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Diversified Gas & Oil Buys Core Appalachia for $183M

Diversified Gas & Oil continues its mission to buy as many non-shale (conventional) oil and gas wells as it can in the Appalachian Basin. In June, MDN brought you the exclusive news that Diversified had purchased EQT’s Huron Shale assets in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia for $575 million (see Diversified Gas & Oil Adds to Conventional Assets in KY, VA, WV). They’ve just done it again. This week Diversified announced a deal to buy out Core Appalachia for $183 million, which includes ~5,000 producing wells (90% of production is natgas) and 1.3 million acres in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.
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NTSB Report: Columbia Gas Bad Work Order Caused Explosions

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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has just released a preliminary report on what caused a series of explosions and fires in a natural gas pipeline system 25 miles northwest of Boston in mid-September (see Local NatGas Pipes Explode Near Boston Killing 1, Injuring 25). The NTSB confirmed that the cause was overpressurized pipes due to workers capping off an old pipeline that contained sensors telling the system to pump more gas than needed. The question becomes, Who’s at fault? NTSB says the fault lies clearly Columbia Gas themselves.
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6 New Northeast Pipes & How They Will Affect Production, Prices

The full effect of a number of major new interstate natural gas pipelines coming online in the Marcellus/Utica is only just beginning to take shape. Six such projects are in various stages of completion or online, including: Atlantic Sunrise, Gulf XPress, Mountaineer XPress, WB XPress, NEXUS and Rover. Some of those projects are now wide open and flowing, but most are not (yet) at full capacity. The effect of all these projects becoming 100% operational won’t happen until this winter. How will full capacity affect production? Will we see an increase? And how will full capacity affect prices? Will we see higher prices as our gas flows to new markets?
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EPA Public Mtg Examines Disposing O&G Wastewater in Lakes, Rivers

In May the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a study looking into the possibility of treating oil and gas wastewater and (gasp) releasing the cleaned-up wastewater into lakes and rivers, instead of injecting it back down holes in the ground. Earlier this week the EPA held a public meeting to discuss preliminary findings and to elicit more input from the industry and from Big Green on their study, which is called “Study of Oil and Gas Extraction Wastewater Management” (due to be released early next year). Below is an update on the meeting with a slide deck used by EPA.
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Columbia Pushes Back on “Rehearing” for Pipeline Under Potomac

Anti-fossil fuelers are on a holy mission to stop a 3.5-mile, 8-inch pipeline from being built under the Potomac River by Columbia Pipeline (see Maryland Antis Oppose 13th Pipeline Under Potomac as “Dangerous”). The proposed pipeline, from Maryland on one side of the river to West Virginia on the other side, will be built to feed a larger pipeline project from Mountaineer Gas called the Eastern Panhandle Expansion. After receiving a request from colluding Big Green groups, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed to “rehear” its decision to approve the project (see FERC to Rehear Decision re Columbia Gas Pipeline Under Potomac). This week Columbia sent FERC a detailed analysis of why the decision to approve should not be reheard, and why the pipeline project should move forward as planned.
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Who’s the Biggest NatGas Producer in the Ohio Utica?

The Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA) and St. Clairsville Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored an update on the Utica Shale and its impacts in southeastern Ohio at a one-day event held yesterday at Belmont College. The upshot of the day seemed to be this: The Utica is still creating thousands of jobs, and still attracting millions of dollars in investment. Among the speakers were reps from both EQT and Ascent, who had some interesting comments about their respective operations. Question: Who do you think is the largest natural gas producer in Ohio today? One of the speakers made the surprise claim that her company is now the top producer in Ohio.
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How to Turn PA’s $60B Shale Energy Future into Reality Today

One year ago Chevron Appalachia and People’s Natural Gas teamed up to release a study called “Forge the Future: Pennsylvania’s Path To An Advanced, Energy-Enabled Economy” (see Chevron & People’s Natural Gas Team Up to Map Out PA’s $60B Future). Rather than wait around for “someone else” to flesh out a plan to leverage what Chevron and People’s call a $60 billion (!) opportunity in PA, they went ahead and did it themselves. Smart people. That was Phase I. Others have joined the effort which has morphed into a loose organization called PA Forge The Future. The group has just launched Phase II, a new study called “Ideas for Action: Actionable Initiatives to Accelerate Energy-Enabled Economic Development in Pennsylvania” (full copy below).
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Energy Stories of Interest: Fri, Oct 12, 2018

The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Utica Shale Academy enrollment on the rise; Cabot subsidiary hiring in northeast PA; U.S. LNG exports edge down second week running; Senate GOP moves at ‘light speed’ to confirm nominee; Long-range warm risks seen as November natural gas called lower; How Bloomberg embeds green warriors in blue-state governments; Which is safer for transporting crude oil: rail, truck, pipeline or boat?; US green groups carry out Russia’s bidding in fracking fight.
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