Wood Continues to Threaten OH/PA Landowners with Liens re Risberg Pipe
In March 2019 MDN brought you the news that Wood Group had been awarded a $34 million contract to build 28 miles of the 60-mile Risberg Pipeline from Crawford County, PA to Ashtabula County, OH (see Wood Wins $34M Contract to Build PA to OH Risberg Pipeline). The portion Wood built was new “greenfield” pipeline. The rest of the pipeline (32 miles) already existed and was repurposed. There is an ongoing controversy between Wood and RH energytrans (the owner) concerning payment for services rendered. Wood says they’re owed more and is using the “nuclear option” of going after the landowners whose property the pipeline traverses as a way to pressure RH into paying more.
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Energy Transfer’s (ET) Revolution Pipeline in southwestern Pennsylvania is the financial gift that keeps on giving–for the state of Pennsylvania. Revolution Pipeline runs through Bulter, Beaver, Allegheny, and Washington counties. The 24-inch gathering pipeline shifted and exploded in September 2018, just as it was entering service (see 
Big Green insanity continues at the so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF). The only thing they “defend” is their own twisted philosophy of trying to gouge out the eyes of the oil and gas industry in PA–even at the expense of de-funding their own beloved PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). The PEDF has convinced the liberal Democrats on the PA Supreme Court (again) to block using revenues from oil and gas drilling on state land to fund the DCNR’s own budget! Truly insane.
Because of recent sinkholes developing near the construction of the Mariner East 2X pipeline, Chester County, PA officials have sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) asking the agency to immediately shut down flows along the existing Mariner East 1 pipeline. All of the ME pipelines flow NGLs, mainly ethane (sometimes propane and butane). Officials say seven sinkholes have developed near ME construction *just this year* and they are concerned more sinkholes will develop and potentially crack or break an existing pipeline. One recent sinkhole swallowed a small tree (caught on video, below).
On June 24, the operator of the SOS D-2 injection well in Cambridge, Ohio (Guernsey County) reported a small release from a pipeline that transfers fluid from a storage tank to the injection well. The well’s owner/operator, Silcor Oilfield Services Inc., immediately contained the leak (see 
For all the chatter about ESG and environmental yada yada, at the end of the day every Marcellus and Utica driller drills for and extracts hydrocarbons. Fossil fuels. As the de facto leader of all natural gas drillers, it’s important and instructive to watch what EQT and its young CEO, Toby Rice, actually do AND say. EQT and Rice are leading the charge to defend our industry against the crazies who want to end the use of all fossil fuels. In a recent column appearing in a West Virginia newspaper, Rice makes the case that natural gas is good for the economy and good for the environment.
New permit activity once again picked up last week after the previous week showed a paltry number of permits. In Pennsylvania 10 new permits were issued, all but one of them in the northeastern dry gas area of the state. In Ohio 4 new permits were issued, all of them for the same driller on the same well pad. And in West Virginia, 7 new permits were issued. One of the permits appears to be issued to a private landowner drilling his own shale well! And in another oddity, four WV permits were issued to a midstream company.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Southwestern Energy announces appointment of Chief Financial Officer; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Gas project developer courts investors with YouTube; NATIONAL: Susan Rice ordered to sell $2.7M stake in oil pipeline company after project moves forward; United States continued to lead global petroleum and natural gas production in 2020; OPEC gives shale an opening; INTERNATIONAL: USA and Germany end Nord Stream 2 feud; Oil prices fall amid stronger greenback and OPEC+ uncertainty; Brent crude oil price forecast to average $72 per barrel in the second half of 2021; Demand due to extreme weather models, lower inventories drives natgas prices higher; Analysis shows oil and gas execs using more environmental buzzwords.