Huntley & Huntley to Use Gas-Powered Electric Fracking in SWPA
Huntley & Huntley, with some 100,000 acres leased in southwestern Pennsylvania, has kicked its shale drilling program into high gear this year. Yesterday we told you that a former Range Resources veteran in charge of Range’s Marcellus drilling program has joined up with H&H (see Retired Range VP of Marcellus Heads to Huntley & Huntley as COO). We have more H&H news: The company has contracted with oilfield services company U.S. Well Services to use “electric fracking”–natural gas powered electric fracture stimulation. It’s more environmentally friendly than diesel-powered fracking, reducing noise by 99% and fuel consumption by 90%.
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Williams’ Transco Pipeline has just won a major eminent domain court case for its Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project that will have implications for all pipelines. Yes, Atlantic Sunrise is now in the ground and flowing natural gas (see 
We previously highlighted Virginia Natural Gas’ (VNG) “Southside Connector” project, a 9-mile pipeline from Norfolk, VA to Chesapeake, VA that VNG says will fill a gap between two main supply lines, essential to meet growing natural gas demand in the Chesapeake area. The final 2,000 feet of pipeline needs to be laid, but will run under a river and shipyard located on the bank of the river. The shipyard owner adamantly opposes the pipeline and has launched an all-out campaign to stop it (see 
Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve University have floated a bold plan to build a $100 million microgrid to power the city of Cleveland, OH’s central business district in downtown, a 2-3 square mile area. At the heart of the microgrid would be a Utica gas-fired combined heat and power system (CHP). The CHP plant would produce up to 48 megawatts of electricity and act as a backup and/or alternative to the grid. The cost per kilowatt-hour would higher than electricity from the regular grid, but hey, it would mean virtually 100% up-time, providing electricity when grid demand is extreme (hot summers, cold winters). It’s all about reliability.
The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) is ramping up to begin training local Virginia residents as construction workers for Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). The initial training will start in Buckingham County. LIUNA’s training includes both classroom and hands-on training. Folks have been pestering LIUNA for months, asking why they have not already begun training. The reason is simple: You don’t begin training until you’re ready to put people into the field to use that training. You don’t train them and then wait for months on end–while they forget what they just learned. LIUNA’s training program launch means that construction on ACP in Virginia is about to ramp up in a big way.
The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: STEM training of area educators will help students prepare for future; Appalachian region consumers saved more than $75 billion over 10 years from lower natural gas prices; W.Va. lawmakers, associations weigh in on potential energy legislation; U.S. monthly crude oil production exceeds 11 million barrels per day in August; U.S. natural gas goes global; Facing Trump coal and nuclear push, new energy panel chief swears off politics; ‘Saudi America’ review: The truth about fracking?; Wind farms cause global warming? Please, say it isn’t so!; BP rebrands Lower 48 operations as BPX Energy; North America’s No. 2 shale producer to emerge from this merger; How Trump can undo America’s most expensive and least effective environmental law; Pieridae gets thumbs up for Goldboro LNG construction; M&A: Oil majors jockey for position to ride an LNG boom.