Feds Find More Corrosion, Issue Order re Exploded TETCO Pipe in PA
An update on Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission’s (TETCO) “Delmont Line 27” which exploded in Westmoreland County, PA on April 29 (see Texas Eastern Pipeline Explodes near Pittsburgh, Antis Celebrate). We previously told you that not only was Line 27 out of commission, so too were three other pipelines running through the same corridor, meaning 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day is not reaching certain mid-Atlantic markets (see Update on Spectra Pipeline Explosion Near Pittsburgh). The early evidence points to corrosion along welded seams, although the jury is still out and the exact cause may not be known for months. One of the four lines that was offline (Line 19) was examined and certified by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) in early May to go back online (see TETCO Pipeline Up & Running Post-Explosion; Antis Exploit Accident). However, the other three lines have remained idle pending further investigation and won’t be online again until at least November (see Ruptured TETCO Pipeline in PA Offline Until November). In an order issued on Tuesday, federal regulators with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) are requiring Spectra Energy to perform more testing and take corrective actions on the remaining three lines. Although the cause of the explosion is still not 100% verified, it’s still thought to be corrosion around welded pipe joints, i.e. bad pipe tape…
Read More “Feds Find More Corrosion, Issue Order re Exploded TETCO Pipe in PA”
In November 2014 MDN told you that West Virginia University and Ohio State University received an $11 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy for a joint five-year study of Marcellus/Utica fracking and shale drilling (see 
Atlas Resource Partners (ARP) is a publicly-traded exploration and production master limited partnership (“MLP”) with operations in basins across the United States, including the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. ARP is a subsidiary of Atlas Energy Partners (AEP), which owns 100% of the general partner interest, all the incentive distribution rights and an approximately 23% of the limited partner interest in ARP. Essentially ARP is a big division of AEP. Atlas, as we’ve pointed out in the past, has sold most of its Marcellus assets in two huge deals: a $4.3 billion deal with Chevron in 2011 and in a $7.7 billion deal with Targa Resources in 2014. Atlas operates mostly conventional (some unconventional) oil and gas wells in a number of states: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Alabama, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. In February MDN broke the news that Atlas had laid off 150 employees (see 
The second-largest oilfield services company in the world, Halliburton (once run by the evil puppet-master himself, Dick Cheney) issued their second quarter 2016 financial and operating update yesterday. The company reports losing $3.2 billion during 2Q16, largely because the Obama Dept. of Justice nixed a buyout of Baker Hughes by Halliburton, which triggered a $3.5 billion payment from Halliburton to BH (see 
We’ve previously reported on a number of LNG (liquefied natural gas) export projects planned for the eastern shore of Canada. There are four to five such projects, depending on how you count them. However, one of those projects–Bear Head LNG in Nova Scotia–seems to have the most momentum. It seems the project has received most (if not all) of the necessary permits it needs to proceed, the most recent one issued just last week (see 
As we’ve been saying for well more than a year now, it’s important to understand the electric generation market because natural gas and electric generation are joined at the hip. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says that natural gas will power more electric generation in this country than another other source, including coal, THIS YEAR (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Ohio natgas production up 1000% in 10 years; antis plot to compare fracking with Zika virus; PA health report destroys “fracking causes asthma” study; Vermont scales back on renewables; searching for gas under Jackson, MI; Obama spending your money to give solar panels to poor people; end of the road for Stone; and more!