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FERC Approves Williams Leidy South & NFG FM100 Pipeline Projects

In December 2018 Williams announced a new project to increase capacity along the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) in PA by an extra 582,400 dekatherms (582 million cubic feet) per day. Williams officially filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the “Leidy South Project” in August 2019 (see Williams Files Leidy South Project with FERC to Expand PA Transco). Great news: On Friday, FERC approved the Leidy South Project. FERC also approved a second project that works hand-in-glove with the Leidy project: National Fuel Gas Company’s FM100 project.
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PA PUC Investigating New ME2 Pipeline Sinkholes in Chester County

Energy Transfer’s subsidiary Sunoco Logistics is trying to finish up final construction of the Mariner East 2X pipeline in southeast Pennsylvania. ME2 and ME2X flow natural gas liquids including ethane and propane from eastern Ohio and western PA all the way to the Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia. As the pipe travels through Philly neighborhoods, some of the geography is limestone (porous) and when drilling to install pipes, it has led to sinkholes. Another seven such sinkholes have appeared since June and the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) is investigating.
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Philly Inquirer Says “Dark Money” Used Against Anti-Pipe Candidates

The Philadelphia Inquirer published a story today that is (surprise!) totally one-sided and biased. The story has the provocative title of, “‘Dark money’ groups spent $517,000 against two Philly-area candidates who oppose the Mariner East pipeline.” Oooohhh. It’s dark money and sinister and it was used against two virtuous, pure-as-the-wind-driven-snow Democrat candidates in primaries. Completely absent from the story is any reference to Big Green dark money that was poured into those same races (see Steyer Big Green Group Dumps $200K of Dark Money in SEPA Elections).
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Shell Builds COVID Testing Lab at Cracker Site, Adds More Workers

Last week we brought you news that Shell had temporarily suspended adding back some 300 workers per week at its ethane cracker construction site in Beaver County, PA following a spike in COVID-19 coronavirus cases (see Shell Stops Adding Workers at Cracker Site After New Virus Cases). The new news is that as of today, Shell has resumed adding workers back because they’ve built their own COVID testing lab *on site* at the cracker facility. They can now get test COVID results in 4 hours instead of 4-6 days. Sometimes you just have to do it yourself.
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Some OH Lawsuits Against Long-Finished NEXUS Pipe Still Active

NEXUS Pipeline, a $2.6 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio into Michigan, has been fully online since October 2018 (see More of NEXUS Pipe Goes Online, FERC Approves Compressor). In typical fashion, Big Green groups and landowners (some of them backed with Big Green money) tried to shut the pipeline down via lawsuits, but ultimately could not (see our NEXUS lawsuit stories here). Some landowners claimed the pipeline damaged their property during construction. Most of those lawsuits were either tossed or settled. However, there are still a few outstanding landowner lawsuits against NEXUS still active.
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WV to OH Short Line Railroad Growing Thx to Marcellus/Utica

We’re always suckers for railroad story. Not sure why, but we love reading about short line railroads that do well because of the shale industry. We spotted such a story about the 48-mile short line Belpre Industrial Parkersburg (BIP) Railroad between Parkersburg, West Virginia, and Relief, Ohio (via Marietta). BIP expects to double its traffic over the next year to 18 months thanks to the Marcellus/Utica Shale industry and the business it’s generating.
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Shale Energy Stories of Interest: Mon, Jul 20, 2020

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Biden’s liberal climate policies feared by unions in Pennsylvania; Iroquois Gas Transmission donates $5K to Food Bank of Central New York; NATIONAL: Wave of North American oil and gas bankruptcies to continue at $40/bbl crude; Rex pipeline a ‘case study’ of long-haul woes; Shut down pipelines to save the environment? Think again; Ernst & Young reviews energy’s status at mid-year; Chesapeake Energy: common and preferred shares have no value; bonds may have some upside; INTERNATIONAL: LNG markets may not recover until 2021; China and Iran approach massive $400 billion deal.
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