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Bomb Threat at Blue Racer’s WV Natrium Plant – Nothing Found

Last Thursday morning at 6:30 am Blue Racer Midstream’s Natrium (Marshall County, WV) natural gas processing plant received a phoned-in bomb threat. Plant personnel immediately contacted law enforcement (local, state and federal) who swept the plant with bomb-sniffing dogs. Nothing was found.
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EQT Plans to Make Money with $2/Mcf NatGas Price

For years MDN has observed that Cabot Oil & Gas is one of the few Marcellus/Utica drilling companies that can “spin straw into gold”–meaning it makes money on selling natural gas even when the price of that gas is in the basement (see Marcellus Driller Cabot Oil & Gas: Wall Street’s NatGas “Unicorn”). The new management at EQT aim to turn their company in a spinning-straw-into-gold company too. In a recent interview with the Pittsburgh Business Times, EQT CEO Toby Rice said his strategy for making $500 million in “free cash flow” within two years anticipates the price of natgas to be $2 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf).
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PA DEP Close to Issuing Final Permits for PennEast Pipe

Some 77 miles of PennEast Pipeline’s $1 billion, 120-mile primarily 36-inch underground pipeline is slated to run through Pennsylvania. The rest runs through New Jersey. In February of this year the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) published draft versions of Erosion and Sediment Control Permits for the project. Just one teeny tiny problem: The DEP screwed up the application number in their official posting in the PA Bulletin. So the DEP has just republished their intent to issue the permits–very soon–in the latest PA Bulletin.
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Enbridge Wants to Bring TETCO Pipe in KY Back Online Aug 24-26

TETCO Line 15 explosion & fire on Aug 1

On August 1, Enbridge’s Texas Eastern Pipeline Company (TETCO) pipeline exploded in Lincoln County, Kentucky–killing one and sending six to the hospital (see TETCO Pipe Explodes in Kentucky Killing 1; Southbound M-U Gas Stops). Actually TETCO operates three pipelines in that area, all located next to each other and collectively called TETCO. Line 15 is where the explosion occurred, but Lines 10 and 25 (located next to Line 15) remain offline until further notice (see 3 TETCO Pipelines in KY Closed Indefinitely, Feds Order Repairs). TETCO is hoping to return one of the three lines to service later this week.
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PHMSA Issues Warning to Atlantic Coast Pipeline – 7 Months Late

There is currently no construction happening along the 600-mile Dominion Energy Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project due to several lawsuits brought by disgusting Big Green groups that have blocked the path of the pipeline (see Dominion 2Q Update: The Battle to Build Atlantic Coast Pipe). Even though there is no current construction happening, a federal agency has just sent a “warning letter” to the builders citing violations of certain “unsafe construction practices at work sites”–related to work done last December.
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U.S. Senator from Ohio Visits Encino Well Pad to Promote Jobs

Last November Encino Acquisition Partners (i.e. Encino Energy) completed its purchase of all of Chesapeake Energy’s Ohio Utica Shale assets for $2 billion (see Stop Press: Chesapeake Sells ALL of its Ohio Utica Assets for $2B). The deal included all of Chesapeake’s 933,000 Ohio acres–with 320,000 net Utica acres–and 920 operated and non-operated Ohio Utica wells.
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The Latest Irrational Anti Rant: Plastic is Evil & Must End

There’s an issue that has been building up steam for the past year or two. We’ve commented on it peripherally on a number of occasions. There’s no mistaking the newest “in thing” for young (and old) liberals is to trash the production of plastic. Plastic straws are killing little fishies in the deep blue sea. Plastic bags are filling up our landfills and endangering Mom Earth. California (land of the strange) now has its sights set on banning all plastic bottles. Radical environmentalists are now advocating that we ban the production and manufacture of all plastic products!
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Aug 19, 2019

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: EQT among world’s fastest-growing natural gas producers; Pa. grants $2M for solar tech at PGW’s liquefied natural gas plant; Group that wants Ohio voters to decide on nuclear plants bailout submits revised petition; The latest victims of the far-left’s environmental zealotry: Long Islanders; De Blasio exaggerates fossil fuel claims on the campaign trail; NTIEC Energy Camp sparks interest among local students; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Minnesota, D.C., and Baltimore under the microscope for accepting controversial help from special interests; Colorado is quickly becoming a patchwork of oil and gas rules after a major law change; NATIONAL: Unit trains now delivering U.S. propane to Mexico; INTERNATIONAL: Yamal LNG hits 20 mt milestone; BP publishes LNG contract templates to push industry standardization; U.S. efforts to derail Russian pipelines to Europe have failed since the 1960s. Will Nord Stream 2 be different?
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