PA Senate Slips Anti-Landowner Measure into State Budget Bill
Not only did the Pennsylvania Senate pull a real boner by voting for a severance tax and gross receipts tax (see Traitorous PA Senate Republicans Pass Severance Tax Bill), they also slipped another provision in the PA budget bill that, until now, has gone unnoticed. This new provision has big implications for both landowners and drillers. The Senate slipped in Section 1610 (see the language below) which changes established lease law with respect to oil and gas wells that no longer produce anything. Under existing law, when an oil or gas well stops producing–and the landowner quits getting royalty checks–the lease is considered terminated. Done. Finished. Under Section 1610, drillers can resurrect those dead leases under a couple of conditions. If the landowner doesn’t officially state “your lease is now dead since you’re not producing anything” a driller quick-like-a-bunny restarts production at the well and sends the landowner a check, it would re-start (or continue) the existing lease with its existing terms. Or if the driller sends a notice to the landowner stating its intention to drill a new well on the property, and if the landowner doesn’t object (given a 3-month time limit), the driller is free to begin drilling a NEW well, under the OLD lease terms. Section 1610 really stinks, in our humble opinion. It means a driller can drill a new shale well after an old conventional/vertical well quits producing–without having to sign a new lease or pay a new bonus or negotiate a new royalty rate. Doesn’t seem right to us!…
Read More “PA Senate Slips Anti-Landowner Measure into State Budget Bill”
As the mighty $6 billion Shell ethane cracker begins construction in Beaver County, PA, plenty of local (and regional) businesses are asking the question: How can we get in on the action? How can we win contracts for goods and services? The Beaver County Chamber of Commerce aimed to help answer that question yesterday at a 3-hour event held at the Club at Shadow Lakes. The “Doing Business in the Era of Shell” seminar drew a crowd of 300+. Some of the speakers were from Louisiana–where they went through a similar process when SASOL built an $11 billion petrochemical project there. Here is some of the wisdom passed along to those who attended…
Yesterday the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in a case that may have long-term, very negative consequences for the oil and gas industry related to pipeline development. The profoundly litigious (and anti-fossil fuel) radicals of the Sierra Club previously filed a lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) blaming FERC for not considering mythical man-made global warming as it conducted a review of three pipelines in the southeast. The Southeast Market Pipelines Project is an umbrella project for three natural gas pipelines in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. The linchpin of the project is the Sabal Trail pipeline, which travels from Tallapoosa County in eastern Alabama, across southwestern Georgia, and down to Osceola County, Florida, just south of Orlando (nearly 500 miles). Sabal Trail will connect with two other pipelines. The first is the Hillabee Expansion, which will boost the capacity of an existing pipeline in Alabama and feed gas to Sabal Trail’s upstream end for transport to Florida. The downstream end of Sabal Trail connects to the Florida Southeast Connection, linking to a power plant in Martin County, Florida, 120 miles away. MDN has covered Sabal Trail and the Hillabee Expansion because of its potential to flow Marcellus/Utica gas all the way to Florida (see 
Work is now underway on Shell’s $6 billion ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA. What’s the status of the region’s second likely cracker plant, in Ohio? PTT Global Chemical previously announced they are interested in building a $5 billion petrochemical complex, including an ethane cracker, in Belmont County, OH at the site of the old R.E. Burger power plant. However, they have repeatedly said a “final investment decision” (FID) will not happen until the end of 2017. This is the same routine Shell used. In fact, Shell dragged out their FID a lot longer than PTT has. As with Shell, we look for signals that the FID will be a positive decision to move forward with construction. And as with Shell, we see those positive signs. Shell purchased the land for the site before announcing their FID. As we told you last month, PTT has now done the same–buying the former R.E. Burger site from FirstEnergy for $13.8 million (see 
Rover is a $3.7 billion, 711-mile natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada. While Phase 1A of the pipeline is essentially done and ready to begin service by the end of this month (see 
It’s about time our side litigated back! Energy Transfer, the company that built the Dakota Access Pipeline, filed a lawsuit yesterday against rabid, radical “green” organizations including Greenpeace, Earth First! and others, for manufacturing and disseminating “materially false and misleading information about Energy Transfer and the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) for the purpose of fraudulently inducing donations, interfering with pipeline construction activities and damaging Energy Transfer’s critical business and financial relationships.” Because of Greenpeace and other Big Green groups, DAPL was delayed, people were hurt during protests, violent acts were committed, property was damaged and the environment that the protesters profess to love was also damaged. It was a coordinated and organized attack against Energy Transfer, so the federal lawsuit is suing using federal and state racketeering statutes. Energy Transfer says Greenpeace led an organized effort to put eco-terrorists on the ground among regular protesters. Finally! Someone willing to call out these jerks and take the fight back to them! You may wonder why we cover this story here on MDN. Energy Transfer is also building the Rover and Mariner East 2 pipeline projects here in the Marcellus/Utica region. Both projects are vigorously opposed by Big Green groups with paid protesters. This lawsuit puts other Big Green groups on notice–your days of smearing and lying and agitating are over…
On Monday we brought you the sad news that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled against the Constitution Pipeline and their lawsuit against the Cuomo-corrupted New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation (see 
A radical activist “closely aligned” with the #ExxonKnew campaign to try and bankrupt the oil giant has admitted the campaign is not really about a “cover-up” by Exxon that it “knew” global warming is real and that its oil/gas is contributing. In a bombshell admission, Naomi Oreskes says the #ExxonKnew campaign is actually about punishing Exxon for arguing against specific Big Green climate policies–not about what the company “knew”. That is, she admits it is about removing Exxon’s right to free speech. Shutting them up. Bullying them into silence. This is how free speech dies folks–when the fascist left demands nobody says anything they don’t like. Thankfully, Exxon is sticking up for free speech and our First Amendment rights…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Youngstown City Council votes today on anti-fracking charter amendment; rig count steady in Ohio Utica; Kinder Morgan pipe expansion in Connecticut topic of public hearing; antis flood Virginia gov with form letters opposing pipelines; BHP quits the shale business; red flag for US shale; Microsoft and Halliburton team up; PHMSA should play more active role in natgas pipelines; China’s LNG imports double; and more!