about to find out the answer to that question in Robinson Township (Washington County), PA.
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Oct 15, 2019
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Firefighters battle blazing conventional gas well in West Salem Township; Groups bidding for PES refinery due to tour fire-damaged site; Meeting to discuss plans for new power plant in Robinson Township canceled; WV’s oil and gas industry prepares for petrochemical manufacturing; GAIL selling two, seeking one LNG cargo; NATIONAL: Pipeline vandals have a friend in these phony enablers; Five U.S. LNG export projects eyed for sanctioning in 2020; Oilfield services firm ProPetro cuts almost 150 workers.
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Columbus Day Holiday – MDN is Off Today
It’s Columbus Day! MDN will not publish our regular list of stories today–but have no fear, we will be back tomorrow (Tuesday) with a full lineup.
Take a moment today to celebrate the world’s most famous Italian–the guy who started it all, the guy who discovered the Americas and what would one day become the greatest country on earth: The United States of America!
National Grid Predicts NESE Pipe Will Get OK in “Next Few Weeks”
National Grid, the electric and natural gas utility company that serves part of New York City and all of Long Island, has been the target of a smear campaign by New York Gov. Cuomo, who ordered his Dept. of Environment Conservation (DEC) to reject the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project in May (see NY Gov. Cuomo Denies Permit for Williams NESE Pipeline to NYC). Because of the coming shortage in natgas for the region thanks to Cuomo’s NESE decision, National Grid now refuses to accept any new natgas customers in the Greater NYC area (see National Grid Keeps Promise, No New NYC Gas Customers). There’s been a LOT of blowback–much of it aimed at Cuomo who attempts to shift the blame for his action in blocking NESE onto National Grid.
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Risberg PA-to-OH Pipeline Project Almost Done, Ready by Dec. 1
The Risberg Line, a 60-mile pipeline from Crawford County, PA to Erie County, PA, and from there across the border into Ashtabula County, OH, began construction in February (see Construction Begins on “Massive” PA to OH Risberg Pipeline). We told you in August that Ashtabula is already seeing the benefits of this pipeline, even though it’s not yet done (see As Risberg Pipe Nears Finish, $474M Plant Locates in Ashtabula). Now comes word the project is nearly complete–less than a mile left–and should be 100% done in the next month.
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NJ Gov Caves to Radicals, Now Opposes Meadowlands Gas-Fired Plant
Apparently environmental radicals in the state of New Jersey can “have their way” with its Democrat Governor, Phil Murphy–just about any time they want. Murphy has the disturbing habit of genuflecting to his leftist base and has done so once again by coming out against a plan to build a Marcellus gas-fired electric power plant planned for the Meadowlands, a plant that would feed electricity to New York City.
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NJ Congress Members Ask FERC to Shut Down Work on PennEast Pipe
Two Members of Congress from the New Jersey delegation–Tom Malinowski and Bonnie Watson Coleman (both liberal Democrats)–are calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to issue a “stop-work” order for the PennEast Pipeline project. Not that any real work to build it has even begun! The lib Dems say because of the recent ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the entire project should be shut down and mothballed.
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EdgeMarc Creditors Ask Judge to Change Bankruptcy from Ch 11 to 7
EdgeMarc Energy, headquartered in Canonsburg, PA (with 50,000 acres of Marcellus/Utica leases), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, looking to sell all of the company’s assets (see EdgeMarc Energy Files for Bankruptcy, Blames Revolution Pipe). The reason? They can’t move their production to market because their main pipeline partner, Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline, exploded in September 2018 and ET has not been able to get the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection to allow them to fix and restart it.
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FERC Finalizes New HDD Guidelines 2 Yrs After Rover Pipe Incident
In April 2017 while using underground horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for the Rover Pipeline project, some 2 million gallons of drilling mud went down a hole near the Tuscarawas River and popped back out where it should not have, harming a wetland by smothering aquatic life (see Rover Pipeline Accident Spills ~2M Gal. Drilling Mud in OH Swamp). That 2 million gallon “spill” triggered a shutdown of all HDD work for Rover in Ohio. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) stopped all Rover HDD work until December 2017, when it allowed HDD work to resume (see FERC Gives Rover OK to Resume All HDD Work, Incl. Tuscarawas River). Then another 200,000 gallons of drilling mud went missing at the Tuscarawas location in January 2018, so FERC shut it down again (see FERC Stops Rover Drilling Near River After 200K Gal Mud Disappears).
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Is Marcellus/Utica Gas Production Finally About to Peak?
If you’ve read MDN for any length of time, you know we’re not much for “peak” anything–peak oil or peak gas–the theory that we’ve hit the top and either supply or demand will decrease. There are those who espouse both peak oil and peak gas theories (the tinfoil hat brigade in our book). In point of fact, October is the 34th consecutive month for which natural gas production in America’s shale plays has increased (see EIA Sep ’19 Drilling Report: M-U Growth Slows, Still a New Record). The rate of increase may have slowed a bit, but each month production (and use) still goes up. In Pennsylvania where the Marcellus reigns supreme, there’s been an unbroken chain of quarter-over-quarter increases in horizontal shale gas production for twelve consecutive quarters, or 36 months (see IFO: PA Natural Gas Production Hits New All-Time High in 2Q19). So when we spot yet another article claiming we’re entering the zenith, the top–and production is about to begin a slow decline “any month now”….you can color us skeptical.
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