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NY Gov. Cuomo Vetoes Port Ambrose LNG Import Terminal

vetoA rather abrupt end for an issue that was just getting started. Liberty Natural Gas filed a plan back in 2010, prior to the Marcellus Shale revolution, to construct an off-shore LNG import (not export) facility off the coast of New York and New Jersey–in the ocean. A floating LNG facility called the Port Ambrose project. A pipeline would run from the off-shore terminal to Jones Beach, NY and from there would connect to a Transco pipeline lateral. The U.S. Coast Guard recently gave their blessing to the project (see Coast Guard Approves Port Ambrose LNG Import Terminal Near NYC/NJ). Liberty has tried to sell the project to New York and New Jersey anti-drilling nutters by saying the gas would come from Trinidad and wouldn’t be that nasty, fracked gas loaded with radon (see Liberty Says “Non-Fracked” Trinidad Gas Better than Marcellus Gas). Needless to say that was a whopping error on Liberty’s part–to smear the entire drilling industry in a vain attempt to garner favor with Kool Aid drinking global warmers, just to make a buck. Liberty’s “it’s not fracked gas” rationale didn’t stop the antis–they were just beginning to organize with protests and rallies–their version of a tailgate party at an NFL game. And now New York Gov. Cuomo has gone and ruined it for them. Cuomo, with the stroke of a pen, has vetoed the project. It’s dead. Done. Finished. Won’t happen…
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Exceptionalism: Why the Marcellus Stands Alone Among Shale Plays

In a recent analysis of the shale oil and natural gas industry in the U.S., Reuters analyst John Kemp says that there are big differences in shale oil and shale gas when it comes to price. He posits that oil output will be “less resilient” than gas when it comes to maintaining profitability with lower prices. Kemp offers the following comments and rationale for why and how the Marcellus (and Utica) has changed the natural gas industry–what he called “Marcellus Exceptionalism”…
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Sunoco LP Fined $59K for Fixing Pipe Running Thru 7 Swamps

Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don’t… Sunoco Logistics Partners needed to do maintenance (i.e. fix things) along the Mariner East 1 pipeline–an 80 year-old petroleum pipeline repurposed to flow natural gas liquids (NGLs). Some of the places where they need to fix it, the pipeline runs underground beneath a number of swamps–smelly, stagnant water where mosquitoes with West Nile virus breed. Today swamps are called “wetlands.” Go figure. Because Sunoco didn’t get a “Mother May I?” permit from the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) before fixing the pipeline in seven swamps, the DEP has fined the company $59,000. No doubt if Sunoco had waited for permits issued in triplicate and didn’t fix the pipeline, something would have spilled and there would have been an even bigger fine (and lawsuit) for that! A real no-win situation…
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What Did Eclipse Resources Qtly Call Reveal re Potential Sale?

Yesterday Eclipse Resources, an exploration and production company focused solely on the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, held their third quarter analyst conference call to discuss third quarter 2015 performance. We’ve already brought you the official press release/update for Eclipse’s 3Q15 results (see Eclipse Resources 3Q15: Production Up 163%, Net Loss $81M). What we were interested in, as we scoured the transcript of the conference call, was whether or not anyone brought up the rumor that Eclipse is currently shopping the company (see Marcellus/Utica Driller Eclipse Resources Looking for a Buyer). Morgan Stanley is said to be the investment bank shopping Eclipse for sale. There were no analysts from MS on the call, but there were analysts from MS competitors, like arch rival Goldman Sachs. Did any of those analysts ask a question about the rumor the company is looking to sell?…
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Wolf Says You’ll Love the Budget Deal; Repubs Say, What Deal?

Yet another mass delusion campaign has begun to convince Pennsylvanians that what just happened didn’t happen. And what just happened? Newly-elected neophyte Gov. Tom Wolf didn’t get anything important he wanted in the budget deal that’s quickly taking form–except for getting the second highest sales tax rate in the country. That he got, and he’s trying to spin that as a big positive. What is Wolf, and a sycophantic, servile mainstream media, saying? “He hung tough. He didn’t get everything, but by gaw he got a lot of it and it’s all good for the state. Yeah he didn’t get a Marcellus severance tax, but pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! Wolf got all this other great stuff for the teachers’ unions to pay them back for supporting him and everybody loves Wolf. You’re gonna love it–just you wait and see.” That about sums up the tone and style of “reporting” on the deal. Meanwhile, some rather honest Republicans from the Altoona area are saying, (1) the budget deal is most certainly not done yet, (2) schools are a never-ending sinkhole for money–they want more money in good times and bad, and (3) if the state had implemented a severance tax, it would have finished off the Marcellus industry where drilling is now at a minimum even without the extra tax. Wow, what a breath of fresh air to hear politicians who tell the truth…
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Boone Pickens Schools Obama on Keystone Decision, Energy “Plan”

A little common sense from a man who has deep wells of common sense, T. Boone Pickens is a Texas oil man (pronounced “aall man” in a Texas accent) needs no introduction. In the pages of Forbes magazine, Boone Pickens takes President Obama to task for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline–essentially calling him a non-leader and a coward. We have his column below, titled “President Obama, ‘No’ Is Not An Energy Plan.” The way we’ll introduce it is with a personal story that has nothing to do with nothing, except there’s a tie-in with Boone Pickens. When MDN editor Jim Willis was a (very) young man, he had the privilege and honor to first intern, and later be on staff in the Ronald Reagan White House. Jim was (perhaps still is) a hick from upstate New York. He always felt like Alice in Wonderland when arriving at work at the Old Executive Office Building (part of the White House complex) and seeing people walk by on the sidewalk that you see each night on the news. He could look out a window on the front lawn of the White House and watch the nightly news segments being taped! Very cool stuff for a young guy. Also very cool to see the President in person on rare occasions. The office in which Jim worked was Presidential Personnel–the employment agency for all of the thousands of positions appointed by the President throughout the federal government. In the office where Jim worked were three other people–all ladies. Two of them were the daughters of billionaires–Ross Perot’s daughter Nancy, and Boone Pickens’ daughter Liz…
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Free Online Resource: “Oil 101” – Good Overview of O&G Industry

EKT Interactive, an online training company, has previously published a free six-part series they call “Oil 101”–aimed at giving workers (and others) interested in the oil and gas industry a working knowledge of the industry. EKT will publish a new 10-part series in January. The curriculum is fast-paced and provides an overview of how things work, the special terminology for the industry (every industry has its own lingo), and an overall conceptual framework. How do all of these puzzle pieces fit together? Meanwhile, the six mini-courses they offer now that are part of Oil 101–which include sections on upstream, midstream and downstream–are available for free when you register on their website. We’ve done a quick scan and believe it’s a worthwhile resource–something you may want to check out (www.ektinteractive.com). Here’s the announcement about the free stuff they have now, and what they have planned for January…
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Poo Lagoon: Turning Piles of Pig Poo into Green Money

Blue LagoonRemember the movie The Blue Lagoon from 1980? It starred Brooke Shields stranded on an island with somebody else (who remembers?, doesn’t matter). At that time it was every young man’s fantasy to grow up on a desert island with Brooke Shields! Since it’s Friday and we’re in a lighthearted mood, we thought we would bring you the story of the “poo lagoon”–as in pig poo. And no, we’re not making this up! Smithfield Foods, operator of nine humongous pig farms in northern Missouri (with 2 million pigs) stores all of the pig poo produced in 88 “poo lagoons” (their words, not ours) where it decomposes and throws methane into the atmosphere like nobody’s business. Methane escaping into the atmosphere drives global warmers into a near-catatonic state of worry that the methane escaping will cause Mother Earth to fry. So in an effort to lessen the angst of warmers, and to make a little coin on the side, Smithfield Foods is using a European technology to harness the methane coming from all of that crap to purify it (get rid of the bacon smell) and sell it…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Nov 13, 2015

The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: power plant development in the Marcellus/Utica; northeast drillers slowing down after Q3; OH has 1,635 drilled Utica wells; AG Kane sued in federal court; EPA hearings in Pittsburgh bring out the crazies; Quigley’s pipeline pipe dreams; CA solar farm burns natgas; and more!
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