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Analyst Predicts 6 Big Cracker Plants Coming to Marcellus/Utica!

number-6At last year’s Utica Summit III event held in Stark, OH, Tom Gellrich of consulting firm TopLine Analytics, a company that “closely follows ethane markets,” said he thinks the first ethane cracker to get built will be the Shell cracker plant in Beaver County, PA. He was right. Shell announced their official decision to move forward earlier this year. At that same event Gellrich said he thinks the Marcellus/Utica region will see three, possibly four, ethane crackers built (see Expert Tells Utica Conference NE Will See “3 or 4” Cracker Plants). The Utica Summit IV was just held, this time in North Canton, OH. Gellrich once again addressed the conferees and this year he’s upped the number. Now Gellrich believes it is “likely” that a “half-dozen multi-billion-dollar plants” will get built in PA, OH and WV…
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Cornerstone Pipe Now Flowing, “Backbone” of MPLX Utica Strategy

Cornerstone Pipeline Route Map
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In September MDN reported that part of Marathon Petroleum’s Cornerstone Pipeline began to flow condensate (see Utica Condensate Begins Flowing Through Cornerstone Pipeline). The approximately 50-mile pipeline was built to flow natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the MarkWest cryogenic processing plant in Cadiz, OH northwest connecting to M3’s fractionator plant in Scio and M3’s cryogenic processing plant in Leesville before terminating at Marathon’s refinery in Canton, OH. In September condensate was flowing from Cadiz to East Sparta. Good news! The entire pipeline is now up and running. In a surprising statement announcing full operations for the pipeline, Marathon CEO Gary Heminger said, “Cornerstone is the backbone of our Utica shale strategy.” That shows the immense importance the company places on this new pipeline…
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Invenergy Sues Elizabeth Twp to Allow NatGas-Fired Electric Plant

lawsuitIn January, Invenergy announced their intention to build a natgas-powered electric plant in Elizabeth Township, in Allegheny County (see Invenergy Eyes SWPA for Second Marcellus-Powered Electric Plant). Compared to Invenergy’s other PA plant now under construction in Jessup, PA (1,480 megawatts), the proposed Elizabeth plant is much smaller, at 550 megawatts. It would be built on a brownfield site near Pittsburgh. Even though the site where Invenergy wants to build is a former landfill where fly ash was dumped, making it unusable for just about any other purpose, a group of local residents would prefer to keep the site a contaminated dump rather than convert it to a beneficial use like generating electricity (see Invenergy Gets Pushback on Proposed Natgas Power Plant in SWPA). Such is the kooky world of antis. Unfortunately, the local antis enlisted the support of Elizabeth Township’s zoning board, which rejected the plan in June (see Elizabeth Twp Rejects Clean Invenergy Power Plant at Dump Site). However, Invenergy is not giving up. The company has filed a lawsuit in Allengheny County Court, appealing the zoning commission’s decision…
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New England: No Gas Pipes Mean Sky-High Energy Costs on the Way

Sky HighWe hate to say “I told you so,” but we’ll say it anyway. If you live in New England, prepare yourself. You’re about to experience more price shocks for natural gas and electricity (4x more than the rest of the country, or higher). Why? Because you’re blocking new pipeline projects that would bring cheap, abundant, clean-burning natural gas to the region. The Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale sits a few hundred miles away–yet very little Marcellus gas is flowing to New England at this point. New England, more than any other region in the country, relies on natgas to power electric generating plants. Without extra supplies, especially in the winter months when natgas gets used for heating, electric generators are forced to pay obscenely high rates to stay in operation. Those obscenely high rates get passed along to ratepayers–businesses AND residences. Yet anti-fossil fuel wackos continue to try and stop new pipelines, sometimes criminally (see Part of AIM Pipeline Begins to Flow; Protesters Hide in Pipe). A new report just issued (full copy below) by the New England Coalition for Affordable Energy says New England is at a much greater risk for higher energy costs in the short-term because of lack of new pipelines…
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MSC Corrects/Clarifies Article Touting HB 1391 Royalty Bill

rebuttalYesterday MDN ran a story reporting that a landowner rebellion against post-production cost deductions from royalties is spreading beyond just Bradford County in northeastern Pennsylvania–to counties in southwestern PA (see PA Royalty Unrest Spreads from Bradford County to Western PA). We picked up part of an article run by the Washington, PA Observer-Reporter. The Marcellus Shale Coalition sent along an email rebuttal of that article, to “correct/clarify several issues in the article” that they believe either mischaracterize the situation, or statements that are outright wrong. Here is the MSC’s rebuttal…
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2nd Study Affirms Cow Burps & Rice Paddies Causing Fugitive Methane

cow-burpLast Friday MDN reported that none other than the man-made global warmists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a research report admitting that cows and rice farms are the real cause of an increase in global methane emissions–NOT shale drilling (see NOAA Research: Cows & Rice Farms Biggest Source of Fugitive Methane). So far the radicals at the Sierra Club, Food & Water Watch, National Resources Defense Council, Riverkeeper and other loons who rail against fossil fuels have been silent. A second such study has now been published, by a different group of researchers. This new study concludes the same thing. Researchers from the Department of Earth Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London have just published a study in the journal Global Biochemical Cycles (full copy below). The study “refutes conventional wisdom” and finds: “Recent rises in levels of methane in our atmosphere is being driven by biological sources, such as swamp gas, cow burps, or rice fields, rather than fossil fuel emissions.” This is sure to send the antis into therapy…
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Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline – Supporters and Detractors in Southeast PA

Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline map
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MDN has written dozens of articles about Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, a $3 billion, 198-mile project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. It is a much-needed pipeline to move more Marcellus gas south, to new markets (see a list of our Atlantic Sunrise articles here). What’s the current status? It’s going through a regulatory review with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Back in May the project received a favorable Environmental Impact Statement from FERC (see Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Gets Positive EIS from FERC). Williams expects final FERC approval later this year or early next year, despite negative feedback from the Obama EPA, Obama Dept. of Interior, and despite ongoing frivolous lawsuits from the likes of THE Delaware Riverkeeper. Mark our words: this project will get built. Below are a couple of bits of news about Atlantic Sunrise. One is about a recent debate, held in Lancaster Monday evening, among three candidates for the PA Senate. Predictably the Democrat is against Atlantic Sunrise, and the Republican is for it. Also below is news that the usual nutty suspects, including the Allegheny Defense Project, Appalachian Mountain Advocates, the Sierra Club (among others) have filed yet another request with FERC to block the project by changing the already-issued favorable EIS…
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White House Report Acknowledges Role of Shale Gas in Manuf Jobs

drilling-equals-jobs.jpgEven the anti-fossil fuel Barack Hussein Obama can’t ignore the fact that natural gas saved his pathetic administration’s rear-end over the past eight years. Without shale gas, the economy would be further in the crapper than it is now. Last week the White House National Economic Council released a report titled “Revitalizing American Manufacturing” (full copy below) to commemorate Manufacturing Day. The report finds the U.S. economy added some 800,000 manufacturing jobs since 2010–largely due to the shale revolution and cheap natural gas…
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API Runs “I Am An Energy Voter” Ads – Are They Effective?

energy-voterIf you’re anything like us, you’re TIRED of the political commercials that play ad nauseam on television and radio. At least with junk mail and newspaper advertisements you can safely ignore them. But lately the political commercials for local races (not even counting Trump & Clinton) on TV and radio threatens our sanity. Watching the evening news is impossible due to these commercials. But our eyes and ears perked up we heard a different kind of political ad–something called, “I am an energy voter.” The ads were created and are sponsored/paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. Just prior to the election the API has ramped up these ads, extolling the virtues of oil and gas production, and encouraging voters to consider casting a vote “for” energy. We’ve heard these ads on local radio and TV. As good as these ads are, we found ourselves wondering, what is a vote “for” energy, anyway? The ads are nonpartisan–they don’t identify a candidate that is “for” energy. So we wonder if these ads, while good, are just a big vanity spend on the part of the API. Are the ads having an impact? Is the message of being “for” oil and gas being driven into viewers’ psyches?…
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Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Wed, Oct 12, 2016

best of the restThe “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Impact of northeast gas demand on Marcellus production; Garrett County panel considers regulating drilling; shale has been a giant boon to OH economy; Phila. Energy Solutions laying off workers; natural gas rodeo; why the shale band will break; natgas prices will heat up as oil drilling cools off; and more!
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