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    Rex Energy Owes Nearly $1B – Who They Owe & How Much

    Last week Rex Energy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (see Clock Runs Out – Rex Energy Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy). Right after filing, the company announced it has put up essentially all of its Marcellus/Utica assets (leases, wells, etc.), for sale, in order to pay off what it owes (see Fire Sale: Rex Energy Selling Everything to Pay Back Lenders). Which begs the question: What does the company owe? As it turns out, it’s close to $1 billion. The company, in a filing made on the first day of bankruptcy proceedings, included a list of who it owes, for what purpose, and how much–totaling $984.5 million. The biggest chunk is owed to a Delaware bank, some $617 million. However, Rex also owes money to 29 other entities, including MarkWest Energy, various oilfield services companies, taxes, and even some royalties are owed. We have the full list of the 30 entities that are owed money–detailing how much and for what purpose…
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    UGI Expanding NEPA Gathering System to Flow More Cabot Gas

    UGI, a large utility (and pipeline) company located in Pennsylvania, has announced they will expand a northeastern PA pipeline gathering system. UGI built what they call the Auburn Gathering System between 2011 and 2015–46 miles of pipe, two compressors stations and various other pipeline related facilities located in Susquehanna, Wyoming, and Luzerne counties (near Scranton). UGI spent $215 million to build the system, a system that currently flows 470 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas. Much (most?) of that the gas comes from Cabot Oil and Gas in Susquehanna County. The new news is that UGI will build two new compressor stations, adding to the existing two, which will increase flows through the system by another 150 MMcf/d–all of the increase coming from Cabot. Here’s the good news that more Cabot gas will soon flow through the Auburn System, connecting with two of the biggest pipeline systems in the country–the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (Kinder Morgan) and the Transco Pipeline (Williams)…
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    Top NJ Officials Continue Attacks Against PennEast Pipeline

    New Jersey’s Attorney General, Gurbir Grewal (Democrat), and New Jersey Senator Corey Booker (also a Democrat) continue a coordinated attack on the PennEast Pipeline in an effort to appease their radical/left base of supporters. PennEast is a $1 billion, 120-mile, 36-inch pipeline from Dallas (Luzerne County), PA to Pennington (Mercer County), NJ. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted final approval for the project in January (see FERC Grants Final Approval for PennEast Pipe – Real Battle Begins). Since that time the NJ Sierra Club along with other so-called environmental organizations have coordinated legal and regulatory attacks against the project, enlisting willing accomplices Grewal and Booker. In March Grewal asked the U.S. District Court in NJ to overturn PennEast’s federally-delegated right to use eminent domain to take state-owned AND private-owned property in the path of the pipeline. In early April, Sen. Booker asked FERC to reconsider its approval of the project. And earlier this week, the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection and Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission, represented by Grewal, asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review FERC’s January approval of the project. NJ has all guns out and shooting in an attempt to assassinate PennEast…
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    Crestwood Testing Proposed LPG Storage Site @ Seneca Lake for Leaks

    Lately we’ve wondered what’s been going on in the years-long struggle by Crestwood to create an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, or propane) storage facility in a depleted salt cavern along the shoreline of Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. Last December we brought you the news that Crestwood had won a victory when a chief administrative law judge, part of the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), ruled against antis who are demanding ongoing, never-ending hearings about the project–a transparent tactic to continue the years-long delay in perpetuity (see Crestwood Scores Big Victory in Seneca Lake LPG Storage Project). The judge said the DEC has all the evidence it needs to make a decision. Of course, the decision will get made by a radical anti who heads up the DEC–Basil Seggos (part of the National Resources Defense Council cabal that opposes all fossil fuel projects). So the project still has miles to go before it becomes reality. But now, a new setback, not that the project hasn’t been “setback” from the beginning by radicals. This time the setback comes from within. An attorney representing the project sent a letter to the DEC on May 17 asking them to delay (?!) a decision while Crestwood runs more tests on well pressure to “determine its suitability as a gas storage unit.” That is, the depleted salt cavern may leak. Radicalized antis have pounced, demanding the DEC cancel the project forthwith–even before the test results are in…
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    First Marcellus Molecules from Cove Point Arrive in Japan

    On April 22, the LNG tanker Sakura left Dominion Energy’s Cove Point LNG export facility loaded with Marcellus molecules, heading for Japan (see Cove Point LNG Ships First Marcellus Cargo to Japan). It was the second-ever load of Marcellus molecules to depart the Cove Point facility. About a week later the ship transited the Panama Canal (see 1st Cove Point Marcellus Shipment to Japan Goes Thru Panama Canal). On Monday, the Sakura finally docked at the Negishi LNG terminal in Japan, closing the loop on the first of many such shipments of Marcellus gas that will go to the Land of the Rising Sun…
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    “Nutty” is as Nutty Does – 2nd MVP Protester Goes Up a Pole in VA

    A second woman takes to sitting on top of a pole in Jefferson National Forest to block MVP – click for larger version

    For the past couple of months MDN has kept you informed on the actions of lawbreaking (criminal) protesters who are attempting to block construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). A small number of protesters have climbed trees in Jefferson National Forest, including a woman who climbed up an elaborately erected “monopod”–a pole with a small tree house at the top. The U.S. Forest Service shut down a gravel road leading to the monopod and has kept collaborators out, so they can’t pass her food and water–although the Forest Service is doing that job anyway. Last week the radicals were in court to try and get the Forest Service roadblock lifted so they can ferry supplies to their comrade in arms. What is the woman’s name who’s on the top of the pole and has been there since late March? She won’t give her name, however, she calls herself (no lie), “Nutty.” How apt. Now a second monopod has been erected a mile up the road from the first, and another woman has gone up that pole. Her name is Fern MacDougal. Ms. MacDougal says she was inspired to climb a pole by two people: Nutty, and by David Buckel, the lawyer who in April set himself on fire, killing himself, in order to protest fossil fuels. So, MacDougal’s heroes are someone who calls herself Nutty, and an insane man who committed suicide by fire. We think that’s all you really need to know about Ms. MacDougal…
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    FERC Becomes Political as Seen in Rehearing Vote on NY Project

    Has someone “gotten” to FERC Commissioners Cheryl LaFleur and Richard Glick–told them, “You vote against these pipeline projects or you don’t have a future in the Democrat Party”? That’s the thought we increasingly have as we watch the two sitting Democrats on FERC repeatedly vote against projects that in some cases they previously voted to approve. What makes someone like LaFleur flip and change her vote on something that two years ago she was 100% on board with? Something has to explain it! Two and a half years ago LaFleur, then a member of FERC, voted to approve Dominion Energy’s $165 million New Market Project, a project that expands Dominion’s transmission pipeline from western New York across the state to the Capital Region of the state, near Albany (see FERC Approves Expansion of Dominion Pipeline in Upstate NY). The radical leftist group Otsego 2000 challenged the project, asking FERC to reconsider its approval, using mythical man-made global warming as a new criteria to reject the project. Last Friday the three Republicans FERC commissioners voted “no” to reconsider the New Market Project, but LaFleur and Chuck Schumer-appointed Richard Glick (both Dems) voted to reconsider, citing global warming concerns. Again, we wonder if someone has gotten to them. A sad day that FERC is longer a non-partisan group…
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  • Other Energy Stories of Interest: Wed, May 23, 2018

    The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: NTE Energy starts up $600M SW Ohio electric plant; Shell posts production operator jobs for cracker plant; Exxon employees contribute more than $852K to Ohio colleges; Duke Energy Ohio gets a new president; Cheniere Energy approves spending big $ on 3rd LNG unit; electric cars see slow growth; U.S. oil price hits 3 1/2 year high; EPA Admin. Pruitt’s reg rollbacks hit some potholes; US LNG gushes into Asia; and more!
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