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Big Green Groups Launch Another Sue & Settle Lawsuit Against EPA

Sue and SettleA coalition of Big Green environmental groups, with seemingly endless piles of cash to launch frivolous lawsuits, are launching another “sue and settle” lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The usual suspects are involved: Environmental Integrity Project, Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthworks, Responsible Drilling Alliance, San Juan Citizens Alliance, West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. The Big Green groups are attempting to force the EPA to end the legal practice of wastewater disposal via injection wells, and drill cuttings disposal in landfills–largely in the Marcellus/Utica area. After all, much of the production of natural gas is in the northeast in the Marcellus/Utica, and the aim of these nutters is to end all fossil fuel production in the United States. So like a drive-by assassin, they load their litigation weapons and shoot, repeatedly, at our region. Enough. When will our side shoot back? When will we launch lawsuit after lawsuit against these groups and de-fund them using their own methods against them?…
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Analyst Predicts Marcellus Production Will Go Up in October

October surpriseNatural gas production in the mighty Marcellus Shale has dipped over the past several months–for the first time ever. As MDN has previously reported, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Drilling Production Report (DPR) in June was the first time the EIA predicted Marcellus production would fall, from June to July, from 16,522 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) to 16,494 MMcf/d (see A Sad First: EIA’s June DPR Reports Marcellus Production Slips). The July report shows Marcellus production slipping again, to 16,487 MMcf/d (see July EIA DPR – Utica Stands Alone with Higher Natgas Production). And in August, the DPR shows production prediction for September to be 16,372 Mmcf/d (see August EIA DPR: NatGas Production Declines in All 7 Shale Plays). But what’s this? An analyst with the huge bank Société Générale believes we may see an “October surprise” where Marcellus production ticks back up again. Why?…
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3 Potential Buyers Identified for Eureka Hunter Pipeline Deal

silhouette questionFinally we know. In June Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR), majority owner of subsidiary pipeline company Eureka Hunter, said it was negotiating to sell all of its ownership of Eureka Hunter to an unnamed buyer for $600-$700 million (see Magnum Hunter Cuts Deal to Sell Eureka Hunter & 2 New JVs). Two weeks ago Magnum Hunter CEO Gary Evans continued to tease that the sale is imminent and will bring in around $550 million (see Magnum Hunter About to Close 2 Deals Worth $1 Billion Cash). Cash amounts and deadline dates seem to be “fluid,” shall we say, when it comes to MHR statements. We still haven’t heard who the potential buyer is. That is, until now. Bloomberg is reporting the potential buyer is…
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EIA’s Old News About September Slide in NatGas Production

old newsOur favorite government agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), has just published an article in their Today in Energy online publication recapping what the August Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) showed: cumulative natural gas production from the country’s largest seven commercially active shale plays will decrease in September for the first time since the EIA began producing the DPR. As we already highlighted two weeks ago, the August DPR, which predicts production volumes for September, shows a decrease in production across all seven major shale plays, which includes both the Marcellus and the Utica (see August EIA DPR: NatGas Production Declines in All 7 Shale Plays). The article in yesterday’s Today in Energy (read it below) simply points out that in addition to a decrease in production across all seven shale plays, if you add up their cumulative production, the cumulative amount will be less in September than it was in August–meaning this is the first since the beginning of the shale revolution that natural gas production output from shale has decreased in the United States…
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Govt Agencies Ask FERC to Delay Atlantic Coast Pipeline Project

hyenasIt’s bad enough when anti-fossil fuel zealots gang up, like a pack of hyenas, to try and defeat a much-needed pipeline like Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (see New Coalition of Same Old Antis Opposes Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Virginia RINOs in League with Dems to Stop Atlantic Coast Pipeline). Now the federal government is joining in too. The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), along with the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service (USFS) are pushing back against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. All three agencies regularly exceed their Constitutional authority and need to be reigned in–but that won’t happen under Dictator in Chief BHO. The BLM has just fired off a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting yet another delay in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project…
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Study Finds PA Wastewater Volumes in 2014 Same as 3 Yrs Ago

researchThe Ben Franklin Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center (SGICC), affiliated with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic with a mission to accelerate technology breakthroughs related to shale gas in PA, has just released an updated report on shale wastewater treatment and disposal in PA. The report, titled “Shale Gas Development – Summary of Shale Gas Wastewater Treatment and Disposal In Pennsylvania 2014” (full copy below) finds that drillers in PA produced about 1.8 billion gallons of gas and oil wastewater in 2014–a figure largely unchanged since 2011. The study also finds the shale industry in PA is recycling 91% of the wastewater it produces. Interestingly, the updated report shows “produced water” (or brine, naturally occurring water from the depths) volumes far exceeded volumes for “frac fluid” (or the fluid originally pumped into the well when drilling and fracking). That’s a reversal from the data evaluated in 2011 when frac fluid represented the bulk of the wastewater stream…
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Western PA Pipeline Upgrade Almost Done; Benefits Range & Seneca

upgradeA pipeline upgrade project in western Pennsylvania is making excellent progress. In February 2014 National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the Line N West Side Expansion and Modernization Project in Washington, Allegheny, Beaver, Venango and Mercer Counties, PA. The project calls for building some 23 miles of new pipeline next to an existing NFG pipeline in Washington and Beaver counties, along with compressor station and other upgrades along other portions of the existing Line N pipeline. NFG previously signed Range Resources and NFG’s own subsidiary, Seneca Resources, as customers for an increase in capacity to flow an additional 175,000 decatherms per day, Dth/d (175 million cubic feet per day, MMcf/d). The extra capacity allows Range and Seneca to move of the Marcellus Shale gas they produce in western PA to market. Although construction is still underway, NFG has asked FERC to begin partial service now, two months ahead of schedule…
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Elections Board Strikes Down 5th Youngstown Anti-Frack Ballot

access deniedLogicFree Mahoning Valley (aka FrackFree Mahoning Valley) doesn’t like to bother with piddly things like, oh, the law. Who follows that? The law is only a useful tool when it favors their twisted viewpoint. When it doesn’t? Ignore it. Over the past several years FrackFree Mahoning Valley and their supporters have duped enough E! Entertainment viewers in Youngstown, OH to sign a petition putting a so-called home rule measure up for a vote four times (see Fourth Time the Charm for Youngstown Frack Ban Measure?). The measure is meant to ban fracking in Youngstown–a symbolic thumb in the eye of the Utica Shale industry. Fortunately the voters of Youngstown have voted it down all four times. But that doesn’t stop the crazies. They’re back with another petition, signed by enough E! Entertainment viewers to get it on the ballot yet again. But this time the Mahoning County Board of Elections has voted, unanimously, to keep it off the ballot…
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Customers Sign on Dotted Line for MI/OH Refined Products Pipeline

sign on dotted lineIn April MDN reported on a successful open season (time when new customers sign up) for the Michigan/Ohio Pipeline Expansion Project–a pipeline expansion project that will deliver “refined petroleum products” (things like gasoline, kerosene and heating oil) from Woodhaven and Detroit, Michigan, and from Toledo and Lima, Ohio, to destination points in both Ohio and Western Pennsylvania (see Buckeye Partners Expanding MI/OH Refined Products Pipeline East). Buckeye Partners, the owner of the pipeline, has just reported “we got everyone who raised their hand, to now sign on the dotted line”–something called the execution of a transportation service agreement…
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