Crestwood Midstream

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    Crestwood 3Q16: Turnaround Success, No Word on Finger Lakes LPG

    CrestwoodCrestwood Equity Partners (nee Crestwood Midstream) recently issued its third quarter 2016 update. In April Crestwood announced that New York City utility giant Consolidated Edison Inc. has formed a 50/50 joint venture to purchase ownership of pipelines and storage facilities in the PA and NY Marcellus region (see Utility Giant ConEdison Buys a Piece of the Marcellus Midstream). The newly formed jv, called Stagecoach Gas Services, became official in June (see Con Ed & Crestwood Seal the Deal on Marcellus Pipeline/Storage JV). Perhaps the biggest news is that Crestwood has turned things around financially. In 3Q15 they lost $634 million. In 3Q16 they made $3 million. That’s a huge turnaround year over year (2/3 of a BILLION dollars!). Stagecoach and other projects in the Marcellus/Utica get an update in this latest quarterly report from Crestwood. We also spotted a few interesting slides from the latest PowerPoint deck…
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    EPA Fines Crestwood’s NY Facility $312K for Paperwork Violations

    pay fines here signThe rogue and out-of-control federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues its bullying ways when it comes to the oil and gas industry. Just coming to light (for us) is an action last week by the EPA to fine Crestwood Midstream’s Finger Lakes LPG Storage subsidiary $312,000–for not filing the right paperwork for their facility in upstate New York. Note that the fines are NOT for leaking methane or propane, NOT for endangering the public, NOT for actually doing ANY kind of environmental harm. The fines are for not filing the proper paperwork. The EPA is behaving like the mob running a protection money racket. Crestwood has to pay the EPA $154,000 in fines, and then pay $158,000 for new equipment for three local fire departments located near the facility. The antis are already using this paperwork violation as yet another reason to bleat and blat about Crestwood’s proposed underground propane storage facility along the shores of Seneca Lake. The paperwork violation is for a Crestwood/Finger Lakes LPG Storage facility in the next county–nowhere near Seneca Lake where the proposed propane facility is located. Makes no difference. Antis say it’s yet more evidence that Crestwood can’t be trusted to safely operate the propane storage facility…
    Read More “EPA Fines Crestwood’s NY Facility $312K for Paperwork Violations”

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    Rally in Support of Finger Lakes Propane Storage Facility

    propane storage at Seneca
    Click for larger version

    Late breaking news: Tomorrow (Thursday), Aug. 18 there will be a rally to support Crestwood’s Finger Lakes LPG Storage Facility planned for the shore of Seneca Lake. The rally will be located at the entrance of the facility, at 3768 NYS Route 14 North, Watkins Glen, NY at 4:30 pm. The New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation continues to obstruct this vitally important piece of infrastructure. The facility planned would store LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, or propane) in a depleted underground salt cavern. Anti fossil fuel wackos have been protesting continuously for the past several years. Many of them have been arrested for illegally blocking the entrance to the facility. Here’s your chance to show up and show your support for the facility, and send a loud and clear message to Andrew Cuomo that enough is enough. Here’s the details for the rally…
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    Crestwood Offers Compromise on Finger Lakes Facility, Antis Reject

    spit.jpgHow do you deal with people who are bullies and refuse to compromise? Answer: You defeat them and don’t give an inch in doing so. Crestwood Equity Partners (used to be Crestwood Midstream) bought a project years ago called Finger Lakes LPG–a proposed liquefied petroleum gas (i.e. propane) storage facility along the shoreline of Seneca Lake in beautiful Upstate New York. Seneca is one of the Finger Lakes. The facility would be built in a former, now depleted, salt mining operation. Salt mining was far more dangerous for the environment than a proposed underground propane storage facility would ever be–but you didn’t hear a peep about the salt mining operation from nutty environmentalists at the time. We’ve endlessly covered the antics of people like Sandra Steingraber–a professional anti-fracking agitator paid and on the staff of Ithaca College (funded by the Park Foundation). Steingraber opposes the Finger Lakes LPG facility because she has a visceral (and irrational) hatred for all fossil fuels–even though her house is heated with them, the school she “works” at is heated with them, the vehicle she drives is powered by them, etc. ad nauseum. Steingraber and dozens of others have been arrested a number of times for blocking the entrance to the facility. In a bid to compromise and address the concerns of Steingraber and others, Crestwood has, in our opinion, made a mistake. On Monday Crestwood sent a letter to the completely dysfunctional NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) offering to scale back the LPG storage project–removing rail and truck shipments in and out of the facility–one of the major objections by Steingraber and other ninny nannies opposing the project. So what does the anti group “Gas Free Seneca” say to Crestwood’s gracious offer to meet them more than half way? They figuratively spit in the face of Crestwood. They demand the facility never get built. That’s the actions of  bullies and profoundly unreasonable (not able to be reasoned with) people. Which is why we say, they must be totally, utterly, and completely defeated…
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    Crestwood 2Q16: Bleeding Slows, the Stagecoach Rides

    CrestwoodCrestwood Equity Partners (nee Crestwood Midstream) issued its second quarter 2016 update last week. In April Crestwood announced that New York City utility giant Consolidated Edison Inc. has formed a 50/50 joint venture to purchase ownership of pipelines and storage facilities in the PA and NY Marcellus region (see Utility Giant ConEdison Buys a Piece of the Marcellus Midstream). The newly formed jv, called Stagecoach Gas Services, became official in June (see Con Ed & Crestwood Seal the Deal on Marcellus Pipeline/Storage JV). Stagecoach and other projects in the Marcellus/Utica get an update in this latest quarterly report from Crestwood…
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    Con Ed & Crestwood Seal the Deal on Marcellus Pipeline/Storage JV

    StagecoachIn April MDN brought you the news that New York City’s largest utility company–Consolidated Edison Inc.–had formed a 50/50 joint venture to purchase ownership of pipelines and storage facilities from Crestwood Equity Partners in the PA and NY Marcellus region (see Utility Giant ConEdison Buys a Piece of the Marcellus Midstream). The newly formed jv, called Stagecoach Gas Services, will be operated by Crestwood and includes four natural gas storage facilities (Stagecoach, Thomas Corners, Steuben and Seneca Lake) with a combined storage capacity of approximately 41 billion cubic feet; and three natural gas pipelines (MARC I, North/South and the East Pipeline) with a combined throughput capacity of 2.96 billion cubic feet per day. The deal closed earlier this week. Con Ed ponied up $945 million, and together with the pipelines and facilities “donated” by Crestwood to the jv, the new Stagecoach Gas Services company is worth an estimated $2 billion…
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    Crestwood Could Have Begun Construction on Seneca Lake Storage

    propane storage at Seneca
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    As MDN told you last week, Crestwood Equity (formerly Crestwood Midstream) applied for and got a two-year extension on a proposed liquid propane gas (LPG) storage facility along the shoreline of Seneca Lake in a depleted salt cavern (see Stalled Seneca Lake Propane Storage Project Gets FERC Extension). The new news (for us) is that Crestwood could have started construction on the facility even without permission from New York State’s dysfunctional Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC). However, Crestwood chose to keep the peace with and not rile the DEC and so instead elected to keep waiting via the FERC extension. We know how filing for an extension worked out for the Constitution Pipeline (see NY Gov. Cuomo Refuses to Grant Permits for Constitution Pipeline). Yes, Crestwood could/should have begun construction–but didn’t. There’s a new wrinkle in this whole mess. The official NY State Geologist needs to approve the project before the DEC will sign off. The State Geologist, who works not for the DEC but for the state Dept. of Education, left and has not been replaced. The Dept. of Education has no plans to hire a new geologist any time soon. How convenient. Here’s the story of the ongoing delays with the Seneca Lake Storage Project, delayed since 2009 by the NY DEC and now by the NY Dept. of Education…
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    Stalled Seneca Lake Propane Storage Project Gets FERC Extension

    propane storage at Seneca
    Propane storage at Seneca Lake – click for larger version

    Some mildly good news for the much-needed propane storage facility proposed for Schuyler County, NY. MDN has extensively covered the fight to get the Seneca Lake Storage Project permissioned. In 2009 Inergy filed a request to convert a depleted salt cavern along the shore of Seneca Lake into a propane/natural gas storage facility. Inergy was later bought by and merged into Crestwood Midstream, and Crestwood Midstream later became Crestwood Equity. The New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation has been sitting on its hands from the beginning, refusing to grant the necessary permits to allow the facility to open. Sound familiar? Same old delay and later deny strategy from Cuomo. Since the DEC is completely dysfunctional at this point, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is involved with approving the facility, has granted a two-year extension to Crestwood (and Crestwood subsidiary Arlington Storage Company) to give them more time to woo, cajole, entice and do whatever they can to get the DEC off it’s rear-end. Of course the FERC extension has sent the crazies protesters, like Sandra Steingraber, into orbit…
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    Crestwood 1Q16: Spills the Beans on Antero DUCs; Pipe Delays Good

    Don't Spill the BeansCrestwood Equity Partners (nee Crestwood Midstream) issued its first quarter 2016 update last week. In April Crestwood announced that New York City utility giant Consolidated Edison Inc. has formed a 50/50 joint venture to purchase ownership of pipelines and storage facilities in the PA and NY Marcellus region (see Utility Giant ConEdison Buys a Piece of the Marcellus Midstream). The newly formed jv, called Stagecoach Gas Services, will continue to be operated by Crestwood. Stagecoach and other projects in the Marcellus/Utica get an update in this latest quarterly report from Crestwood. We also grabbed some of the unscripted commentary from Crestwood’s quarterly analyst phone call. Interesting tidbits from that include comments by CEO Robert Phillips that the cancellation of Kinder Morgan’s NED pipeline and the delay of Williams’ Constitution Pipeline gives Crestwood a big opening and huge advantage with the Stagecoach deal. Also interesting: Crestwood doesn’t foresee Antero Resources (one of its major customers) completing 22 already-drilled wells and bringing them online until 2017/2018. Did Crestwood just spill the beans on Antero’s plans in that neck of the woods?…
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    Utility Giant ConEdison Buys a Piece of the Marcellus Midstream

    ConEdisonNew York City’s largest utility company–Consolidated Edison Inc.–has formed a 50/50 joint venture to purchase ownership of pipelines and storage facilities from Crestwood Equity Partners (formerly Crestwood Midstream) in the PA and NY Marcellus region. ConEdison is ponying up $975 million for assets Crestwood says are really worth $2 billion. The newly formed jv, called Stagecoach Gas Services, will continue to be operated by Crestwood and includes four natural gas storage facilities (Stagecoach, Thomas Corners, Steuben and Seneca Lake) with a combined storage capacity of approximately 41 billion cubic feet; and three natural gas pipelines (MARC I, North/South and the East Pipeline) with a combined throughput capacity of 2.96 billion cubic feet per day. Here’s the details…
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    Crestwood 2015: $2.3B Paper Loss, Marcellus Pipeline Volumes Up

    Houston, TX-based Crestwood Midstream, which these days calls itself Crestwood Equity Partners, operates midstream businesses in multiple shale resource plays across the United States, including the Marcellus. Crestwood is engaged in gathering, processing, treating, compression, storage and transportation of natural gas, among many other activities. Crestwood owns the facility along the shore of Seneca Lake in New York where they want to convert a depleted underground salt cavern into a propane storage facility–something that protesters frequently get arrested for opposing (see Criminals Arrested Blocking Crestwood Seneca Lake Facility). Yesterday Crestwood issued their fourth quarter and full year 2015 update. The distressing news is that Crestwood lost $2.3 billion for the year. But let’s put that in context. Almost all of it was a paper loss. Of the $2.3 billion lost, $821 million was for depreciation of assets, and $1.4 billion was “goodwill impairment”–meaning the overall perception of the company’s value took a hit. In 2014 Crestwood lost just $10 million. We suspect the true money-out-of-pocket loss for Crestwood in 2015 was closer to $100 million, not nearly as bad as it seems at first. Below is a portion of the update, including a couple of Marcellus pipeline updates from the company…
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    Is Crestwood Exploring Sale of Marcellus Assets to Antero?

    The following is highly speculative and the equivalent of rumor, but sometimes it’s fun to engage in a bit of rumor-mongering. We spotted a post on the investor website Seeking Alpha that posits the following theory: Crestwood Equity Partners (i.e. Crestwood Midstream), owner of major pipelines and other facilities in the northeast and in other locales, “may” be looking to sell their Marcellus operations to Antero Resources and their Bakken Shale operations to Tesoro Logistic Partners. It must be said up front the person authoring the article owns units (i.e. shares) of Crestwood (CEQP) and is in no way objective. Articles on Seeking Alpha attempt to persuade investors to buy or sell securities. However, the rationale laid out in the article intrigues us and we think it’s worth pondering whether or not Crestwood is about to shed large parts of the company, and what that might mean for our region…
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    Criminals Arrested Blocking Crestwood Seneca Lake Facility

    We Are Seneca Lake
    We Are Seneca Lake criminals being carted off in a paddy wagon

    When someone organizes and repeatedly shuts down a legal, functioning business with so-called “civil disobedience,” it’s not civil and it’s not an act of disobedience–it’s a crime. If you show up with a bunch of nutters to block the entrance to a facility once and the cameras are there to record it–you’ve made your point. Anti fossil-fuel radicals opposed to creating an underground propane storage facility in a depleted salt mine along the shore of Seneca Lake (in upstate New York) have recently stepped up their so-called civil disobedience at the facility–staging weekly blockades at the site three weeks in a row. One of those instances was on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, when Sandra Steingraber, so-called scholar in residence at Ithaca College (where she’s paid to agitate and never teaches a class) invoked the name of Dr. King attempting to tie the great civil rights struggle with anti-fossil fuel nuttery. It’s offensive. Below is a rundown, with the names of the latest criminals who have colluded to try and shut down a legal business, Crestwood Midstream, from operating the facility they own at Seneca Lake…
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    NY Fractivists Block Seneca Lake Facility, Santa & Grinch Dance

    We’ve written many stories over the past few years about anti-drilling zealots who oppose the plan to convert a depleted salt cavern owned by Crestwood Equity Partners (nee Crestwood Midstream) along the shore of Seneca Lake, in Schuyler County, NY, to store liquefied petroleum gas (i.e. propane). The protests are typically a dozen people or less and often organized by Sandra Steingraber, a minor celebrity in fractivist circles. Steingraber is a so-called “scholar in residence” at Ithaca College. They pay her to do nothing but trot around making anti-fracking speeches, no doubt funded with money from the Park Foundation. A group of antis once again assembled in front of the Crestwood facility a few days before Christmas in an illegal blockade of the facility. What’s interesting about this latest infraction is that they no longer even pretend the facility would somehow be unsafe for Seneca Lake or nearby residents–a common lie they use in an attempt to scare the general public. No, this time the mask came off and their message was loud and clear: they oppose the facility because it would store a fossil fuel and in their irrational minds, all fossil fuels are evil. Or as their Christmas-themed sign said, fossil fues are “dirty energy” and that equals “naughty.” So-called renewable energy sources, like solar, are “clean” and “nice.” These nutters believe their “superior” intellect should dictate which energy sources *you* use, and they won’t stop insisting on your energy source until they’re either in jail, or in a retirement home (many of these old hippies are nearing that age)…
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    4 Antis Opposing NY LPG Storage Facility Lose Big in Local Election

    Today’s lead story on MDN is about the defeat of two anti-drilling Martians in Tuesday’s election–but this story is a close second in importance. Since 2010 a debate has ragged in Schuyler County, NY over whether or not to allow then-Inergy, now-Crestwood Midstream, to convert a depleted salt cavern along the shore of Seneca Lake into underground storage for LPG–liquefied petroleum gas (i.e. propane). We’ve covered the story extensively on MDN over the years. The current status is that an administrative law judge is reviewing the plan, but ultimately the head of the state’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) will grant a final decision on whether or not to allow the plan to move forward. Unfortunately the DEC is mired in politics–controlled by Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is in turned influenced by his lunatic left wingnuts. Over the years some of those wingnuts like Sandra Steingraber, so-called “scholar in residence” at Ithaca College (paid to do nothing but trot around lying about fracking), and Josh Fox of Gasland fame have protested and gotten themselves arrested at the facility during publicity stunts. Antis need a forum to vent and they can’t get themselves arrested every day (that gets old), so they turned to the local town board (Town of Reading) where the LPG plant would be located. Board meeting after board meeting they bleated and blatted about the facility–to the point the board has forbidden any more discussion of the issue. So the antis mounted a challenge to the local town supervisor, two town board seats and the town clerk. In Tuesday’s election, all four antis running for those seats went down to a HUGE defeat. Wasn’t even close. Which is noteworthy, and heartening, that in our beloved overtaxed, over-regulated, over-liberal New York State there are still clear-headed people who see through the lies and smears of the antis. Here’s the story of their defeat, and why Reading is so important in this debate…
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    Crestwood Midstream 3Q15: Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Volumes Drop

    The Houston, TX-based Crestwood Midstream, which these days calls itself Crestwood Equity Partners, operates midstream businesses in multiple shale resource plays across the United States. Crestwood is engaged in the gathering, processing, treating, compression, storage and transportation of natural gas; storage, transportation, terminalling, and marketing of NGLs; and gathering, storage, terminalling and marketing of crude oil. Whew. Lots of different things! Yesterday Crestwood issued its third quarter 2015 financial and operational update. We’ve snipped out just those brief sections that touch on the Marcellus/Utica region, below. Among the news you’ll be interested in: The gathering pipelines operated by Crestwood in the southwest saw lower volumes in 3Q15 than in 3Q14, a result of low prices for natural gas and drillers deciding to shut-in some of their production. Crestwood continues to believe Antero Resources will soon complete 22 wells that will hit the Crestwood system sometime in 2016. And in the northeast part of the play, Crestwood expects to complete an expansion of the MARC I pipeline, connecting to the mighty Transco, “in the coming weeks.” Meanwhile, system volumes in the northeast are also down year over year…
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