We are positively bursting with news about EQT today. Yesterday EQT’s existing management issued plans for 2019 and the Rice brothers responded–by launching a proxy war to replace board members and top management. In addition, we unearthed news that the Rice boys held their meeting with EQT’s board on Jan. 15.
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Chester County DA: Using Off-Duty Police as ME2 Security a Crime
Here’s how the District Attorney in Chester County, Pennsylvania–Tom Hogan–spends his days: Attempting to turn off-duty policeman working as security guards for the Mariner East pipeline projects into criminals. Is this guy sick or what?
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PA DEP Official Says Oil & Gas Program Losing $800K per Month
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Deputy Secretary for Oil and Gas Management, Scott Perry, told DEP’s Citizens Advisory Council his program is losing $800,000 a month, which he desperately, desperately hopes will be fixed soon by slapping a 250% hike in permit fees on Marcellus drillers.
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EIA Jan ’19 Drilling Report: M-U Expands Again, Slows Some
Yesterday our favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, issued our favorite monthly report, the Drilling Productivity Report. The DPR is a forecast of oil and gas production in the country’s seven major shale plays for the coming month, made by the expert number crunchers at EIA.
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Confirmed: Marcellus Gas to Feed Elba Island LNG Export Plant
We now have confirmation for what we’ve been theorizing for years: Marcellus gas will feed Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island, Georgia LNG export facility, when the facility is finally up and running this year.
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Radical Green Groups Appeal Ohio Cracker Plant Air Permit
The radicals of the Sierra Club along with some lesser-known but equally radical enviro groups are challenging an air quality permit recently granted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for the PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker project in Belmont County, OH.
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Put VW Settlement $$ to Good Use – Buy NatGas Vehicles!
Remember a few years back when Volkswagen got caught cheating on emissions tests for the cars they make? Bad move. It ended up costing a number of people at VW their jobs, and costing the company $2.9 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government. That shakedown money is now being doled out state by state, and we can’t think of a better way to use the money than by investing in NGVs (natural gas vehicles).
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Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Jan 23, 2019
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: 15 permits awarded in the Utica Shale; rig count at 16; PennDOT, Lebanon Transit open CNG transit fueling station; Natural gas outage leaves hundreds without heat; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Newport, Middletown residents face a week or more without natural gas; Natural gas system expanding in Budd Lake; NATIONAL: States compete for oil and gas money, too; INTERNATIONAL: China’s 2018 LNG imports surge to record; Saudi Arabia ventures into U.S. natural gas; The future is now for LNG as derivatives trading takes off.
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Texas Eastern Pipeline Explodes in Noble County, OH – Injuries
A 30-inch segment of Enbridge’s Texas Eastern interstate natural gas pipeline in Noble County, OH exploded yesterday sending two people to the hospital and destroying two nearby homes. The pipeline was built in the early 1950s and was last inspected in 2012.
NOTE: We’ve added a 1/23/19 update below on how this accident has affected gas flows in Ohio.
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New Mariner East 1 Sinkhole Appears, PA PUC Shuts Down Pipeline
On Sunday a new sinkhole appeared in the backyard of a home in West Whiteland Township (Chester County), PA exposing a small portion of Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 1 (ME1) NGL pipeline.
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SWPA Revolution Pipe Still Closed After Explosion; ET, DEP Argue
On Sept. 10, Energy Transfer’s 24-inch gathering pipeline in Beaver County, PA, called the Revolution Pipeline, caught fire and exploded during testing (see Revolution Pipeline Near Pittsburgh Explodes – Home & Barn Destroyed).
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EmberClear’s Cadiz, OH Gas-Fired Power Plant Slightly Delayed
In September 2016, MDN reported that EmberClear planned to fund and build a new $900 million electric generating plant in Harrison County (see $900M Utica Gas-Fired Electric Plant Coming to Harrison County, OH). The project was supposed to begin construction by the end of last year, but didn’t.
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Franklin Park Tries to Block Fracking After Rejecting $1M+ Proposal
It appears the “leaders” of Franklin Park Borough in Allegheny County aren’t satisfied enough that they’ve rejected a free $1 million from PennEnergy Resources to drill under a town park (see Franklin Park Turns Down $1M+ to Drill Under Linbrook Park). Nope. Now they essentially want to ban fracking in the borough by passing an onerous new zoning ordinance.
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Will New York City Begin to Import Russian LNG Like Boston?
We’re following up on a post we made last Thursday about a coming moratorium on new customer hookups for natural gas in Westchester and New York City (see Moratorium on New NatGas Customers Coming in NYC Area). We now have more specifics: beginning March 15 of this year, Consolidated Edison is putting the moratorium in place.
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New Government Study Helps Frackers Become More Profitable
Can math help us be better frackers? Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory certainly think so. Researchers have developed a new mathematical model that better predicts previously hidden fractures, that can potentially boost efficiencies and profits in natural gas production.
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Energy Stories of Interest: Tue, Jan 22, 2019
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: DEP receives 2 proposed Good Samaritan gas well plugging project requests; DEP invites comments on Adelphia Pipeline Gateway Project in Delaware County; Ohio moves into top five for recoverable shale natural gas reserves; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Tellurian gets environmental clearance for Driftwood LNG; Houston company develops expertise in shallow horizontal wells; NATIONAL: DOE releases U.S. LNG export data through November 2018; Municipalities suing energy companies could get burned by their own lawyers; America’s communities will suffer if lawsuits against energy producers succeed; Huge backlog could trigger new wave of shale oil; U.S. oil-rig fleet shrinks the most in almost 3 years; Record production of natural gas to continue through 2020, Energy Department projects; Manchin’s focus on pipelines may equal his love of coal; The antithesis of green; INTERNATIONAL: An effort to bring fracking to Britain hits pause; U.S.-Qatar energy partnership has Russia on edge; Sinopec Capital calls for end to fossil-fuels vehicles.
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