Ohio EPA Continues to Hound 99% Done Rover Pipe re River Drilling
Rover Pipeline–a $3.7 billion, 711-mile natural gas pipeline that runs from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and on to Canada via the Vector Pipeline–is about 99% done and as of last week, most of it is now up and running (see FERC Allows Rover Pipeline Startup in Michigan, Close to 100% Done). There are still a few spots being worked on, but very few. Even though the project is on the home stretch and will be 100% done by the end of June, Ohio EPA’s Craig Butler continues to hunt Rover like Captain Ahab hunted Moby-Dick. He can’t leave it alone. Obsessed. In February Captain Butler filed a letter with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) claiming that testing done by OEPA found the presence of very low levels of the toxic chemical tetrachloroethene (PCE) at Rover’s underground drilling site at the Tuscarawas River in southern Stark County (see Ohio EPA Continues to Target Rover Pipe in New FERC Letter). OEPA admits they can’t prove the very low levels of the compound actually came from Rover’s drilling activity–but hey, what’s proof got to do with it? Energy Transfer Partners, the company building Rover, responded by saying the PCE comes from sediment at the bottom of the long-polluted Tuscarawas River itself. On Tuesday OEPA filed another letter with FERC (full copy below) disagreeing with ET’s assessment, once again requesting FERC impose all sorts of requirements and conditions on the project–putting OEPA in charge of some of it (which is patently unconstitutional)…
Read More “Ohio EPA Continues to Hound 99% Done Rover Pipe re River Drilling”
The vast majority of Rover Pipeline is done, and most of it is now up and running (see 
TransCanada, one of Canada’s leading midstream/pipeline companies, cooked up a deal in 2016 to pipe natural gas from Canada’s West Coast to the East Coast in order to fend off cheap supplies of Marcellus/Utica gas that will flow into Canada from the NEXUS and Rover pipelines (see 
On March 3, the Mariner East 1 (ME1) natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline was suddenly switched off by order of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) after a sinkhole opened up under the pipeline in Chester County, exposing some of the bare steel to the open air (see 
An order from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued yesterday allows Energy Transfer (ET) to begin full operations along the North Market Segment of the Rover Pipeline–a $3.7 billion, 711-mile natural gas pipeline that runs from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and on to Canada via the Vector Pipeline. On April 13 ET asked FERC for permission to start up service along another major chunk of it’s massive Rover Pipeline (see 
Last Friday, Energy Transfer Partners asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to start up service along another major chunk of it’s massive Rover Pipeline (see 
We’ve read warnings about the potential for cyber (computer) attacks on the U.S. energy industry for several months. We understand how such an attack might affect a nuclear plant, or perhaps the electric grid. Screw up the computers managing and running a nuke plant or a significant portion of the electric grid and you have a class-one serious situation on your hands. However, we didn’t really think about pipelines. Did you know that pipeline networks, like electric grids, are monitored and controlled by computers and those computers can be compromised? We have to admit it was not on our radar screen. But that has now happened–and it affects not only pipeline systems in other parts of the country, but right here in the Marcellus/Utica. Energy Transfer Partners uses a third party service called Energy Services Group to manage all of its pipelines–a massive nationwide network. Energy Services provides EDI (electronic data interchange) services that reportedly cut costs and increases the speed with which companies exchange documents that used to be paper-based. Documents like those used in buying and selling natural gas at various trading hubs along major pipelines. On Monday, Energy Services was attacked electronically, knocking the service out of commission until further notice. Note that gas flowing through pipelines has not been affected. The affected computers don’t turn valves on and off. However, the ability to know who’s gas is flowing through the pipeline (who bought and who sold) has been slowed–on all of ET’s pipelines, including the newly-minted Rover Pipeline…
Rover Pipeline is in hot water again. This time it’s not Captain Craig “Ahab” Butler from the Ohio EPA, but the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection. In a letter just released publicly (dated March 5), WVDEP slapped Rover with a “cease-and-desist” order, stopping all construction of Rover in the state, because of inspections in February that found 14 violations of water pollution regulations. The violations occurred in Doddridge, Tyler and Wetzel counties. Violations ran the range of leaving trash behind at construction sites to improper perimeter controls (no erosion devices installed) to failure to clean up the roads they used. In addition to trouble in WV, Rover is also facing new issues in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. In February heavy rains in the region caused “slippage issues” where the pipeline is being installed. Rover filed a report with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last week to say it has eight crews working to correct slippage issues at six locations along its 51-mile Burgettstown Lateral. Here’s the latest on WV shutting down Rover, and Rover’s work to fix slippage issues…
Earlier this week Energy Transfer Partners (ET), one of the country’s largest midstream (pipeline) companies, released an update covering fourth quarter and full year 2017 results. As part of that update, the muckety-mucks from ET held an analyst conference call (yesterday). On that call they not only discussed what happened in 2017, but what is happening and will happen in 2018. ET, in case you didn’t know, is builder of both the monster Rover Pipeline project (from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH and into Michigan), as well as the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline (NGL pipeline from eastern OH across the entire length of PA to the Marcus Hook facility near Philadelphia). We learned some important information from yesterday’s update. While the good news for both the Rover and ME2 is that they will both soon be fully operational, the truth is, both are delayed from their originally intended “in-service” dates. In the case of Rover, the new news delivered on yesterday’s conference call is that full operation of the entire length of Rover Pipeline, which will be capable of flowing up to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas along its entire length, won’t happen until sometime in the second quarter 2018–that is, by the end of June. This is the first time ET has admitted full operation of the Rover pipeline will not be ready by end of March. However, to put this news in perspective, much of the pipeline is already done and currently flowing 2 Bcf/d–even as you read this. As for ME2, following an already-admitted delay until end of 2Q18, ET yesterday said it is keeping their estimate that the pipeline will be up and running by end of June, even though the project just came through a one-month construction shut down imposed by the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection. After ET (i.e. Sunoco Logistics Partners) paid a $12.6 million ransom (“fine”), the DEP relented and allowed it to restart construction. The one-month construction hiatus has not, according to officials, delayed the in-service date for ME2. Cool! Below is ET’s 4Q & full 2017 update. First up are ET comments about Rover and ME2…