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NY Constitution Pipeline Not Dead Yet, FERC Grants 2-Yr Extension

Miracle of miracles, two (!) Democrat FERC commissioners (Cheryl LaFleur and Dick Glick), along with one Republican commissioner (Chairman Neil Chatterjee), voted unanimously to extend the time frame by another two years for Williams to build the Constitution Pipeline. As you may recall, the Constitution was stopped cold by corrupt NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his lackeys at the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Constitution is planned to run from Susquehanna County, PA up into, and mostly situated in, New York State. Cuomo won’t be happy with this decision because it’s a very loud and clear signal that FERC believes the project *will* some day get built.
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New M-U Pressure Pumping Co. Starts Up in Pittsburgh

Yet another Range Resources alumnus is now working for someone else–himself. Matt Curry, a chemical engineer and Pittsburgh native who used to work for Range, along with Chris Combs, who’s worked for a number of drilling services companies in Texas, co-founded Praetorian Energy Solutions, a “pressure pumping and pumpdown services” headquartered in Canonsburg, PA. The company, launched earlier this year, is (so far) working in the Eagle Ford Shale play in Texas–because that’s where they bought their equipment. That equipment will be heading north soon to operate in the Marcellus/Utica. What is a pressure pumping/pumpdown company?
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1 Bcf/d of M-U Gas Ready to Flow to Gulf Coast via Columbia Pipe

Click for larger version

According to RBN Energy, “TransCanada’s Columbia Gas and Columbia Gulf transmission systems are gearing up to place into service their tandem Mountaineer Xpress and Gulf Xpress expansions, which will allow another 1 Bcf/d [billion cubic feet per day] of Marcellus/Utica gas to flow south as far as Louisiana.” This is seriously good news! Yet more of our gas will now flow to other markets where it will fetch higher prices. It was only less than a year ago, in December 2017, that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved both projects (see Leach XPress Goes Online; FERC Approves Mountaineer & Gulf XPress). Part of Mountaineer Xpress went online last month. The rest of Mountaineer XPress and the startup of Gulf XPress is expected this month.
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EQT Makes it Official, Files with FERC to Extend MVP into NC

MVP Southgate map – click for larger version

In April MDN told you that even though Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) had only just begun to build along it’s 300+ mile route from West Virginia to southern Virginia, and even though the project faces enormous opposition from extremists who sit in the tops of trees and on top of poles, MVP went on offense by announcing a binding open season (time when customers can sign on the dotted line) to expand the not-yet-built pipeline even further (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Launches Plan to Expand 70 Miles into NC). The MVP Southgate project, as it’s called, will flow gas from the MVP mainline where it terminates in Pittsylvania County another 70 miles south to new delivery points in Rockingham and Alamance counties in North Carolina. Yesterday MVP (i.e. EQT Midstream) filed the official request with FERC.
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Again We Ask: Can Dominion South Replace Henry Hub as Benchmark?

More than four years ago MDN posed the question, could an alternate trading hub like Dominion South in Pennsylvania ever replace the venerable Henry Hub trading hub in Louisiana as the world benchmark (see Will ‘Dominion South’ Replace ‘Henry Hub’ for Natgas Pricing?). We said this at the time: “Will Dominion South or another northeast delivery point rise to become the new pricing benchmark–replacing the venerable Henry Hub? Probably not anytime soon. The Henry Hub is just so entrenched. But in time, who knows?” More than a year ago, in 2017, we brought you news that more and more gas traders are using northeast trading hubs, rather than Henry Hub (see Gas Traders Go After M-U’s Local Hubs for Higher Returns). And what’s this? A new article on Bloomberg that says the Marcellus/Utica is changing the way U.S. gas traders buy and sell–that traders do more business in our region than elsewhere. So once again we ask the question, Is Dominion South the new Henry Hub?
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Natgas Plants Produce 8X More Electricity than Wind, 16X Solar

We spotted an intriguing editorial in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. It quotes a study by “an independent, market-based think tank” with some phenomenal findings. If you invest $1 million in solar, over a 30-year period you’ll get around 25 million kilowatt hours of electricity. If you invest that same $1 million in wind, you’ll get 50 million kilowatt hours over a 30-year period. But if you invest the same $1 million in natural gas-fired electric generation (cost to extract the gas, etc.), you’ll get 400 million kilowatt hours of electricity over 30 years! Natgas yields 8 times as much electricity per dollar as wind, and 16 times as much as solar.
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Which Federal Agencies Regulate What in Oil & Gas?

Who regulates what when it comes to the federal government and the oil and gas industry? We have an alphabet soup of federal agencies and agencies within agencies that regulate some aspects of drilling (on federal lands), pipelines, and by extension (because of air emissions) compressor stations, trucking and more when it comes to our industry. We recently spotted a helpful article that gives a high-level overview of who is regulating what. It’ll make your head spin! And this is just at the federal level. Add to this each state with its own regulatory fiefdoms and it’s a miracle any drilling ever happens.
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Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, Nov 7, 2018

The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Pa. House and Senate remain in Republican control despite Democrat gains; New Jersey-based design and engineering firm to open office in Canonsburg; LANTA hopes to add even more compressed natural gas buses to fleet; Cabot and Williams on an education adventure with small schools; Voters reject oil well setbacks as Colorado’s Proposition 112 defeated; Naperville council expected to OK plan for new compressed natural gas filling station on city land; NYMEX December natural gas spikes 28.3 cents to $3.567/MMBtu on forecast for early-season cold snap; US EIA boosts Q4 gas marketed production forecast by 1.83 Bcf/d to 94.32 Bcf/d; US transportation sector used 43.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas for vehicle fuel in 2017; China to boost shale oil, gas production; The world can live without Iranian oil; Oil markets yawn as Iran sanctions come into effect; Oil and gas firms sound alarm as capital once destined for Canada flees to more competitive U.S.; China’s gas pipelines on wheels.
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