FERC Expected to Approve NEXUS Today; Surveyors have Armed Guards
Word on the street is that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will announce a decision today to approve the NEXUS Pipeline–a $2 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that will run from Ohio through Michigan and eventually to the Dawn Hub in Ontario, Canada. It is a critically needed pipeline to move Utica and Marcellus Shale gas from an over-saturated market in the northeast to markets in the Midwest and Canada. If the decision doesn’t come today, it will come very soon. As MDN reported yesterday, the small city of Green, OH (population 26,000) has put NEXUS on notice that if its surveyors show up and landowners refuse access, those surveyors will be arrested if they “trespass” on the landowner’s property (see Green, OH Threatens NEXUS Surveyors with Arrest for Trespassing). Other news agencies are reporting that surveyors are about to show up with armed guards. Into this mess may come an approval for the project. If NEXUS gets approved, it will have the right to use federal eminent domain laws to build the pipeline, regardless of landowner desires. Does eminent domain also include surveying? One would think so since surveying is part of the construction process. Green’s bluster may amount to nothing if the project receives a final approval today. Below are several stories about surveying for NEXUS, as well as a look at the FERC commissioners who will make the final decision on NEXUS…
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The world’s third largest oilfield services company, Baker Hughes, has struggled to stay afloat given the radical reduction in revenue they get for the services they offer. BH’s recent third quarter update showed the company lost $430 million, which is down from losing $912 million in 3Q15, a positive sign we suppose (see 
In November 2014, MDN told you about an innovative plan by PECO–formerly known as the Philadelphia Electric Company, is the largest combined electric/natural gas utility company in PA serving some 500,000+ natural gas customers in southeastern PA–to allow customers to sign up for its natural gas service and spread the cost over 20 years (see 
Stone Energy, an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company (E&P) headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana drills mainly in the Gulf of Mexico but also has a presence in the Marcellus/Utica Shale with 90,000 acres of leases. Last year Stone quit drilling in the northeast and actually shut-in part of their production due to low prices (see 
Earlier this week MDN reported that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf helped kill a plan by Philadelphia Energy Solutions to expand its shale oil refinery in Philly by denying a lease on 200 acres at the Southport Marine site (see 
Word has leaked out that WGL Holdings, the umbrella company that owns Washington (DC) Gas Light Company and WGL Midstream, is considering selling itself to utility giant (and Spanish-based) Iberdrola. The deal, if it happens, has implications for the Marcellus. Earlier this month MDN reported that WGL Midstream, which already is a 7% owner in the Mountain Valley Pipeline project, had upped its ownership stake to 10% (see 
In May, U.S.-based oilfield services company FMC Technologies announced they will merge with their much larger quasi-competitor, France-based Technip, in an all-stock deal that will create a new company called TechnipFMC worth $13 billion (see 
Middle Eastern counties who sell us oil, including Saudi Arabia, have never been our “friends.” To pretend otherwise is dangerously stupid. We have depended on them for their oil, plain and simple. Oil equals energy and energy equals freedom and prosperity for the U.S. In the 1970s OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, flexed its economic muscles against our country and brought us to our knees with an oil embargo that caused shortages and prices to skyrocket. MDN editor Jim Willis recalls growing up in the 1970s when gas was rationed and you could only buy gas every few days (odd and even days) based on your license plate number. A scary time in our country. Thing is, our enemies haven’t changed–they are still there. They’re just a whole lot richer than they were back then, richer with our money in their pockets. The shale revolution changed all that. We are close to being 100% energy independent–without the need to import oil. Oh, we’ll have to keep importing for the foreseeable future. We don’t have enough refineries here to process the type of oil we produce (light sweet crude). But in a pinch, we’d figure out a way. OPEC and Saudi Arabia have badly misjudged America. They thought they could flood the market with cheap oil and bankrupt America’s shale drillers. Didn’t happen. In fact, we got better. We figured out how to drill for less money. Little known fact: Bakken drillers can now make money with oil selling as low as $29 per barrel! In other words, it’s now time to put the last nail in OPEC’s coffin and kiss them goodbye. We sincerely hope finally defeating OPEC will be a top priority in the new Trump Administration…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: OH Utica rig count stays 19; fake news in energy; energy woes trigger business bankruptcies in PA; criminal pipeline protesters in ND strain courts; ND law enforcement cuts off supplies to protesters; US doesn’t need Paris to meet emissions targets; o&g mergers making a comeback; Schlumberger making “rigs of the future”; gas exports to Mexico increase; and more!